No Child Left Behind and the state’s concerted enforcement of that federal law have had the laudable effect of putting educators’ feet to the fire.

They also have many educators, and many students and parents, fuming. That’s understandable.

When the likes of Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern high schools, along with every single traditional secondary school in Marion County, are officially labeled failures, many a hardworking teacher and student and many a satisfied taxpayer has to feel insulted.

A more constructive reaction would be to set aside labels and consider room for improvement.

Facing higher standards than last year, plus a rigid scoring system, slightly under 50 percent of Indiana’s public schools attained “adequate yearly progress” under No Child Left Behind, according to results released this week. Last year, 54 percent made AYP, up five percentage points from two years prior.

On the one hand, it’s not difficult to fail. Missing AYP in any one of many categories does a school in. At Fishers High, for example, more than 80 percent of students overall hit the mark; but 31 of 54 special education students made it, and the school needed 32.

Technicalities didn’t apply everywhere, of course. Only one-fourth of Indianapolis Public Schools made AYP. Superintendent Eugene White said that didn’t bother him keenly, inasmuch as the bar has risen and schools are showing “encouraging signs.”

We would suggest that neither disgruntlement nor satisfaction is appropriate. The standards will toughen every year until 2014, at which point any school that does not bring 100 percent of its enrollment to AYP will be tagged a failure.

Unrealistic? State schools chief Tony Bennett refuses to concede such, noting that schools have taken up the gauntlet of greater demands over the years. If No Child Left Behind is to mean what is says, then the ultimate goal speaks for itself.

Can the pressure of avoiding the stigma undermine creativity in schools in favor of “teaching to the test”? Certainly. But ISTEP is an essential tool of accountability that has proved compatible with flexible instruction and in fact has encouraged innovation in many settings where dissatisfaction with AYP translated into action.

Public policy, including school funding, will have much to say about how close Indiana schools come to 100 percent over the coming five years. What to do about those that don’t make it will be a huge challenge to policymakers. In the meantime, educators, students and parents need to heed the message that avoiding failure isn’t good enough.