With the sometimes-confusing standardized test results soon to be released, the No Child Left Behind law continues to affect education

In a few weeks, results from last year’s standardized tests will be released.

Despite those results labeling a school — good if it passed, bad if it failed — it is not so simple for schools or for parents. School folks know that the difference between meeting and not meeting standards could be one student being absent during the test or one group of students failing to meet requirements in math.

For parents, though, test results and the stigma that sometimes follows can be confusing. They start to wonder about the quality of their kids’ schools, and they want to know what they can do to help their students improve or what they can do to find a new school.

The federal law known as No Child Left Behind provides several options.

For those whose kids attend a school that has failed to make “adequate yearly progress” for two consecutive years, the law allows students to transfer to a school that is making progress.

Even if parents find out after school starts that their school didn’t make AYP for the second straight year and is in the second stage of school improvement, they can still request a transfer.

In Santa Fe, the school district designates which schools will take transfers. And unlike voluntary interzone transfers, the school district must pay to bus kids to their new school.

For parents who are happy with their school but think their kids need a little extra help, No Child Left Behind provides a little.

Kids at Title I schools that have failed to meet requirements for three years can request supplemental services, such as tutoring. The district pays outside contractors to provide these services at no charge to parents.

Schools parents can transfer out of under No Child Left Behind

• Agua Fría Elementary
• Alameda Middle School
• César Chávez Elementary
• Chaparral Elementary
• De Vargas Middle School
• Ortiz Middle School
• Kearny Elementary
• Ramirez Thomas Elementary
• Salazar Elementary

Schools where students can request supplemental services:

• Agua Fría Elementary
• Alameda Middle School
• César Chávez Elementary
• Ortiz Middle School
• Ramirez Thomas Elementary