If you're an educator in California, you're all too familiar with the legion of accountability yardsticks, from the Academic Performance Index to the high school exit exam.

Well, make room for one more.

Today, officials with the state Department of Education will introduce base scores for a new "Adequate Yearly Progress' report that measures whether schools and districts are demonstrating an appropriate level of improvement in English/language arts and math.

The complex report is the state's way of complying with federal No Child Left Behind legislation, which mandates that all students in kindergarten through the 12th grade meet state academic standards by 2014.

So-called AYP scores are derived from existing standardized tests and the high school exit exam. While getting at least 95 percent of their students to participate, districts and schools are expected to meet or exceed specified proficiency rates, which vary depending on the year, the subject and whether the campus serves elementary, middle or high school kids. (For example, elementary schools are expected to produce English pass rates of at least 13.6 percent this year.)

Smaller subgroups these can be ethnic populations, English language-learners or students with disabilities also have to meet proficiency benchmarks in order for their schools or districts to demonstrate adequate progress.

There are consequences for failing to make the grade on the AYP, but for the time being they only apply to schools that receive federal Title I funds generally those campuses that serve economically disadvantaged children. If these schools don't show improvement over two years, they could be required to use their federal dollars for tutoring, or forced to transport some of their students to better public schools.

Today's base scores, available online at www.cde.ca.gov , are simply repackaged results of tests taken in 2002, designed to serve as a basis of comparison when the 2003 Adequate Yearly Progress reports are issued in August.

But they should indicate whether districts are on the right track. Officials with the Long Beach Unified School District believe they are, as they offered a sneak peek of their base results on Wednesday.

As one of the most diverse school districts in the nation, LBUSD identified no fewer than 10 large subgroups, and all but one of them students with disabilities met federal proficiency requirements in English and math, according to district spokesman Dick Van Der Laan.

Van Der Laan said no urban district in California met its proficiency target for this subgroup.

"We're very proud of the results,' he said. "We were expected to leap tall buildings, and we ran into the antenna on top of the Empire State Building. But we came close.'

Overall, nearly 70 percent of LBUSD schools came within one subgroup of meeting their proficiency targets.

Van Der Laan said 155 school districts in California met targets in every subgroup, but none of these districts had as many subgroups as Long Beach Unified. In fact, aside from the 11,000-student Etiwanda Elementary School District, which had eight subgroups, all of these districts had five or fewer significant subgroups.

LBUSD's subgroups include African-Americans, American Indians, Asians, Filipinos, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, whites, socio-economically disadvantaged students, English language-learners and students with disabilities. Every subgroup reduces a district's odds of meeting their target by about half, Van Der Laan said.