BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland education officials are launching a new program for assessing the accountability of each school.
The Baltimore Sun reports that the new School Progress Index was created under the waiver Maryland received from the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
State officials say the new measure aims to cut in half the number of students who don’t achieve proficient scores on the standardized tests since by 2017.
Under No Child Left Behind, all students in the state would have been required to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. The waiver will prevent a growing number of schools from being labeled as failing.
Officials say the new measure will provide a more comprehensive snapshot of each individual school and how its students are performing.
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