Some of the 19 Maine elementary schools identified as “needing improvement” this week by the U.S. Department of Education are starting new reading, writing and math programs, tying curriculum to the state’s Learning Results and expanding teacher training to help raise student standardized test scores, administrators say.

SAD 3 (the Unity area) is expanding its Reading Recovery program, using new tests to determine reading levels and adopting a new math program that incorporates “a lot of hands-on work,” said Acting Superintendent Michael Buckley, who heads three of the listed schools, in Troy, Brooks and Liberty.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and money over the last four years on training teachers and on providing them with quality programs and materials so they are better prepared and so they have consistency,” he said.

SAD 34 Curriculum Coordinator Alan Pfeiffer said teachers are being trained this summer in a new math program “with lots more critical thinking.” Staff also are “taking a good analytical look at the reading program to see if we’re hitting the key elements,” including phonics, vocabulary and “text comprehension,” he said.

In addition, the district, which includes the Kermit S. Nickerson School in Swanville, one of the listed schools, recently started full-day kindergarten and, for the last two years, has conducted programs for 4-year-olds.

Pembroke Elementary School Principal Paula Smith said improving instructional programs has been a priority there for the last two years. A literacy team composed of teachers from kindergarten through fourth grade, Title I and special education has been trained in a new approach to reading that includes more one-on-one teaching and frequent assessment of student progress. Pembroke also has adopted a new math program aligned with the Learning Results.

When Smith came on board five years ago, “there wasn’t a lot of writing going on,” she said. Now students are writing in every subject area.

The 19 schools were cited if over two years, less than 30 percent of the fourth- or eighth-grade pupils met or exceeded the Maine Educational Assessment proficiency standards in reading, writing and math, and if the average school score was less than 535 in all three content areas.

For example, last year at the 85-pupil Troy Central School, just 17 percent of fourth-graders met the proficiency standard in reading, compared to 48 percent statewide.

Seven of the 19 schools are located in Waldo County. Beyond that geographical quirk, finding common denominators among the schools proved a difficult task.

The small size of some of them was identified by some school administrators as an issue.

“If you have 10 kids and two who are low-achieving and getting Title I help and two who are getting special education services, I guarantee you’ll have more than 70 percent of the class who won’t meet the standard. That’s what’s happening here,” said Acting Superintendent Buckley.

Superintendent David Wiggin of Union 69 (Appleton) said: “I think it’s clear there is an up and down pattern to these scores and you can have a good year and you can have a bad year. It just happens this way regardless of how good your program is.”

But size wasn’t an issue everywhere. Enrollment among the 19 schools ranged from 69 at the Quimby School in Bingham to 660 at the Carl J. Lamb School in Sanford. And while some classes tested were tiny, with only a dozen or so pupils, others in large towns like Sanford, Hodgdon and Livermore Falls were much bigger.

The amount spent on pupils also was variable. While Trenton Elementary School ranks 47th in per-pupil spending, well above the state median, Arundel is just 229th, well below.

Poverty could be a factor. But while the median household income in Pembroke is only $23,365, well below the state average of $37,240, Arundel’s median household income is nearly $50,000.

Such things don’t matter, according to Arundel Superintendent Richard Marx, who said per-pupil costs can be affected by how much debt service and how many veteran teachers a school system has.

While the state had not yet analyzed the reasons that the schools ended up on the list, Commissioner of Education J. Duke Albanese speculated that instructional practices could be at the root of the problem.

“I’d look more at the strength of a literacy program in a school district and approaches to reading and writing and math programs as opposed to demographics,” he said.

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced that students in an estimated 8,600 schools nationwide have “failed to meet state academic standards for two consecutive years,” and that those schools have been identified as “priority schools.”

In a news release issued the day after the federal department’s statement, Albanese sought to clarify things, taking issue with newspaper accounts that called Maine’s 19 schools “failing.”

They shouldn’t be considered failing, but as priority schools needing improvement, he said in a written statement.

“This number represents 4 percent of Maine schools with fourth grades, and 1 percent of schools with eighth grades,” he said, emphasizing that while the schools “need to demonstrate much better performance, … listing these schools with others from around the nation is very misleading.”

He noted that Paige’s release showed Maine’s scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress test are among the highest in the country. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the new federal education law passed by Congress this year, every state will be required to give the NAEP test to a sample of children.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Albanese said the problem was mixing Maine’s schools “into one big batch” with those in bad shape around the country. Maine’s MEA sets a higher standard than do similar tests in many other states.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, parents of students in Title I programs at the schools “will have the option to choose and attend a higher-performing school in their school district.” Title I provides help to students having problems with reading and math.

Nine of Maine’s designated schools are in districts with only one elementary school, so choice isn’t available, according to the state Department of Education.

But school officials in areas where there would be an option said this week they didn’t foresee swarms of parents asking to make a change. “People love the Swanville School. It’s a great community school,” said SAD 34 Superintendent M. Robbins Young III.

In SAD 3, parents who are unhappy with a school already have the option of asking that their child be transferred. But Acting Superintendent Buckley said the new legislation likely wouldn’t precipitate an influx of requests.

“That won’t happen in Maine. Maine doesn’t fit that model. Our schools are spread out. We’re all over the place,” he said. “I’m not expecting a lot of requests. If we get requests, we’ll listen and try to honor them.”