Historic report · 1987
Nationally Normed Elementary Achievement Testing in America’s Public Schools
How All Fifty States Are Above the National Average
This is the original Friends for Education report that documented the Lake Wobegon Effect: every U.S. state reporting elementary students “above the national average” on commercial norm-referenced tests—a statistical impossibility that launched national coverage and helped reshape NAEP.
What this report is
In 1987, Dr. John Jacob Cannell and Friends for Education published findings from a nationwide inquiry: commercially published, nationally normed elementary achievement tests were being used and reported in ways that allowed virtually every state to claim above-average performance. The report explained how outdated norm groups, weak security, and publisher practices made flattering results the rule rather than the exception.
The work was issued under Friends for Education, a nonprofit focused on accountability in public education. It remains a primary source for understanding the origin of the phrase “Lake Wobegon Effect” in education testing.
Core finding
When Friends for Education surveyed the states, the pattern was unambiguous: reported aggregate scores on widely used elementary norm-referenced tests placed essentially all states above the publisher’s national average. About 90% of elementary schools and a large share of secondary schools were also reported above the national norm in follow-on reporting. In a normal distribution of a current national sample, roughly half of students should fall below the 50th percentile. The published state-level story did not match that reality.
How “everyone above average” became possible
- Outdated norms — Comparing current students to an older norm group produces rising percentiles even without real gains.
- Security and practice effects — Familiarity with reused items and aggressive preparation inflate scores.
- Publisher options — Special norm groups (for example, low-socioeconomic or large-city norms) could make weak results look stronger.
- Reporting incentives — Administrators, politicians, and parents all received reassuring numbers; publishers sold products that delivered them.
Why it still matters
The 1987 report is not only historical. The same structural gap—state or local tests looking better than secure, independent measures such as NAEP—remains the core concern of the Honest Education Alliance’s 2026 white paper and of later work on testing integrity under high-stakes accountability.
Related HEA materials
- Thirty-Seven Years of Educational Fraud (2026 white paper) — updated evidence and policy reforms
- Testing Resistance Across Administrations — how reform was blocked under Clinton and Bush
- The Lake Wobegon Effect — plain-language overview
- ERIC EJ374428 — catalog record
- Nonpartisan Education Review — online text of the report
Citation
Cannell, J. J. (1987). Nationally Normed Elementary Achievement Testing in America’s Public Schools: How All Fifty States Are Above the National Average (2nd ed.). Friends for Education. (ERIC EJ374428)