ATLANTA -(AP) — Nearly half of America’s public schools didn’t meet federal achievement standards this year, according to a national report released Thursday.

The Center on Education Policy report shows more than 43,000 schools — or 48 percent — did not make “adequate yearly progress” this year.

State’s scores varied wildly. For example, in Georgia, 27 percent of schools did not meet targets, compared to 81 percent in Massachusetts and 16 percent in Kansas. In Missouri, 88 percent of schools did not meet AYP requirements. None of the St Joseph schools met the benchmark.

The findings are far below the 82 percent failure rate that Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted earlier this year but still indicate an alarming trend.

Duncan hopes to address the results by granting states relief from the federal law. The law requires states to have every student performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014, which most educators agree is an impossible goal.

In August, St Joseph School District officials called the targets required in No Child Left Behind  “unrealistic and essentially unattainable.”