California reaches uneasy compromise.

An agreement with federal education officials over how California can measure adequate yearly progress and still comply with No Child Left Behind Act has allowed the state to reduce the number of school districts on its watch list.

The watch list identifies districts that scored poorly on reading and math tests without making sufficient progress over two years, or that didn't test enough students.

At first, California only placed 14 districts on its list of schools needing improvement. But when federal officials reviewed the criteria the state was using to measure progress, it found it was too lax and didn't meet NCLB regulations. Under regulations, more than 300 districts could have been listed. The compromise puts about 150 districts on the list, including Los Angeles schools, and some officials say it's still too high.

Darla Marburger, deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, says the state erred when it based the improved districts only on the academic performance of one subgroup--economically disadvantaged students. This action removed accountability for others such as English language learners or disabled students. Marburger says now a district will be placed on the watch list only if it misses its academic goals for two years in a row in the same subject across elementary, middle and high school grades.

"There is a lot of flexibility in the law," she says, "that allows states to meet their unique challenges, while accounting for all students."

But Jack O'Connell, California's state superintendent of public instruction, says the list is still misleading. Good districts could be on the list just because not enough students took the test or a few students scored low. The state, he says, should concentrate on districts really struggling.

"I'm not sure this is going to help," he says. "The headlines in the papers are that a good school is failing. And I think that makes NCLB look silly."