The law requires 100 percent of the nation's students to reach proficiency - as each state defines it - by 2014.

But today, just as those pilots reach maximum proficiency, they are winging off to the airlines in droves.

Other states must show that students are actually reaching proficiency.

By 2014, when the law aims to have all students reach proficiency, nearly all schools in all states will fail under the law, researchers predict.

An area of contention surrounding this test is that students are not required to reach proficiency in order to graduate.

Then it is administered annually to track the progress of the student and determine when they have reached proficiency.

The institute estimates that bright students need at least 88 weeks of full-time training to reach entry-level professional proficiency, he said.

Under the federal education law, states must show steady progress toward all students reaching proficiency by 2014.

The year before, almost one in three fifth-graders had failed to reach proficiency.