SAN BERNARDINO - The Board of Education is considering drastic measures, including lawsuits and ballot measures, to combat what members say is an unfair process gauging and controlling student achievement.

Driving the call to action is the federal requirement to meet mandates outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act, a controversial law that President Bush authorized in 2002.

A presentation from Assistant Superintendent Paul Shirk and Deputy Superintendent Judy White showed that the San Bernardino City Unified School District would have to do the near impossible to achieve those federal mandates.

In order for the school district to be on track to make its districtwide Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, it would have to nearly double its current pass rate for schools by next year.

It's a daunting task," Shirk said.

The report raised several difficult questions about the academic targets ordered by the federal government, causing school board members to wonder if the district was simply being set up for failure.

I think it's crazy for us to respond to these people's wild ideas," said school board member Danny Tillman.

Frustrated school board members called for Superintendent Arturo Delgado to investigate the possibility of filing a lawsuit that challenges the No Child Left Behind Act. It would make the school district the second in the country to file such a suit.

The school district in Reading, Pa., filed a lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania last year charging that the school district had been left unprepared to meet the mandates that No Child Left Behind sets.

The act requires every school district to meet a rigorous set of standards and to release Adequate Yearly Progress reports, the mechanism gauging whether schools are meeting those standards.

Schools must meet those standards by 2014 or face serious consequences.

Adding to the San Bernardino district's concerns are 12 schools that are in danger of entering what is called its fifth year" their fifth consecutive year of failing to meet their Adequate Yearly Progress targets.

Arrowhead, Cole, Rio Vista and Wilson elementary schools are in danger of falling into a fifth year of failure to meet the benchmarks. So are Arrowview and Curtis, Golden Valley, King and Shandin Hills middle schools.

Pacific, San Bernardino and San Gorgonio high schools must reach the required targets this year.

When a school fails to meet its Adequate Yearly Progress targets five years in a row, serious consequences and penalties come into play.

The school may be forced to become a charter school or fall under the state's jurisdiction.

It's so scary what we have to do," school board member Lynda Savage said.