Northport-East Northport Union Free School Dist. v Ambach, 90 AD2d 227, 231-232 [3d Dept 1982] affd , 60 NY2d 758 (/nyctapcgi/nyctap.cgi?60+758) [1983]). Further, the majority offers no objective reference point as an alternative to the Regents Learning Standards. In order to determine whether "inputs" are sufficient to avoid a constitutional violation, the majority must look to "outputs" correlated to an objective reference point.[34] All traditional education ends in assessment: an examination result, grade advancement, or graduation. In short, the majority has articulated a constitutional standard without any way to measure whether it has been (or may be) met. The "outputs" section of the majority opinion underscores the problematic nature of the constitutional standard of its devising. First, my colleagues "presume[] that a dropout has not received a sound basic education" and rely on evidence to support this presumption (majority opn at 23). They then observe that between a quarter and half of all dropouts do so after completing four years of high school (majority opn at 23, n 6). If dropouts by definition do not receive a "meaningful high school education," then it logically follows that the recipient of a high school diploma is the only student who does. Students either graduate from high school or drop out -- there is no middle ground where a "meaningful high school education" makes any sense. Next, the majority criticizes the probative value of test results offered by the State on “an assortment of commercially-available nationally-normed reading and math tests administered to children in City elementary schools” because the results were referenced to a norm rather than to achievement levels (majority opn at 29). Even though New York City's elementary school students rank in the middle nationally in terms of the reading and mathematical skills of their peers, the majority views these tests results as irrelevant because “[t]he State has not shown how to translate these results into proof that the schools are delivering a sound basic education, properly defined” (majority opn at 30 [emphasis added]). I fail to grasp why scores reflecting a proficiency for New York City students which is equal to, or better than, that of half of their peers nationally still falls short of a constitutional minimum. Lastly, the majority discounts the Regents Competency Tests ("RCTs"), the State prerequisite for a “local” high school diploma, because the RCTs assess "an eighth or ninth grade level in reading and a sixth-to-eighth grade level in math" and thus do "not prove that [students] have received a meaningful high