CARLSBAD -- Students at all 13 Carlsbad Unified District schools scored high enough on state tests to exceed new federal standards, and none appears to be in danger of facing federal sanctions, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Department of Education.

Further, virtually all schools showed improved scores among small groups of children defined by the state by race, nationality, native language, and income levels.

The report, called the 2004 Adequate Yearly Progress Report, grades districts and schools based on minimum testing and student performance criteria under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Schools that fail for two consecutive years to test enough students or that fail to have enough pass state tests could face sanctions, such as being forced to offer student transfers to other schools or provide extra tutoring.

While most of the news about Carlsbad schools was good, the state reported some minor problems with a few scores.

Three schools in the district received black marks in this week's report, but none is expected to be in danger of sanctions or be listed as "failing" for a second year, said Dolores Delgado Wright, the district's lead director of instructional services.

Buena Vista Elementary School, where test scores have earned the school high state marks, was marked as failing on the report because it tested only 63 of its 71 beginning English students, or 89 percent.

All schools and districts are required to test a minimum of 95 percent of its students in every group of students. In Buena Vista's case, the school needed to test just five more English learner students to exceed the federal standard and avoid being placed on a state "warning" list for failing to achieve.

Schools on the warning list could be punished next year if they don't raise their scores or test more students.

District and school officials said that although the numbers of students not tested are small, they take the situation seriously and plan to fix their participation problems.

"Don't think I'm not stressed by it," said Buena Vista Principal Jose De Anda. "It's terrible to be on a list, (and) hopefully next year we won't be."

De Anda said he and school staff members are analyzing the situation, student by student, to find out why some did not take the math portion of the state test.

Small numbers also made the difference at the only other school to be marked as failing by the state, the district's kindergarten through 12th-grade home and independent studies program, known as the Seaside Academy.

The Seaside Academy, one of the district's alternative education programs with fewer than 100 students, was marked as failing because, according to the state, only 10 of 15 seniors graduated.

That puzzles Keith Holley, director of the Seaside Academy, because most of the students in the program are high achievers working in an accelerated program. Some graduate from high school as much as two years early.

Delgado Wright said part or all of the answer could be that some of the youngsters in the program take a state-accepted test that is equivalent to a high school diploma, and move on early to community colleges and then four-year programs. But those students could have been marked by the state as failing to graduate.

"My goal is to look at it, case by case, to find where those students are because we know they didn't drop out of school," Delgado Wright said.

A black mark was also given by the state to Carlsbad Village Academy because it does not have a statewide ranking in a program called the Academic Performance Index, or API.

But there is no such measure, said Holley, who is also principal at the Village Academy. Despite the state report, small continuation schools such as the academy do not receive an API from the state.

"It's not that the continuation school didn't meet a (state) standard," Holley said. "That (performance index) is not the instrument used for continuation schools. It (would be) like measuring oxygen with a ruler."

Instead of the API, small schools such as his are measured using something called the Alternative School Assessment Model, results of which are not expected from the state until October, he said.

Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com.