HARRISBURG — The number of public schools meeting Pennsylvania's academic performance targets declined slightly in the 2006-07 school year, according to the state's annual academic achievement report.

About 2,300 schools — 74 percent of all schools — made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That represents a 6 percent decline from the 2005-06 school year, when 2,458 schools met that standard, the report released Wednesday said.

Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak attributed the decrease to the inclusion of math and reading test results for more grade levels in the state's criteria for measuring academic achievement among schools and school districts.

Adding more students' scores to the mix increased the likelihood that schools would also have to report specific results for certain subgroups of 40 of more students that tend to lag behind academically, Zahorchak said. Those groups include minorities, special education students, and students learning English as a second language.

"When we added grade levels, we added new targets for so many schools," Zahorchak said. "More schools didn't make it — that's not a bad thing, because now we're ... looking at every child by name, so the opportunity (to help schools improve) is pleasing."

Statewide, 69 percent of students scored "proficient" or better on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment math test, while nearly 68 percent scored proficient or better on the PSSA reading test. The federal law requires all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Performance on state reading and math tests is one factor that determines whether schools are making progress, and each state sets its own standards. Pennsylvania requires at least 54 percent of all students to be proficient or better in reading, and 45 percent to be proficient or better in math.

This year, the report included math and reading PSSA results for students in grades 3-8 and 11. The scores of fourth-, sixth- and seventh-graders were counted for the first time.

Zahorchak noted that all grade levels statewide exceeded the academic performance targets, and that many grades also met more stringent standards that are taking effect in the current school year — 63 percent proficient in reading and 56 percent proficient in math.

Statewide proficiency levels among grade levels ranged from about 54 percent on the 11th-grade math test to roughly 79 percent on the third-grade math test.

Other factors used to measure a school's progress are attendance, graduation and test-participation rates. Pennsylvania requires a 90 percent attendance rate for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and an 80 percent high-school graduation rate. In grades in which the state assessment test is administered, the state requires a 95 percent test-participation rate.

Teachers' unions have complained that the federal law, which is up for reauthorization this year, forces them to spend much of their classroom time preparing students to take the standardized tests, giving other subjects short shrift.

"Multiple measures of student learning and school effectiveness should be employed instead of the current law's one-day snapshot based solely on standardized tests," James Testerman, president-elect of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, said in a statement.

Schools that consistently fall short of the standards face varying consequences, depending on how many consecutive years they have failed to improve.

Those consequences include providing tutoring, offering parents the option of transferring their children to another public school, or allowing a private company to manage the school.

A breakdown of how 3,104 Pennsylvania public schools fared in the state Education Department's 2006-07 academic achievement report:• Adequate yearly progress: 2,302• Making progress: 102• Warning: 380• School improvement: 134• Corrective action: 186The percentage of students scoring proficient or better on the 2006-07 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests:<B>THIRD GRADE</B>• Math, 79 percent; reading, 73 percent.<B>FOURTH GRADE</B>• Math, 78 percent; reading, 70 percent.<B>FIFTH GRADE</B>• Math, 71 percent; reading, 60 percent.<B>SIXTH GRADE</B>• Math, 70 percent; reading, 64 percent.<B>SEVENTH GRADE</B>• Math, 67 percent; reading, 67 percent.<B>EIGHTH GRADE</B>• Math, 68 percent; reading, 75 percent.<B>ELEVENTH GRADE</B>• Math, 54 percent; reading, 65 percent.——Source: Pa. Department of Education