Originally Posted by Beckee
Fortunately or unfortunately, schools under NCLB are not judged by their mean or average test scores. They are judged by the percentage of their students who make the cut for "Proficient".

Yep. A kid who answered all items correctly and scored at the top of "advanced" counts exactly the same as a kid who barely made the cutoff to be "proficient." What's rewarded is pulling kids with borderline scores up into "proficient," not getting proficient kids labeled advanced.