Tom Reed The Times Maria Hernandez Ferrier, deputy under secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, listens as Gainesville Elementary second-grader Esmeralda Moreno reads a book. Ferrier visited the school Monday as part of a trip through Georgia.     Contacts   For more information:   Gainesville Elementary School: Call (770) 287-1223 or go online at www.gcssk12.net/gesweb/default.htm.   U.S. Department of Education: Go online at www.ed.gov, or, to learn more about the federal No Child Left Behind Act, www.ed.gov/nclb.

The U.S. Department of Education's deputy under secretary toured Gainesville Elementary School on Monday, bragging on it as a school working hard to meet goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"Immediately when you walk into the school, you can feel the ambience of a caring school," said Maria Hernandez Ferrier, who directs the federal Office of English Language Acquisition.

Ferrier, who is based in Washington, swung though the state Monday, stopping in Atlanta to address the Governor's Hispanic Task Force on Education before heading to Gainesville and then an evening meeting in Dalton.

She said that in the task force meeting she referred to Gainesville Elementary as an exemplary school before she realized that its principal, Shawn McCollough, was a member of the group.

Ferrier said the 1-year-old Gainesville Elementary was a place she had to visit, based on the academic data it's producing.

She said that 90 percent of its students passed the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, the state's tool for measuring whether schools are making "adequate yearly progress," despite the student's language and economic backgrounds.

McCollough said he doesn't know of another school where minorities make up 90 percent of the population, 90 percent are on the free or reduced-price lunch program and 90 percent have passed the state exam.

Ferrier said she believes that McCollough "is all about accountability" and that he doesn't accept any barriers to a child's success.

"The most important element to the success of our children is a visionary principal and passionate teachers guided by the principal's vision," Ferrier said.

She said that 17 percent of the nation's Latino fourth-graders and 13 percent of eighth-graders are reading on grade level.

"As a nation we spent $500 billion last year on public education ... and yet our schools don't reflect that," Ferrier said. "Money is important, but finally (with No Child Left Behind), there is accountability."

As part of the law, states examine the performance of every "subgroup," or student category characterized by race, ethnicity and economic or education status. If one subgroup doesn't make "adequate yearly progress," the whole school doesn't make it.

A whole school that doesn't make adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years is declared as "needs improvement" and starts facing sanctions, such as offering transfers to non-needs improvement schools and tutoring.

McCollough guided Ferrier through classrooms in the 600-student school. Ferrier spoke to students along the way, often stooping down to them as they sat at their desks.

"I was talking to the kids about how exciting it is to learn to read," she said afterward.

McCollough said Ferrier has invited him to speak at a summit on No Child Left Behind.

On Monday, he was glad to serve as a tour guide for his school.