I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, but I'd correlate to the NAEP (National Association of Educational Progress) standards, which you can find here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/frameworks.asp Those are the ones that educators typically rely on for the truest picture of progress, or lack of progress. When Texas, for example, claims that scores are rising, researchers compare students' results on Texas' test to their performance on NAEP for a clearer picture. It's also a great check for the impact of NCLB, because state standards and testing are likely to be biased to show improvement and NAEP isn't. -Steven