All 50 states have met or are on track to meet half of the 40 requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

But many states don’t have the technology in place to collect and report assessment data at school, district and state levels, according to a report released Wednesday by the Education Commission of the States.

“I think the message of the report, as a whole, is a positive one,” Kansas Education Commissioner Andy Tompkins said. “It gives the message that states have taken this seriously and tried to implement the laws of the No Child Left Behind Act.”

The report was based on information the commission has compiled in the last year and included recommendations for federal and state officials to enact NCLB. It compared states’ progress in implementing the act between March 2003 and March 2004. It showed the states overall had made substantial gains meeting the law’s requirements in several areas, including standards and assessments, yearly progress, school improvement and safe schools. But the report didn’t provide an accounting of each state’s progress.

The report did note that Kansas and Iowa had made efforts through university programs to assure new teachers would meet the highly qualified teacher standards. The state’s Web site for school report cards, online.ksde.org/rcard, also was noted as one of the best-designed and easiest to use in comparison to those of other states.