Some area school districts are still struggling under the weight of No Child Left Behind standards, though many have reported significant growth despite missing targets.

The Simpson County School District was recently placed into Tier III consequences for the fourth consecutive year after missing federal standards for adequate yearly progress for the past seven years.

Likewise, Russellville Independent School District found itself in Tier III for the third year, making it eligible for the consequences of that tier, which include notifying parents, revising the district’s improvement plan, receiving technical assistance from the state and continuing to be subject to corrective action from the Kentucky Department of Education.

A school has to meet its targets for two consecutive years to get out from under federal consequences. In the case of Barren County School District, it made each of its 13 targets this year, but will remain in Tier III unless it meets its targets again next year.

Scores for the Kentucky Core Content Test, formerly used to measure development across the state, were released Wednesday. Kentucky is not currently tracking the results of the exam while it is in the process of creating a new assessment and accountability system for 2012, but the reading and math results are still used for reporting to federal NCLB officials.

NCLB uses a pass-fail system that looks at the reading and math scores divided among subpopulations to determine if the school or district met each of its target goals. Based on the number of students each district has in those subpopulations, such as African-American, Hispanic and special education, it is determined if the district is evaluated on those subpopulations individually.

The goals are set to show an increase in students receiving a proficient or distinguished measurement in reading and math until 100 percent of students can do so by 2014.

If one subpopulation does not meet or exceed the goals set for the entire elementary, middle or high school level for reading or math, then the school and ultimately the district are deemed unsuccessful.

Susan McCloud, assistant superintendent in curriculum, assessment and instruction for Russellville Independent School District, said while the scores may not look as though the district is doing well, there is tremendous growth in scores that shows positive promise for the future.

McCloud said schools will continue their focus on professional learning communities and early intervention techniques and will begin seeing results in the next few years.

“Some significant changes are going to take awhile, say three to five years, to see overall improvement because we started on this and began a laser-light focus just a couple of years ago,” McCloud said.

At the school level, R.E. Stevenson Elementary School fell short in its reading scores for African-Americans and students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Russellville Junior and Senior High School was deemed unsuccessful because of its math scores in those same categories.

McCloud said one of the initiatives the district is taking to address the subpopulations is to mimic a program used in Fayette County called Black Men Working. She said she would like to see the district ultimately partner with the organization, which sends people into churches on Saturdays to work with kids on reading and math.

“It’s so amazing to watch the turnaround in those kids,” she said.

While the Simpson County school district will remain stagnant in the third tier for the fourth year in a row, Franklin-Simpson Middle School met all its goals.

The high school fell short of its goals for free and reduced lunch in both reading and math, while the Franklin-Simpson Elementary School didn’t meet its goals in reading and math for students with disabilities.

Superintendent Jim Flynn said the African-American student math scores fell short despite a 6 percent increase in proficient and distinguished scores overall.

“We’re disappointed we fell short in any goals, but we are overall pleased with the academic growth we saw this year,” Flynn said. “In terms of overall district performance, we saw a 5 percent increase in students scoring proficient or distinguished in math ... we saw really positive growth in secondary middle and high school levels.”

Flynn said a number of initiatives are being made to improve scores, though he stressed it is important not to judge student progress by one set of assessment scores.

“I think first and foremost, this is one measure that we use to judge our progress, but it’s simply one measure of how students did in given content areas on a given day,” Flynn said. “We try to keep that perspective - our overall vision and mission is how we can help each individual student reach their highest potential possible.”

Allen County found itself in Tier II consequences this year, after its Intermediate Center and Allen County-Scottsville High School missed reading and math goals for different subgroups.

The district met 11 of 13 of its goals as a whole, while the Allen County Intermediate Center came up short in reading for students with disabilities. While the high school did well overall, its math scores for free or reduced lunch students kept them from achieving 100 percent of students receiving proficient or distinguished.

The Logan County School District met each of its 13 goals despite Logan County High School coming up short in math for both white students and those in the free and reduced lunch program.

Likewise, the entire district in Barren County was able to make all 13 goals set out by NCLB. The six elementary schools, as well as Barren County High School, received 100 percent. Barren County Middle School met 92 percent of its goals - 12 of 13 - missing 100 percent in reading for free and reduced lunch students.

In the Glasgow Independent School District, Highland Elementary, South Green Elementary and Glasgow Middle schools met all of their adequate yearly progress goals. Glasgow High School met eight of 10 of its goals, falling short in math for free and reduced lunch students.

In other counties, Edmonson County met 12 of 13 of its goals. In that district, all the elementary and middle schools made 100 percent of their goals while the high school made seven of 10 targets.

At Edmonson County High School, targets were missed for math by both white students and those qualifying for free and reduced lunch.

— To view the No Child Left Behind scores, visit the Kentucky Department of Education Web site at www.education.ky.gov.