"But with each year a school makes safe harbor it makes it a little more difficult the next year to improve that much," said Clyde Mason, testing director for Jordan School District. "It would be increasingly difficult for a school that is not making the goal each successive year to continue to make that 10 percent."

So, officials said, not as many schools were able to receive the safe harbor designation as last school year.

Another factor is that this year the unique schools and programs with specific populations weren't included in the total.

Russ Klein, assessment and accountability results coordinator for the State Office of Education, said under the law schools that did not have enough data for the reports received an automatic "yes" designation.

But this year around 75 of those schools just weren't counted. Klein said that accounts for about 2 percent of the decrease in passing schools.

Districts like Jordan and Ogden saw some increases in schools not making AYP, Salt Lake and Granite stayed closer to the same numbers while Davis district increased the number of schools reaching federal standards.

"Under (NCLB) schools really have honed in on individual student needs and worked to change in school improvement plans," said Chris Wahlquist. "Teachers put in a great deal of time and identified specific standards that students need support on — and they work on them."

Still, Utah legislative and school leaders have criticized the law as underfunded and unrealistic, and some have a love/hate relationship with AYP.

"It's an essential frustration — we need to be accountable for the students in our school, and it's causing us all to work on what needs to be done to work on kids that need help," said John Erlacher, principal of Mountain View Elementary in Salt Lake.

"But it needs tweaking ... and we need to figure out a better way to measure (achievement) — I can't ask my people to work any harder or any smarter, but that's what we need to figure out."

A big issue for some leaders is that AYP does not show progress or growth. For example, a class' scores from one year would be compared to a different class' scores the next year, rather than measuring how much a cohort has improved.

Plus, giving schools a label that they "need improvement" can be hard on teacher morale.

"The schools that are focused on exactly the right thing, working really hard to help students succeed, can see the progress they are making," said McKell Withers, Salt Lake superintendent. "(When that progress) is not fast enough or not in the right area — that can be discouraging.

"But the high point is connected with the reality that you have some resources to serve students better, and it's good that there are resources connected with the expectations for Title I schools," he said.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com