Madoosa, I have seen other statistics that indicate that there is no correlation between having higher standards and performance on these comparative exams. The problems in the US are not the standards as much as the number of kids that fail the existing standards in their state.

It is also my understanding that the main problem is in early childhood education, that there were no experts in this particular area in the development of the standards and that the standards for the earlier ages are inappropriate according to most experts in the field.