Schools looking for “safe harbor”

 Hundreds of schools in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia were judged to have made adequate progress last year under the No Child Left Behind Act even though they failed to meet performance targets for all groups of historically underperforming students, the requirement at the heart of the law.

The schools—153 in Maryland, 100 in Virginia, and 11 in the District—satisfied the law under a “safe harbor” provision. It forgives a school for low test scores from one or more subgroups if those students show yearly improvement and if the school scores well on the whole. The safe harbor provision is a loophole, essentially, in the education law, which sets a national goal of 100% proficiency by 2014 for all students, including seven demographic subgroups defined by race, language, poverty level and disability.

The extent to which schools rely on the provision illustrates the challenge posed by the No Child Left Behind law, which requires that poor and minority students meet the same performance goals as the overall school population, with the target rising by a few points each year. In Maryland, students are being tested this week and testing begins April 22, 2008, in the District and in May for most Northern Virginia schools. Read more in The Washington Post online.