subjects. As the trial court explained, the PEP measures student performance relative to a particular score, the State reference point ("SRP") (187 Misc 2d at 65). The particular examination used for the PEP reading test during most of the 1990s was the Degrees of Reading Power ("DRP"). The DRP was replaced in 1998 because it was considered too elementary, in that over 90 percent of children Statewide scored above the SRP, so that the exam was inadequate as a means of distinguishing fair from good and good from excellent students. As a means, however, of identifying students in need of remedial attention, the DRP was adequate: a score below the SRP signaled need for improvement. Between 1994 and 1998, the undisputed evidence showed that upwards of 30 percent of New York City sixth graders scored below the SRP in reading. Among third graders, 35 to 40 percent scored below the SRP, while Statewide about 90 percent scored above. The evidence showed that at the third grade level -- when children are expected to have learned to read -- a score at the SRP means a child is barely literate, and hence that over a third of City schoolchildren were functionally illiterate. PET scores in science and social science showed New York City fourth, sixth and eighth graders invariably in the lowest quartile Statewide, and generally between the 10th and 16th percentile. The trial court attached significance to these low PEP and PET scores (187 Misc 2d at 65-66). It also properly recognized that -- as always -City-wide averages reflect a process of aggregation wherein some successful schools and districts balance others where even larger numbers of pupils score below the SRP ( id.). The Appellate Division set forth no basis to challenge the trial court's analysis of this output, other than its belief that courts should "look at the nation as a whole," rather than to test result comparisons within New York State (295 2 at 16). We reject this exclusive focus on national comparisons because the record provides no information on how many students receive a sound basic education nationwide. The State does rely partly on tests administered Statewide. In particular, it cites student performance on the Regents Competency Tests ("RCTs"), which have historically been administered to 11th graders as a prerequisite for graduation. In 1997-98, 90 percent of the New York City schoolchildren who reached 11th grade demonstrated competency in reading and mathematics by passing either the RCTs or the more challenging Regents examinations -- a figure not far behind the statewide and suburban averages.