State gets leeway to design own plan for fixing schools

Washington Post July 2, 2008

The US Department of Education approved 6 of 17 applications by states to let the states develope plans that address schools' individual problems instead labeling schools as failing and requiring comprehensive restructuring. Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Maryland received approval for plans. The Maryland plan divides schools that did not meet NCLB's improvement standards into two categories -- those with "comprehensive" needs and those with "focused needs." If a school is missing an NCLB benchmark with one or two subgroups of students, it will be deemed as having "focused needs" and the improvement plan to correct the problem can be targeted at the specific subgroups needing improvement. In Maryland, this means that about 60% of the schools in need of improvement would be focused-needs schools.