Local school officials don't believe that failing to meet the federal "No Child Left Behind" standards makes a district a failure.

When the Oregon Department of Education released the state's preliminary reports on Tuesday, most schools and districts on the South Coast were marked as not meeting the standards. Three districts - North Bend, Powers and Central Curry - were the only ones to have met the requirements.

"Whether or not you get the designation, it is not a broad blanket statement of a school's failure or success," said Coos Bay Superintendent Jeremy Lyon. Coos Bay as a district didn't meet the federal requirements. Neither did four of the district's seven schools.

The federal law requires schools to test students each year from grades 3 to 8, and demonstrate that rising percentages of children are scoring at or above target levels on reading and math tests. Schools that don't make adequate yearly progress face consequences such as paying transportation costs for students who want to transfer and teachers and principals could even be fired.

Each annual yearly progress report contains details about how each subgroup (such as different ethnicities, those with limited English proficiency, economical disadvantages and students with disabilities) performed on state benchmarks including English and mathematics. Also in the report is the number of students who participated in the testing, academic status and academic growth

Lyon said he believes the premise of the NCLB is good because it focuses on the academic efforts of every type of student. The reports also put a spotlight on subgroups of the student population and shows districts where they are not performing up to the standards.

"That's a good thing," he added. " ... We recognize we have a lot of work to do."

District officials are already discussing the information and putting together plans to address issues highlighted in the reports.

One drawback in Coos Bay's case is that data used by the state does not give an accurate picture of the district, Lyon said.

Two years ago, the Coos Bay School District had a different grade configuration than it did for the 2002-03 school year. In 2001-02, Blossom Gulch Elementary School housed grades K-5. Last year, Lyon said, that changed and the school educated students in grades K-4 and also took in more than half of Charleston Elementary School's students after that school was closed.

When the state began comparing the two years for the standards, Lyon said the 2002 school year used data from Blossom's third- and fifth-graders. The 2003 information was culled from the school's third-graders.

Radical changes were also made at Sunset Middle School and Millicoma Intermediate School.

"It's hard to really make a comparison," Lyon said. "A clearer picture will arrive (for Coos Bay) in 2004."

Lyon said Blossom Gulch has been considered an exceptional school by the state standards for a few years, but it still fell short of the federal standards.

"The reason - the only reason - Blossom didn't meet the (federal standards) was because the students with disabilities subgroup didn't meet the math performance goals," Lyon said.

Lyon was quick to add that he wasn't placing blame of any kind on any subgroup.

"This is very delicate information. The students with disabilities are not the problem. ... It would be too easy - and it would be wrong - to connect the two."

In Bandon, two of the three schools met the federal designation requirements. Harbor Lights Middle School, which was rated exceptional by the state last year, did not.

Bandon School District Superintendent Kenny Kent said the school fell short of the mark because its students with disabilities subgroups didn't show enough improvement over the course of the year.

While it can be frustrating to have a whole school not qualify because a subgroup doesn't meet the requirements for one particular section, Kent said Bandon will use the information like the state assessments and look at areas that need improvement.

"We can make some improvements," he added.

As one of the districts that did meet the NCLB standards, North Bend Superintendent Jim Howard said the district was pleased with its designation.

"I give credit to our teachers for being focused and for focusing our kids," he added.

At North Bend High School, Howard said former principal Jan Ophus made sure students saw the state's Certificate of Initial Mastery requirements as an important goal and found ways to keep them on track. Staff at the district's middle school had a similar program.

North Bend's use of a computer-testing program for Oregon's benchmarks also has helped because kids were able to get instant feedback, Howard said. District officials could also pinpoint and examine the areas where students needed to improve.

"We are going to continue doing what we are doing," he said. "We will also look at making the proper upgrades and things we can do to improve."

But Howard also was concerned about North Bend's ability to keep im-proving its performance in coming years.

"Schools have to increase each year. If you can't increase, then you don't meet the adequate yearly progress standard," he said. "By doing so well this year, we may not do as well next year."

Howard said he understands many school officials and employees don't like the new federal requirements.

"We have to do it, so we might as well buck it up," he said. "We're required to meet the (NCLB) standards. It doesn't do us any good to sit back and wring our hands over it."

- The Associated Press contributed to this story.