Standardized Formula For Graduation Rates May Soon Pair With Tests

·Prove that the data they use to rate school performance do not exclude too many test scores from students who belong to minority groups; and

·Ensure that plans to restructure chronically low-performing schools are sufficiently rigorous and comprehensive.

The rules would also require schools to give parents better information about a key requirement of the law: that certain children in low-performing schools be given access to government-funded tutoring or the chance to transfer to a school with better test scores. Parents of children eligible to transfer would have to be informed of that option at least two weeks before the start of the school year.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a key architect of the 2002 law, said in a statement that the changes "include important improvements for implementing No Child Left Behind, even as Congress considers further reforms to the law."

Final regulations are expected to be published in November after a public comment period.