An Ohio fourth-grader deemed proficient in reading may fall short of the mark in Massachusetts, South Carolina, Wyoming and Arkansas.

Likewise, an eighth-grader judged proficient on Ohio's math test might not make the cut in Missouri, Hawaii or Arkansas.

A first-of-its-kind federal report shows wide gaps among the standards states use to deem their students proficient in reading and math. Each state selects its own test and sets its own passing score, which means some exams are tougher than others.

The absence of a common yardstick raises questions about how academic proficiency is measured under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for renewal this year. The numbers will take on added significance in a few years when states that fall short face sanctions from the federal government.

The law requires states to report the percentages of students achieving proficiency in reading and math in grades three through eight. All students must be proficient in both subjects by 2014.

"Parents and communities in too many states are being told not to worry, all is well, when their students are far behind," said Michael J. Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. He served in the Department of Education during President Bush's first term.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said, "This report offers sobering news that serious work remains to ensure that our schools are teaching students to the highest possible standards."

Still, she said, it is up to states, not the federal government, to raise standards.

The study by the National Center for Education Statistics, an arm of the Department of Education, and the Institute of Education Sciences, which collects and analyzes education data, is the first to measure such discrepancies among states. It did so by comparing the scores set by states to pass their proficiency tests under No Child Left Behind against the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The findings were based on fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math tests in the 2004-05 school year, although results were not available for every state. The study found that no state has a proficiency benchmark for reading as high as the national test's. In math, only a handful of states set higher ones.

In Ohio, proficiency levels for fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math all fall below the national standard, putting the state in the middle of the pack.

Gaps among states can be significant.

For example, a fourth-grader in Ohio must score the equivalent of a 199 on the national reading test to be judged proficient on the state's reading test. In Massachusetts, which has the most rigorous test, an equivalent score of 234 is required. In Mississippi, a student must score 161, the lowest proficiency level in the nation.

Ohio's proficiency score for fourth-grade math was eighth-highest in the nation at 233. On the national test it's 249.

In eighth-grade reading, Ohio's proficiency cutoff ranked 25th in the country; in eighth-grade math, 14th.

Being somewhere in the middle is good, Ohio education officials say.

"We've set reasonable yet challenging standards in Ohio," said Mitchell Chester, associate superintendent of Ohio schools. "We have neither some of the toughest standards nor the easiest standards."

Chester acknowledged that varying proficiency measures complicate the federal measures. "It makes it difficult to compare the achievement from one state to another."

But he opposes a nationwide standard for students.

"The critical question is whether the standards we have set are sufficient and if students meet them, are students ready for the next level and success after high school?"

The report is available at http://nces.ed.gov/nations reportcard/pdf/studies/ 2007482.pdf.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.

ccandisky@dispatch.com