Three other area districts - Eastern Camden Regional and Sterling High School in Camden County and Lenape Regional in Burlington County - have been added to the roster, however, according to data released yesterday by the state Department of Education.

Overall, 39 Garden State school districts and charters were found in need of improvement, down from 53 last year.

"We're definitely pleased that the direction is toward improvement," said Richard Vespucci, state education spokesman.

Under federal No Child Left Behind rules, districts are "in need of improvement" when they fail to reach progress standards for two consecutive years. They must notify district parents and develop an improvement plan. Districts can face sanctions depending on how long they remain on the list.

Area administrators said yesterday that being listed did not necessarily mean schools were failing, nor did getting off mean a district doesn't face challenges.

"We know we still have a lot of work to do," Pennsauken Superintendent James Chapman said, "but we do believe we've been working in the right direction."

To continue to increase achievement, Chapman said, the district has hired instructional coaches for its teachers, expanded language-arts and math instruction time, and offered summer programs for struggling students, among other measures.

Lenape was named in need of improvement even though its schools - Lenape, Shawnee, Cherokee, and Seneca - all met federal progress targets, Assistant Superintendent Carol L. Birnbohm said.

Some of the district's students with disabilities did not reach federal performance targets, and that contributed to the district's making the list, Birnbohm said.

She said she considered "in need of improvement" an unfair label. The federal standards measure progress solely by standardized tests. Birnbohm said the district also would point to its above-average student SAT scores, 98 percent graduation rate, and the fact that 90 percent of its graduates continue their education.

Nevertheless, she said, Lenape is working on its improvement plan.

Harold Melleby, superintendent of Eastern Camden Regional, said his district was likewise working on its plan, despite its high SAT scores and continuation to college by more than 90 percent of its students. As in Lenape, he said, some of Eastern Camden's students with disabilities had not met federal progress goals.

"That's the intent" of the law, Melleby said. "That's why it's called No Child Left Behind. We recognize we have a professional responsibility to meet the needs of all of our students."

This past school year, Eastern Camden students were given extra instructional time if they needed it, and the summer school program was expanded, the superintendent said. In the coming school year, the district will continue to work with the University of Pennsylvania on staff development.

Locally, nine districts have been designated in need of improvement. Six were also on the list last year: Burlington County Vocational, Mount Holly, and Rancocas Valley in Burlington County and Black Horse Pike Regional, Camden, and Camden County Vocational in Camden County.