Analysis Finds Minority NCLB Scores Widely Excluded

The federal government is permitting many schools to escape accountability for the progress of racial or ethnic subgroups under the No Child Left Behind Act, according to a computer analysis released by the Associated Press last week.

Under the law, signed by President Bush in 2002, schools must meet annual performance goals for their student populations as a whole and for specific groups of students. Those groups include racial and ethnic minorities and students who are from low-income families, speak limited English, or have disabilities—as long as enough students in each category meet minimum group sizes set by each state and approved by the U.S. Department of Education.

Schools receiving federal Title I aid that miss the targets, known as adequate yearly progress, or AYP, for two or more years are subject...