Boston Globe 9/23/10: West of Boston, some good schools find US testing standards unrealistic – The Boston Globe.

As a federal deadline approaches for making all students proficient in English and math, officials in some top area school districts find themselves in an unfamiliar position — explaining why their schools aren’t making enough progress. A Globe review of this year’s MCAS results, released this month, shows that just under half of area schools — approximately 133 out of 269 — met the “adequate yearly progress’’ standard set under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Nearly every school district in the area had at least one school that did not meet the standard — including such high-performing districts as Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Newton, Wayland, and Wellesley — and some school officials said the numbers paint an unfair portrait.