Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau has informed U.S. Department of Education officials that she will not raise the state’s target test scores to meet benchmarks of the No Child Left Behind law. She called the current federal requirements unrealistic. They require Montana to increase its goals for grade-level competency this year from 83 percent of schools to 92 percent in reading and from 68 percent of schools to 84 percent in math. Last year, 84 percent of Montana schools met the reading standard, while 67 percent met the math standard.
A version of this article appeared in the May 18, 2011 edition of Education Week as Montana Chief Rejects Testing Goals
