Our state testing categories here are far below proficient, below proficient, proficient and advanced. The advanced category doesn't have any further distinction, and the tests are very short and not terribly in-depth (and of course don't test above grade level), so EG kids often score Advanced, but so do a lot of other less high-ability kids if they've simply gone to school and paid attention and been taught what was supposed to have been taught.. so we had a really tough time using state testing when advocating, both because an "advanced" score shows our kids are accomplishing the state goals and because it doesn't show them ahead of the overall pack in any big way.
That's what our state testing looks like as well although, unfortunately for the gifted kids IMHO, the schools insist on using "advanced" state test scores as a means of iding giftedness which further leads toward problems with typical kids with parental support and work ethic filling our GT classes such that gifted kids have few peers in those classes.
