State education officials say 72 percent of Virginia's public schools met annual performance benchmarks in reading and mathematics under the No Child Left Behind law.

According to the Virginia Department of Education, two Richmond middle schools, Chandler and Elkhardt middle schools, face drastic sanctions after years of failing to achieve those goals.

Vernon Johns Middle School in Petersburg fell short for the seventh straight year, but is already undergoing a restructuring plan.

Preliminary figures show that 1,316 of 1,823 schools met all the "adequate yearly progress" goals in 2006-07 under the No Child Left Behind law.

The figures are largely tied to increased student success on the state Standards of Learning exams. The department says 467 schools failed to meet the objectives, and the status of 36 schools is pending.

The state says that 64 of Virginia's 699 Title I schools are subject to federal sanctions for failing to meet the benchmarks, one more than last year. Title I schools receive federal funds to serve children from low-income families.