State elementary school achievement tests are easier to pass in Illinois than in most states, according to a national report released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

The institute, a conservative think tank that works to improve American education issues, studied 26 states and found that Illinois sets the second-lowest passing bar on its grade school math exams.

The study compared how students performed in 2003 and 2006 on state math and reading tests to how those same students performed on the Measures of Academic Progress, a national exam administered to 800,000 students in 49 states.

Researchers used the results to estimate how the student group sample would perform on various state exams.

Local officials and the institute’s findings indicated that the No Child Left Behind Act is failing many of its key goals.

Don Owen, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Urbana School District, said comparing Illinois’ exams to those of other states is difficult because he believes state education standards are inconsistent.

“There isn’t a consistency in the level of standards the states are held up to,” Owen said. “We can’t say whether Illinois is doing better or worse than a certain state because we lack that clear measure.”

Owen said educators need more time to analyze student information beyond test scores and develop teaching strategies to improve overall education.

“The system is currently set up so that students are judged on one test taken on one day,” he said. “This doesn’t evaluate students adequately or give us a clear picture of their abilities.”

Inconsistencies in testing standards are one of the act’s failures, said Jeffrey Kuhner, the Fordham Institute’s communications director.

“One thing No Child Left Behind promised was transparency among the tests,” Kuhner said. “However, in most states we have found radical differences in terms of the quality, difficulty and rigor of the tests.”

Kuhner said that most of the states studied offer significantly more difficult questions for students taking the tests compared to Illinois’. He added that the institute predicts the United States will end up having a two-tiered education system if the system is not improved.

Kuhner said that while a question on the Wisconsin fourth-grade reading test asked students if cats climbed trees faster than dogs, the Massachusetts fourth-grade reading exam asked students to decipher and analyze a Leo Tolstoy passage.

“One tier will include states with difficult tests, higher expectations and better learning,” Kuhner said. “The other will include states that water down their exams and don’t expect much from their students.”

Matt Vanover, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said that the institute’s research has its own failures and is not the best way to track Illinois students’ progress.

“We think it was an interesting report, but we have some concerns with the research itself,” Vanover said. “The report fails to describe how students in various states would do on other states’ tests because each state tests students on its own standards.”

Vanover also said that he believes the institute is making an argument for national standardized testing, but he believes that most people think that standards should be made by the states. Kuhner said national standardized testing is the best route to improve the country’s education program.

“The mediocrity in education that we currently have will slowly lead to economic mediocrity,” Kuhner said. “We cannot accept this.”