Chinook Middle in SeaTac is the only Puget Sound area school to reach step five in federal sanctions as a result of test scores on the Washington Assessment of Student learning (WASL).

Step Five means the Highline district school has missed No Child Left Behind Act targets for the past six years.

According to the regulations, the school must restructure according to a plan drawn up last year as well as offer students a chance to transfer to a higher-scoring school and offer private tutoring to low-income students.

The plan could also include replacing the principal and other staffers.

Before the test scores were released, Chinook principal Todd Moorhead had been reassigned as assistant principal at the Puget Sound Skills Center.

Evie Livingston, formerly with the Seattle School District, is the new principal.

In order for a school to make adequate yearly progress as mandated in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, every one of nine demographic sub-groups, or "cells," must meet the state target.

(A certain percentage of students in the cell must pass the WASL; the percentage varies by grade level.)

Cells used to judge adequate yearly progress are: Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, White, English Language Learner (ELL), special education, and low income.

If any one cell does not meet standard, the school does not make adequate yearly progress.

At Chinook, 27.3 percent of targets were missed.

Two other Highline middle schools, Cascade in North Highline, and Pacific in Des Moines, were placed at step four, having missed one of more targets for at least five years.

They must offer transfers to other schools and outside tutoring to low-income students as well as devise plans to restructure the school.

Cascade missed 34.8 percent of targets, while Pacific missed 27.3 percent.

Three elementaries are in step two because they missed one or more targets for at least three years.

Beverly Park at Glendale in North Highline, Hazel Valley in Burien and Madrona in SeaTac must allow students to transfer and offer tutoring.

Evergreen High in North Highline, Highline High in Burien and Showalter Middle in the Tukwila School District also missed the federal targets for at least three years. However, they escaped sanctions because the districts do not receive federal Title I funds for those schools.

Tukwila's Foster High also escaped sanctions for the same reason although it missed the targets for at least two years.

Overall the Highline and Tukwila district was placed on the federal needs improvement list for not making adequate yearly progress. This is Tukwila's first year on the list. Seattle, Marysville and Renton are other Puget Sound districts that did not meet the federal standards.

Highline spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers noted one school that made notable improvement is Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, which made adequate yearly progress for the second consecutive year, thus shedding the "needs improvement" label under the federal mandate.

It had failed to make adequate yearly progress previously due to low scores in one cell.

The Highline School Board will hold a work study session on the WASL/ Adequate Yearly Progress results and next steps on Sept. 12 at district headquarters. The session is open to the public. The session will either precede or follow the regular board meeting at 6 p.m.

All Highline schools met the state target for WASL passage in reading and three-quarters met the target in math.

In all schools that did not meet this goal, a majority of students did pass the reading WASL, but a lower percentage of students in one, two, or three of the nine sub-groups passed.

In every school but one, the cell made up of non-English-speaking students did not meet the target.

"A flaw in [the No Child Left Behind Act] is that students who qualify for English Language Learner (ELL) programs are by definition not proficient in reading and writing in English. They are also going to have trouble with a math test that is given in English," said Chief Accountability Officer Alan Spicciati.

"We want to be accountable for their learning, but after they've had a reasonable opportunity to gain proficiency in English."

A number of schools that did not make adequate yearly progress nevertheless improved their scores.

For example, Midway Elementary in Des Moines increased its scores in nearly every grade level and subject, and most of the increases were double-digit gains.

"We'd like to see [the federal act] give more credit for improvement over time. We're seeing some lower performing schools make major jumps, but they're still penalized ... because of where they started," said Spicciati.

"A better system would follow the progress of the same child over time. That would challenge all schools to improve-even those that were above the target to begin with."