Posted: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:22 pm

Murfreesboro City Schools moved out of targeted status under the federal No Child Left Behind law, according to the Tennessee Department of Education report cards released today.

Murfreesboro schools systemwide showed enough improvement to be upgraded to School Improvement I status, indicating achievement of at least 10 percent improvement over the previous year.

The system failed to achieve “Good Standing” status due to failure to meet federal standards for achievement for Hispanic-speaking students in language arts.

Rutherford County schools continued to post a Good Standing overall result in the annual NCLB evaluations.

Oakland High School advanced to School Improvement 2 status as that school works on graduation rate issues.

“We're pleased to see Oakland moving in the right direction and have no doubt that the school will clear the high priority list under the leadership of principal Bill Spurlock,” county schools director Harry Gill said.

“The results released today reflect the graduation rate from the 2007-2008 school year, not the most recent school year. Based on the preliminary data for 2008-2009, Oakland's graduation rate shows additional, significant increases’” Gill added.

Gill explained it takes a minimum of two consecutive years of meeting the graduation rate benchmarks before the school will clear the list. The designation of "improving" shows the school has completed the first leg of that requirement.

Murfreesboro school officials were not available for comment.

Murfreesboro saw two schools come off the target list in Mitchell Neilson and Mitchell Neilson Primary while Cason Lane Academy was listed due to below-standard results for math profiency by students with disabilities.

While Rutherford County continued its Good Status standing as a system five schools were targeted this year as opposed to three last year.

Language arts scores for students with disabilities brought targeted status for Roy Waldron elementary and La Vergne Primary, math scores for students with disabilities at Central Middle, language arts results among Hispanic-speaking students at La Vergne High School and graduation rate at Smyrna High School.