In all of West Virginia, only 120 schools are classified "low performing" under the new results of the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB), released from Washington... eight of them are in the Northern Panhandle. Their reasons for falling short vary somewhat, but at least two school leaders say No Child Left Behind itself is at least part of the problem.

In Hancock County, Weir Middle School was said to "need improvement" in the area of special education. Similarly, in Brooke County, Follansbee and Wellsburg Middle Schools were cited for not improving enough in their Special Education performance. As you probably know, NCLB is heavy on standardized testing. This is where Hancock County superintendent Danny Kaser tells NEWS9 he believes the system is simply unfair, and this low-performance problem is something he believes will be seen throughout the country.

The problem is this... special ed students take the same standardized test the kids in regular classrooms get. Brooke County superintendent Charles Baker says thanks to this and only this, his county's 5-6% improvement isn't enough for officials in Washington. "There are some inherent problems with the test we're required to give," says Baker, "We're essentially asking that all special education students, regardless of academic ability, perform at the same level as regular education students." Even Baker, who says there's "nothing wrong" with NCLB, says the challenge is to make sure all children are educated according to its standards, across every segment of the student population.

Both Kaser and Baker say their students perform year after year, and they have great faith in all their instructors, particularly special ed. Both men say they won't let this citation from NCLB persuade them otherwise.