It was purely a coincidence that on the same day an upcoming head-injury conference in Billings was announced — with its focus on American Indians because of their high injury rate from assaults and highway accidents — that it was announced that 33 Montana schools were flunking No Child Left Behind rules.

And every single one of them was in Indian country.

Conditions on the state’s reservations, where far too many people are living in poverty or are afflicted with drug or alcohol problems, are no secret in Montana. The failings of those 33 schools to meet math and reading test requirements over five consecutive years surely is more a consequence of social conditions than school inadequacies.

No matter, those schools now are subject to mass firings or even closure under federal rules. The feds also provide for state takeovers of failing schools, but according to Superintendent Linda McCulloch, the Montana constitution prohibits her from usurping local control.

She said the state is creating “support teams” composed largely of retired teachers to help the schools devise plans to get into compliance. That’s a good move, although we might suggest federal funding to help these schools improve might have been welcome, too.

But ultimately, it seems obvious that the problems endemic to reservations are a much bigger factor in this No Child Left Behind failure than either school quality or student smarts.

The evidence is there for all to see — unless you think the fact that all 33 of these schools just happen to be on a reservation is just a coincidence, too.