No Child Left Behind in West Virginia

West Virginia is one of only three states, so far, to be fully approved under requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Federal education officials made the announcement on Monday. "We want to congratulate the Department of Education and the local officials in West Virginia," says U.S. Assistant Secretary for Education Henry Johnson.

Johnson says West Virginia is a good example for other states because the state had one of the longest ways to go to meet the requirements."What makes West Virginia special is where they started from to where they are at this point," says Johnson. He says, at one point, the state was not meeting the less stringent school requirements under the Improving America's Schools Act. No Child Left Behind requires more."They've worked very, very hard to reach this particular status now where they are fully approved," says Johnson.

Senior Policy Advisor Catherine Freeman says more states will pick up approval in the coming week. Systems throughout the country had until the end of this school year to meet the requirements under the assessment system."Right now, the department is in the process of making the determinations for all states," says Freeman. "States are in varying degrees of approved status. Some states have more to do than others."The other two states that have received full approval, at this point, are Maryland and Tennessee.No Child Left Behind is a federal education program designed to reduce the achievement gap between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.Schools must make what's called Adequate Yearly Progress. Students are evaluated through annual academic assessments. It's designed to promote accountability and higher education standards.