This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

We've just got to hand it to Utah's public education officials.

Utah schools are dead last among all the states in funding. They're last in teacher-to-student ratio (we have the largest class sizes in the country). And the Beehive State's classroom rolls just keep growing, straining all available resources to the limit.

And yet, when President Barack Obama says he wants to change federal law to focus more on individual students' progress, to better prepare them for careers and college, and to change the method of judging schools' achievement, Utah manages to be one step ahead of him.

Utah educators have criticized No Child Left Behind, former President George W. Bush's landmark education-reform law, and have worked to get the U.S. Department of Education to accept state programs for measuring student progress instead of some NCLB provisions. Where NCLB requires all schools to measure progress among students grouped according to race, ethnicity, family income, disability and English proficiency, Utah tries to chart each student's progress.

In those areas in which federal standards could not be adjusted, Utah's education community is trying to meet both its own and federal rules. Utah is ahead of the game, if it's to be played according to Obama's new rules.

Instead of NCLB's overly optimistic goal of having all children, in all its subgroups, working at grade level in math and language arts by 2014, the Utah Governor's Education Excellence Commission has adopted a goal that two-thirds of Utahns have in hand a postsecondary degree or certificate by 2020. The commission also wants to see 90 percent of third-graders proficient in reading and 90 percent of sixth-grade students up to speed in math. The State Board of Education and the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce have their own, similar sets of education goals.

Utah educators and the president both want to focus more on helping schools that are struggling than on labeling them as failing. But Obama's plan has a cap on how long such schools can continue to operate if they don't improve.

Schools that continue to fail would have to choose one of four reform models: replace the principal and half the teachers, convert the school to a charter, close it, or replace long-serving principals, reform the curriculum, train educators, extend learning time.

Obama's plan for American education and Utah's plans for its schools have their differences, certainly. But their goals are similar. And even with declining resources, Utah schools have shown they have at least a fighting chance to succeed.