The Bell County School District could receive state assistance this year in the hopes of improving the districts inadequate graduation rate.

According to the federal No Child Left Behind annual report, the district fell short of its 75 percent graduation goal.

"For three consecutive years we've not met our district goals. The goals go up every year by a couple percent," said Bell County Superintendent George Thompson.

Thompson said the county's graduation rate for 2003-04 school year was 67.28 percent.

"We are a district in Tier Two. It's basically that we have to present and develop plans geared at increasing the graduation rate," said Thompson.

"There is certain amount of professional development funding that we have to earmark for reducing the dropout rate. There could be help from the state in terms of helping to map out some strategies we can use to improve the graduation rate."

According to the National Conference of Legislators Website, "The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) provides an unprecedented increase in federal resources to states to improve low-performing schools.

"In exchange, the federal government expects more accountability from state education systems and the guarantee that no child will be left behind.

"To meet this goal, states are required to increase student testing, collect and disseminate subgroup results, ensure a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, and guarantee that all students, regardless of socioeconomic factors, achieve a "proficient" level of education by the 2014-2015 school year.

As part of NCLB, schools that fail to meet established goals in reading and mathematics are labeled "No Child Left Behind Improvement Schools" and are subject to, as the annual report states, "NCLB Consequences."

Bell County and other counties in the Cumberland Valley Area Development District have all struggled with improving graduation rates and meeting federal and state standards, especially at the high school level.

While the district struggles with improving graduation rates, overall performance in the Bell County School District has improved with only Bell County High School failing to meet mathematics standards and overall scoring standards for the 2004-05 school year.

The other six schools in the county district each met their expected goals with both Bell Central School Center and Frakes School Center improving over the previous year's performance.

The Middlesboro Independent School District met all required goals for the No Child Left Behind Act.

Superintendent Darryl Wilder said the district isn't going to stop trying to improve its performance.

"You never stay static in the education business. You either go up or down."