Even top-performing schools can fail under No Child act

Educators from O’Fallon High School in O’Fallon Township, Illinois, mentioned at a recent conference in Atlanta that their school fell short of state benchmarks for the Prairie State Achievement Exam. Their counterparts from around the Metro East area gasped. Then, representatives from Edwardsville High School said that they, too, failed to meet annual progress targets on the reading and math tests taken by all Illinois 11th–graders. The embarrassing moment for two top–performing high schools in Southern Illinois shows that even the most well–regarded schools aren’t immune to dings under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. O’Fallon parent Cindy Lafrance said she cares more about the individual scores of her children than the overall performance of the school. “The kids do well and enjoy their classes,” she said. “That’s what matters.” Read more in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch online