No Child Left Behind report released, mixed results

According to practically every news outlet over the weekend, the Adequate Yearly Progress reports for Alaska's public schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act have been released, and they are causing mixed feelings. On one hand, many of Alaska's schools showed improvement, and there are scattered success stories, but on the other, 40 percent of the state's schools still aren't meeting goals for student proficiency. It's tricky, though; schools that failed to meet goals are not strictly divided along rural/urban lines, and as education officials have told several outlets around the state, not making AYP goals doesn't make a school bad. Read more from KTVA-TV, the Juneau Empire, and the Seward Phoenix Log, and listen to APRN's report, here. And be sure to read the News-Miner's Dermot Cole's column on the matter; he makes key points about the AYP test's incompleteness but also comments on its utility.