AUGUSTA – Teachers and administrators like the state’s Learning Results and say the new standards so far “have had a positive impact” in the classroom. But they worry there won’t be enough time or money to put them into place – and they doubt all students will be able to meet them.

That’s what researchers from the University of Maine told the state’s Education Committee on Wednesday during a briefing on the preliminary results of a survey on the progress of school systems putting the Learning Results into place. The Maine Education Policy Research Institute collected data from more than half the superintendents and principals, about one-third of school board chairs and 2,253 teachers, or 16 percent of the total.

About 70 percent of administrators said the Learning Results “might not be achievable for some groups of children,” according to the survey, while the same percentage of teachers said they found it difficult to help students with special needs meet the standards.

Respondents also said they worried they didn’t have enough time to plan for changes in curriculum and assessment and for teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills they need and to deliver instruction in all content areas required by the Learning Results.

More than half the superintendents, a third of the principals and about 40 percent of teachers said their school systems “could not reasonably implement the Learning Results within the required time frame,” the survey said.

Next year’s incoming high school class will be the first group of students to be awarded diplomas based on the Learning Results standards. By the end of the 2003-04 school year, districts must have local assessment systems in place to measure students’ progress on English, mathematics, health and physical education, science and technology, and social studies. By 2007-08, schools must have assessment systems for three additional areas: foreign languages, visual and performing arts and career preparation. By September 2007, schools must include all eight content areas in their curriculum.

Sent out in November, the questionnaire included a variety of question formats and asked respondents whether they had aligned curriculum, developed local assessments and obtained new instructional materials for the standards. They also were asked to discuss their attitudes and beliefs about the Learning Results and whether the standards had influenced their teaching practices. Respondents also were asked about training opportunities on the Learning Results.

Final results of the survey will be available within a month.

School personnel who responded to the survey generally agree with the concept of the Learning Results, said Janet Fairman of the research institute. “I didn’t detect any negative attitude about the Learning Results themselves.” But she said teachers and administrators “feel stressed” about putting them into place, particularly in light of budget cuts.

Most respondents agreed that the Learning Results are the “biggest priority” in their school systems, the survey said.

Across all grades, more progress has been made on aligning English and math curriculum with the standards than for other content areas. Also, about three-quarters of administrators said their schools were either finished or almost finished purchasing new instructional materials for English and math. And more progress has been made in developing local assessments for English than for other areas.

On average, 75 percent of administrators said their schools have appropriate instructional materials for teachers “to support students’ achievement of the Learning Results for most or all of the content areas.” Teachers were more evenly divided, with slightly more agreeing that instructional materials are well aligned with the Learning Results, the survey said.

Sen. Michael Brennan (D-Portland) said he was concerned about the students who may have trouble meeting the Learning Results.

“There needs to be a closer look at who those students might be,” he said. “If we believe there are going to be some students who can’t meet the Learning Results, we need to identify them and determine what interventions we need to take to help them.”

The focus now should be on helping school systems that haven’t made progress with the Learning Results, according to Sen. Betty Lou Mitchell, R-Etna. “The answer is not to move the date” for putting the standards into place, she said.