The phrase "a higher yardstick" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing a standard or measure that is more rigorous or demanding than usual.
Example: "In evaluating the project's success, we need to apply a higher yardstick to ensure we meet our ambitious goals."
Alternatives: "a more stringent standard" or "a tougher benchmark".
The New One, part of a new wave of top-class young hurdlers threatening to swamp the reigning champion, Hurricane Fly, at the Cheltenham Festival next March, will have his credentials properly examined by a high-class yardstick, Zarkandar, in today's International Hurdle.
The minister revealed that Middlesbrough was the only area in the country where there is a higher concentration of asylum seekers than the Home Office yardstick of one per 200 people.
Helped by a rally among financials and basic materials, the blue-chip yardstick reached a high of 9970 before ending the day at 9959, 0.83% higher than Friday's close.
My colleague Joe Folkman and I found that we can predict with a high level of certainty that the yardstick being used by one executive is not the same yardstick being used by another.
We'll know a lot more after she has taken on Zarkandar, a thoroughly consistent and high-class yardstick, in the Coral Hurdle, but certainly her progress through the ranks in Ireland has been stately – seven imposing wins out of seven.
We have known for years that America has a high infant mortality rate, so it is no surprise that we rank last among 23 nations by that yardstick.
Selective colleges have no yardstick to discriminate between a B average in a pampered Westchester high school larded with Advanced Placement courses and an A at a high school in the Badlands of South Dakota that does not offer physics.
Muirhead, formerly a high-class hurdler, has had only five starts over fences and gave a glimpse of his potential with a comfortable victory over some reliable and more experienced yardsticks at Limerick last month.
Take a reference stick along: Stand on the floor of your room with a broom or yardstick held high over your head so it touches the ceiling.
Since their advent in 1955, A.P. exams have become both a virtual prerequisite for admission to elite colleges and a handy yardstick for measuring high-performing school districts.
