CHICAGO - The Bush administration said Tuesday that it is willing to soften its long-held stance that every failing school, whether it fails marginally or miserably, be treated the same.

Under a plan unveiled by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, states would be allowed to differentiate how they label - and punish - schools, based on the degree to which a given school fails to meet No Child Left Behind standards.

A school that missed only one achievement target, for example, could get a more favorable label and less severe sanctions than a school that missed several achievement goals.

"This will not change the guts of No Child Left Behind accountability," Spellings said during a conference call with reporters. "However it gives states the opportunity to describe the range of schools that meet and do not meet in different ways."

Spellings plans to grant the leeway to up to 10 states that submit pilot projects this spring. The programs would not require a change in law.

In exchange, chosen states would agree to target their efforts and resources toward helping the most chronically failing schools, which nationally, have shown minimal progress.

Since No Child Left Behind became law six years ago, local and state education officials have complained about its one-size-fits-all approach.

By law, schools must ensure that subgroups of students, broken down by race, income and special education status, meet annual math and reading goals. Schools that fail to meet standards in any subgroup are deemed failing and face a series of escalating sanctions that, eventually, could lead to closure.

Suburban school officials have been especially critically because some of their schools are getting tagged as failing even though they have high overall test scores. In Illinois, for example, 150 schools were labeled underperforming last year, only because special education students did not make the grade.

Some educators and policy makers praised Spellings' proposal. But Michael Petrilli, who served in the Education Department during Bush's first term and now works for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, likened it to a "suburban schools relief act."

"This proposal creates a real risk that we could step back from the pressure currently on suburban schools to close the achievement gap and get all students up to proficiency," said Petrilli, vice president of the conservative think tank. "Depending on how it's implemented, you can imagine suburban schools that are not making the grade for African American or poor students, for example, will no longer feel the pressure under NCLB to address these problems."

But Illinois state schools Supt. Christopher Koch praised the plan and said he hopes to apply for the flexibility.

"One of my criticisms of No Child Left Behind is that it can be overly punitive," Koch said. "This allows us to develop a more nuanced system of distinguishing between schools. I would love, for example, to recognize districts or schools that are showing progress, even if they are not meeting the NCLB goal."

(c) 2008, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.