Report: More schools failing to make adequate progress

A report by the Center on Education Policy finds that about 38 percent of the country's public schools did not meet federal benchmarks for improvement on state reading and math tests in 2010. In 2009, that number was only 33 percent.

And in many states, the picture is bleaker. Only about 14 percent of schools in Florida made adequate yearly progress last year. (SEE CORRECTION BELOW.) Twelve states in all had at least half of their schools fail to meet the goal. However, the report also notes that the variations could reflect differences in testing and state mandated goals rather than actual student performance--a worrying disconnect, as schools that don't make adequate yearly progress as defined by the No Child Left Behind law for several years in a row face certain sanctions.

The report notes that the wide variation in performance among states may reflect "differences in test difficulty, cut scores defining proficiency on state tests, annual targets for the percentage of students scoring proficient, student demographics, and other factors." In other words, just because one state has more schools failing to make adequate progress doesn't mean its education system is worse than another state where a greater share of schools are meeting that goal. It may just have harder tests and higher standards.

"A state with a high percentage of schools failing to make AYP should not be assumed to have a weak educational system," the report said.

That wide variation among states' standardized tests also calls into question the usefulness of a federal law that tries to hold them all to the same standard. If "proficient" means different things in D.C. and Texas, what's the point of treating all states' school systems as if they are the same?

The No Child Behind federal education law expects every school in the country to have 100 percent of its students demonstrating proficiency in math and reading tests by 2013. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been pushing to reauthorize and alter the law so that it doesn't label so many schools as failing. Duncan warned that more than 80 percent of schools would be labeled failing this year, though this report suggests the number will be far lower.

(Duncan: AP)

CORRECTION: This article originally stated that only 5 percent of Texas schools made adequate progress last year. In fact, only 5 percent of Texas schools failed to make adequate progress last year--95 percent did meet that benchmark.