Concerns that new federal testing requirements will interfere with Maine’s emerging assessment system were allayed Wednesday after the U.S. secretary of education said the state will have no trouble meeting the recently passed reforms.

Secretary Roderick Paige said in a letter to Sen. Susan Collins that Maine’s plan to gauge student mastery of the state’s new Learning Results through a state-local assessment system meets the new mandatory testing requirements in HR1, the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act approved by Congress this week.

“This seems to answer a huge amount of concerns,” said state Department of Education spokesman Yellow Breen on Wednesday afternoon. But he was still trying to assess the impact of other details of the new law, which has been described as a victory for the Bush administration as well as a triumph for bipartisan politics.

While the new law requires a system of annual math and reading assessments in grades three through eight, and at least once in grades 10 through 12, it doesn’t mandate that the assessments be standardized “paper-and-pencil tests” consisting of only multiple-choice items, Paige pointed out in his Dec. 18 letter.

Nor does the law preclude a mixed state-local system such as the one Maine uses, he continued.

“Based on … what we know about Maine’s high-quality assessment, I anticipate that Maine will not have difficulty in meeting the requirements.” Paige said. “I recognize that Maine has been a leader in developing a standards-based assessment and accountability system that holds schools accountable for the progress for all students.”

In a letter sent to the Maine congressional delegation last September as the House and Senate were merging the different versions of the Bush administration’s school-reform initiative, officials of the state’s major education organizations charged that the testing provisions would upset the accountability procedures Maine already has in place and end up costing millions of dollars.

Collins wrote to Paige in October requesting that he clarify whether the new criteria would allow Maine to continue using the system it had been designing for years to gauge student performance.

The secretary of education’s interpretation goes a long way in easing the pressure, according to Breen.

“The letter … gives us assurance at the highest level … that they believe Maine’s approach to assessment is compatible with federal law,” he said. “This gives us the confidence to move forward with Maine’s planned approach to assessments.”

But the state still will need to meet other requirements in the legislation, Breen said.

At the root of Maine’s system is the Learning Results, a new set of academic standards due to take effect in 2003 for the Class of 2007.

The Maine Education Assessment test, which is given in grades four, eight and 11 and uses both multiple-choice and open-ended questions, was adjusted three years ago to reflect the Learning Results.

And by the end of 2004, schools are required to have annual local assessments that will measure whether a student is achieving the Learning Results. These could include research projects, portfolios, oral recitations and community service.

Praising the delegation for its work on his department’s behalf, Breen said Collins conferred with the state “on a daily basis over the last several months.” As a member of the Education Committee and as part of the Conference Committee, Collins was in “a unique position to influence the process and look out for Maine’s interests,” he said.

Testing is only one aspect of the federal law. The new legislation, which contains some of the most sweeping reforms since 1965, ups federal allotments to states by 17 percent, from $28 billion to just under $33 billion.

Currently, 6 percent to 7 percent of Maine’s budget is made up of federal money. Breen said he wasn’t sure how much more the state would receive.

But one thing that’s crystal clear is that accountability is a linchpin of the new law.

For example, HR1 allows children in schools that have been identified as failing to receive “supplemental services” including tutors or to transfer to better-performing public schools.

Breen said it wasn’t clear how those provisions would work in Maine.

“I’m not sure the party that foots 6 percent of the bill is the party who should be defining what accountability is,” he said.

Still, those particular stipulations wouldn’t go into effect until a school had been failing for at least two years. And long before a school was deemed to be in such dire straits, the state would step in to try to help, Breen said.

If MEA data indicated that a school was in trouble, teams of educators would be sent in to “provide analysis, assistance and coaching,” helping administrators and teachers develop new policies and decide what additional resources and supports were needed, Breen said.

With the federal legislation allowing for $378 million to help states fund their assessments, Maine definitely can use whatever it gets, he said.

“The federal money is much needed, especially because of the fairly high hurdles they’ve set for us in terms of technical quality,” Breen said.

Something else that will help is the $2 million the state has set aside to develop models for the local assessments, Breen said.

Much of the plan likely will encompass things teachers already are doing, but not in a systematic way and not connected to the Learning Results, he said.

Still, there’s no question that a price tag is attached to the assessment system even after it’s developed. Administering the assessments every year will cost, too. “Even if it’s not a pencil-and-paper test you still have to create and score [the assessments],” he said.

An advisory committee has been working to make sure that the criteria for the assessments are reliable, Breen said. The state may need to consult with experts “in anticipation of the kind of review [the federal Department of Education] will do,” he added.

The legislation requires a peer review process to make sure each state has met the new assessment and accountability requirements.

Maine will need to show that its approach “is just as reliable and valid as an off-the-shelf standardized test,” Breen said.

“It will take a tremendous amount of work to realize that vision. It will be challenging, but I think it can be done. But it won’t happen overnight.”