School officials across Skagit County say the goals for student achievement set forth in the federal No Child Left Behind program are a “moving target” that will doom practically every public school in the country to failure in six years.

“It’s impossible to keep progressing at this level,” said Superintendent Wayne Robertson of the Conway School District. “It’s like chasing a goal that keeps accelerating and keeps getting more rigorous at the same time our resources to allocate toward it diminishing.”

Every three years, the standards are set a little higher. By 2014, all students in the country — 100 percent — must pass their state’s standardized test, or their schools are deemed failures.

Last week, the state released results from this state’s standardized test, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Test scores determine whether a school succeeds or fails.

The goal of No Child Left Behind — holding teachers and schools accountable for the learning of children in their classrooms — is laudable, said Superintendent Laurel Browning of the Burlington-Edison School District.

“I know the intent is to make sure we look at data and make sure we don’t ignore students,” Browning said.

But in reality, the federal measurements don’t track progress at all, several school officials say.

“We would prefer the state and federal government look at student improvement over time,” said Assistant Superintendent Kathy Ehman of the Sedro-Woolley School District. “But that’s not the way it’s measured, so we have to play the hand we’re dealt.”

Superintendent Tim Bruce of La Conner School District said his district focuses on individual students instead of grade levels.

“I consider the WASL one assessment of the many that we do,” Bruce said. “Over the long haul we are more concerned about that individual’s achievement and how we’re going to send them out as graduates.”

The WASL, he said, is “one measurement in time.”

“We do know what our challenges are long before these test results come out,” Bruce said.

All districts in Skagit County use the data to measure year-to-year student growth, instead of comparing the same grade level over multiple years, as No Child Left Behind is set up to do.

This year, 628 schools failed statewide. That compares with 280 in 2007. In Skagit, 30 schools or education centers failed compared with 20 in 2007.

When a school meets testing standards, it is considered to have met adequate yearly progress. When the school misses the mark in just one of 37 testing categories, schools can fall into several categories of schools that need improvement. Districts are measured on up to 111 categories.

There are reasons districts appear to be doing worse over time.

Every three years, the percent of students who must pass the WASL increases. This year was a step-up year, and schools had to show as much as 20 percent improvement in the previous year’s scores.

Also, data is being tracked differently. Two years ago, schools only tested fourth-, seventh- and 10th-grade students. Today, students in third through eighth grades, and 10th graders, are tested.

Schools that do poorly according to federal guidelines receive no money from the federal government for the changes they are required to make, such as after-school tutors and crafting school-improvement plans.

“It’s kind of programmed for misery, if you ask me,” Robertson said. “Pretty soon everyone will be (below standard), and it won’t matter.”

Mark Venn, superintendent of Sedro-Woolley School district, compared the goals a school is expected meet to an all-star athlete.

“If you miss one cell, you’re a loser,” Venn said. “If you look at a baseball player and they’re hitting 36 of 37 times they’re up (to bat), they are making millions of dollars, and they’re the best baseball player in history.”

Combined with the other “moving targets” is math, Browning said. The state has changed the material that students must know for the 2010 WASL.

“It will be a challenge to continue to meet AYP (adequate yearly progress,” Browning said.

There is a chance, albeit a small one, that No Child Left Behind will not be reauthorized, or it could be changed by the next president. Nathan Olson, spokesman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said his office has “no idea” what presidential candidates John McCain or Barack Obama plan to do with the law.

For now the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is operating under the assumption that No Child Left Behind will remain, and with it, the eventual “impossible” goal of a 100 percent student pass rate.

• Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or at .

On the Web: To view your school or district’s results, visit http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us, and select AYP from the tab above, then select the school district and the school.