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Most SD schools hit state growth targets; fed goals lagging KPBS SAN DIEGO (KPBS) - New state and federal benchmarks that show how schools are performing were released today. Most San Diego County schools hit their state growth targets, but didn't do as well in the federal measurements. KPBS reporter Beth Ford Roth has more.

Eighty-three percent of elementary schools in the county met their growth targets for the state's Academic Performance Index. So did 80 percent of middle schools and 71 percent of high schools. But for the federal benchmark, just 64 percent of elementary, 34 percent of middle and 54 percent of high schools met their goals.

Terry Decker is with the County Office of Education. He says the state API measures how much a school improves each year, whereas the federal No Child Left Behind law has a fixed target schools must meet.

Decker: "The goal of No Child Left Behind is that all children would be proficient by 2014 so there's a scale set in place that attempts to meet that goal."

Next month the state will release its list of schools that failed to meet federal targets at least two years in a row, and therefore will face sanctions. Beth Ford Roth, KPBS news.
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