Defying Predictions, State Trends Prove Mixed on Schools Making NCLB Targets

Many people predicted this would be the year that schools nationwide began feeling the bite of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, as states ratcheted up their performance targets and more schools failed to meet those benchmarks.

But such dire predictions are not playing out uniformly across the states, an Education Week analysis shows. Of the 33 states and the District of Columbia that had released information by the end of August on the percent of schools that made adequate yearly progress under the federal law, about half saw the proportion of schools meeting their performance targets climb, while half saw the percentage go down.

And that mixed national picture may have as much to do with how each state calculates progress, based on agreements worked out with the federal government, as...