Normative data reported by publishers of the California Achievement Test, the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, and the SRA Assessment Survey were used to illustrate a procedure for specifying goals for Title I programs in terms of normal curve equivalent (NCE) gains. The procedure was based on the amount of growth reflected in student reading and mathematics norms from one grade level to another, grades two to eleven inclusive. Specifically, the spring-to-spring standardized gains used as the no-treatment expectation were calculated, by subtracting the pretest means at the lower grade level from the posttest means at that grade, and dividing by the standard deviation on the pretest. Administrators can use the procedure, presented as tables of data, to subjectively judge Title I impact as a function of the percentage of increase which would be expected without the program. The procedure should be used with caution, however, because NCE gains across levels were not comparable, and because gains at higher grade levels were increasingly difficult to observe. (CP)