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NEW YORK, NY January 11, 2007 —According to state and federal standards, almost one in six New York schools needs improvement. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

Schools are identified as "In Need of Improvement" if they don't make adequate progress two years in a row. Based on last year's exams, 52 schools improved enough to get off the No Child Left Behind list. 73 schools, new ones, were added - more than half of them in New York City.

Because No Child Left Behind only applies to schools that have enough students in poverty to qualify for extra federal funds, New York measures all of its schools. By those standards, New York City now has more than 400 schools requiring improvement, a handful more than last year.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said he was pleased that number didn't go up very much, since the state almost tripled the number of students tested last year. But the head of the city's teachers union - who's been a critic of No Child Left Behind - said at this rate, we'll soon see all schools labeled as needing improvement. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.