Harlan County received quite a bit of good news on the education front with the release of the No Child Left Behind test scores.

"We met 107 out of 109 goals," said Brent Roark, the Title I supervisor for the county school system, in an Enterprise report. "That's the best we've ever done in this school district by far."

The county's elementary schools met all 80 of their goals. Evarts High School and Cawood High School missed in one area each to prevent the county system from an unblemished record, but the district continues to show improvement.

The Harlan Independent School District met all of its goals again, continuing its tradition of strong performances in a variety of measurements.

The city district was also able to celebrate the selection of elementary school teacher Barbra Ledford by Ashland Inc. and the Kentucky Department of Education as one of the state's top 20 teachers.

Continued progress in the education of our children is a good sign for Harlan County, which has struggled for too long with low-performing schools.

Educational excellence from our schools, students, teachers and administrators should be celebrated and encouraged.

Harlan County's future depends on it.