About Half of NJ Schools Meeting New Goals

New Jersey education officials say that about half the state's schools met their goals for improving student performance last year.

The state was among the first in the nation to receive a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind school standards. Like the other states, New Jersey was allowed to come up with other measures of how well students and schools are performing.

The state wants every school district to cut the percentage of students failing standardized tests in half by 2017. Each school has annual goals to increase their passage rates for each test to reach the larger target.

Districts that fell short will have to implement improvement plans.

State education officials told school district administrators on Wednesday that complete results would be sent next month.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)