The Education Trust, a national nonprofit group concerned with achievement levels of low-income students, recently published a report calling for more rigorous tests that measure students against established state standards.

Schools nationwide weigh and measure students annually.

These "criterion referenced" tests measure students against a fixed yardstick, not against each other.

Most importantly, Mastery Test results allow us to see how Connecticut youngsters do on tests that measure students against skills - not students against students.

So the first thing would be to develop new metrics to measure students and faculty.

This is reflected also in the move towards standardized and multiple choice testing, which measures students on the basis of numbered answers and against a uniform standard.

And, for educators, this scoring is the single most misguided factor for measuring students AND schools.

Those scores, however, are not strictly comparable to the city test, because during that period the state measured students against a minimum standard, which is roughly a year below grade level.

He also said the second year's data measured different students and failed to take into account gains made or lost by the same class.

"I want to take it to see what standards they are measuring students by," she said.