SAN LUIS OBISPO - The California Department of Education will release state test scores today, along with a list of schools that did, and did not, meet new federal requirements.

The numbers will include a battery of tests taken last spring by students in grades 2-11, along with whether schools met the federal "annual yearly progress," or AYP requirement. They will be released on the department's Web site at http://star.cde.ca.gov/.

For the first time, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 will have an impact on California schools. That has made local educators a bit anxious.

Parents whose children are in schools that don't meet the requirements -- which state officials helped define -- can choose to switch to schools that did meet the criteria. Schools that continue to fall short of the goals and remain what the state calls "program-improvement" schools, face increasingly punitive sanctions in future years.

The sanctions only exist, however, for Title 1 schools. These campuses receive federal dollars because they have significant numbers of children living in low-income households.

Of the 79 public schools in San Luis Obispo County, 47 are Title 1 campuses.

While the other schools don't face any federal sanctions under the new federal law, local and state officials predict shame alone will be a motivating factor to show improvement.

Local educators say the public should not be surprised when they see lower scores this year, primarily because one of the tests is a different one than students have been taking annually since 1998. The switch was made last spring -- from the Stanford 9 to the California Achievement Tests 6th Edition -- to give students a test aligned with what state standards dictate be taught in classrooms statewide.