Legislative Panel Approves School Rules

The South Dakota Education Department can go ahead with its new system for assessing the performance of schools and providing help to those that perform poorly.

A state legislative committee has approved the department's rules to set up a new accountability system that will replace the federal school improvement law known as No Child Left Behind.

State Education Secretary Melody Schopp says the rules need to be in place by next month to meet the requirements set when federal officials granted South Dakota permission to stop using the provisions of the No Child Left Behind law.

She says the new system will use a number of indicators to determine if schools are doing a good job.