The Kansas State Board of Education on Tuesday said 95 percent of Kansas Title 1 schools and districts are meeting testing targets in math and reading.

But two area school districts are among those not meeting the targets.

The Kansas State Department of Education released its list of 16 districts and 35 schools on the “needs improvement” list for the 2007-08 school year, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind law.

The Tonganoxie school district made the “needs improvement” list. The Ottawa district was added to the list last year.

“Knowing that this is the fifth year for districts and schools to meet increasingly higher academic achievement targets, the number of schools and districts that continue to meet or exceed expectations is phenomenal,” Education Commissioner Alexa Posny said in a statement.

She also said schools on the list would receive technical support.

Title 1 districts and schools receive funding generally for having a certain number of students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches. Title 1 schools and districts that do not make “adequate yearly progress” – known as AYP – for two consecutive years are placed on the list.

No Lawrence schools made the list.

The Tonganoxie district was one of 11 districts identified for improvement, based on a subgroup of students – special education at the middle school – who did not achieve AYP in math.

Tonganoxie Superintendent Richard Erickson said the district meets AYP in all three schools, except for that subgroup, he said.

“We’re pleased overall. Obviously, we’re going to work on the subgroup at the middle school, and I don’t want to just single out a subgroup, because our priority at this district is to help all kids,” Erickson said.

The Ottawa district was already on the list, but it did achieve AYP for 2007. Karla Denny, a state education department spokeswoman, said that will allow the district to delay certain sanctions that come with being on the list for two consecutive years.

Ottawa Superintendent Dean Katt said the district’s special education population did not meet reading requirements a year ago. The district’s test scores dramatically improved during the past year.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the progress we’ve made,” Katt said.

A school or district must make AYP for two consecutive years to get off the list.

The AYP benchmarks for 2006-07 were:

¢ For math, 66.8 percent of students in kindergarten through eighth grade and 55.7 percent of high school students achieving proficiency.

¢ For reading, 69.5 percent of kindergartners through eighth-graders and 65 percent for high school students.

Districts can file an appeal in coming weeks if they disagree with the data released. State officials will release the assessment results for those districts not identified as Title I institutions later this fall, along with report cards on each building and district.