Few districts fail to make adequate progress

? A preliminary report suggests most Kansas public schools are keeping up with rising academic standards.

The state Department of Education said Tuesday that 16 of the state’s 295 school districts, or 5 percent, failed to show adequate yearly progress on improving students’ scores on standardized reading and math tests. The number was 17 last year.

Federal law requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Standards increase each year.

The department also released a partial list of schools that failed to show adequate progress among the 657 eligible for federal aid for having a high concentrations of poor students.

Thirty-two of those schools, or 5 percent, failed to show adequate progress, compared to 33 last year.

The department plans to release a list covering all schools in September.

Districts failing to make adequate yearly progress are: Coffeyville; Garden City; Goodland; Haysville; Iola; Kansas City, Kan.; Leavenworth; Liberal; Morris County; Mullinville; Ottawa; Parsons; Peabody-Burns; Topeka; Ulysses; and Wichita.