To compare achievement standards of 1977 with those of 1956, three tests were administered in their original form to all third graders in a large school district. Approximately 3500 students in 1956 and 4500 in 1977 were administered the California Achievement Tests, the California Short Form Tests of Mental Maturity, and the Gates Advanced Primary Reading Tests--Type I Word Recognition and Type II Paragraph Reading. Because many changes had occurred in the intervening years, supervisors, test experts, and all third grade teachers were invited to indicate test items which they deemed inappropriate. Seventeen items involving 18 scores out of a possible 285 were so identified: 12 out of 80 in arithmetic, 6 out of 165 in reading and none in language. All of the test items, including those items identified as inappropriate, were administered. A comparison of scores, 1956 vs 1977, was tabulated for all items, and for the items remaining after elimination. Results indicated that pupils did not find as many items inappropriate as expected; this, coupled with the fact that relatively few items were identified as inappropriate in the first place supports the assumption that the test items were valid for both groups. The 1977 scores were, on the average, higher than the 1956, the only exception being the 1% decline in the California Arithmetic. The greatest gain occurred in the Gates Word Recognition (6%), followed by California Language (5%), California Test of Mental Maturity (5%), California Reading (3%) and the Gates Paragraph Reading (2%). Spelling accounted for the increase in language scores. Taking the many factors influencing school achievement into account, the 1977 third graders performed better than their predecessors. The authors recommend the recurring publication of this type of data. (CP)