Displays for comparing a given state to many others

This article presents a graphical display useful for comparing a chosen ind ividual (e.g., a single state in a state-by-state survey) with the others i n the population. The display immediately shows the ranking of the individu al in the population, which other individuals are "significantly" higher th an the reference, and which are "significantly" lower. The confidence bars are optimized for making comparisons with the reference individual. We illu strate this display with examples from the National Assessment for Educatio nal Progress (NAEP) and the Third International Mathematics and Science Stu dy (TIMSS).