Lies in Indiana Education - When the ceiling becomes the floor
The short of it is that Indiana is lying through language; the same confusing lie America was floundering through decades ago, even if by conflated language, a lazy press, and lying reformers.
"Proficient"
NAEP - "Proficient" means high achievement and basic means at grade level. With "basic" actually meaning what most people think of as "proficient" and most people and journalist assuming that "proficient" only means 'sufficient,' reports for decades said that the US was below proficiency and/or below acceptability ...that is the basics of it.
ILEARN - Set IN "Proficient" as the NAEP "Proficient" - and it made Indiana's floor as the nation's ceiling. That is why Indiana's scores are "so low."
Language and levels matter. See this dance explained below:
"Amid concerns over low scores on Indiana’s new standardized test, ILEARN, new results from a national exam tell a similar story about student performance.
Scores from the National Assessment Educational Progress, or NAEP, released Wednesday, showed 37% of eighth graders statewide were proficient in reading and math, and 37% of fourth graders were proficient in reading and 47% were proficient in math.
Those results fall in line with the 2019 ILEARN results, which saw 37.1% of students in Indiana pass both the math and English portions of the exam.
While some educators were concerned about the frequent changes to state tests and standards, one expert said that while it’s concerning that only about one-third of students in Indiana are considered at grade level, the similarity means ILEARN is closer to matching the rigor of the national exam. Under previous state tests, Indiana saw much higher percentages of students passing, compared to the national exam.
“I think it indicates that Indiana’s test is set to a high level … which is a change,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative national education think tank. “It used to be that basically no state came anywhere close. They’d say 70%-80% of students are proficient. The fact that we now have these results matching means that Indiana really has followed through on its promise to raise standards.”"
Sometimes AI cuts straight to the truth, because it is not saddled by a lying-narrative-decades-old.
[Start of AI analysis: "how the use of the word proficient in the NAEP has confused people for decades"
"AI Overview
The confusion around the word "proficient" in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) happens because
the federal government uses the term as an aspirational, high-level benchmark rather than a measure of standard grade-level work
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the National Assessment Governing Board explicitly state that "Proficient is not synonymous with grade level performance". [1]
Why the Confusion Existed for Decades
Aspirational vs. Average: The NAEP defines "Proficient" as competency over challenging subject matter—acting as a high bar or a ceiling rather than a baseline floor.
The "Grade-Level" Conflation: In everyday language, "proficient" sounds like a student is doing what is expected for their grade. When media outlets and policymakers report that only about one-third of students score "proficient" on NAEP tests, the public often misinterprets this to mean two-thirds of American students are illiterate or failing.
The "Basic" Level Reality: On the NAEP scale, the Basic achievement level is much closer to what the public traditionally thinks of as "on grade level" or baseline competence, though federal test-makers avoid saying so directly.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Overlap: When the NCLB law took effect in 2002, states had to create their own tests and use the word "proficient," creating a chaotic patchwork where state-defined proficiency meant something completely different (and often much lower) than NAEP proficiency. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
You can read more about how federal metrics are structured on the National Center for Education Statistics or review breakdowns via educational resources like the Brookings Institution. [1]" [End of AI analysis]