Maryland school meets NCLB goals

 The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is that every child attain proficiency in reading and math by 2014. At most of the 1,455 public schools in Maryland, teachers and principals regard that scenario as improbable, even laughable. At one school, the target has been met.

Last spring, all 184 students in the third and fourth grades at Ocean City Elementary School passed the Maryland School Assessment, or MSA, a battery of tests given by the state every year since 2003 to satisfy the law. The school was the first in the state, apart from a few tiny special-education centers, to meet the goal that has defined public education this decade. Read about the school's innovative approach to learning in The Washington Post online.