PITTSFIELD – Whenever middle school experts gather in Maine, Warsaw Middle School in Pittsfield is nearly always held up as an example of teaching and curriculum excellence.

So when the school showed up last week on No Child Left Behind’s underperforming list, parents and educators were confused.

Clarification is easy, said Superintendent Michael Gallagher Monday. It was a small group of special education students – some so profoundly developmentally disabled that they have no verbal skills – that prompted the designation “underperforming.” Under the No Child Left Behind guidelines, all students must be tested regardless of developmental level and their scores factored into the entire group tested.

SAD 48 Superintendent William Braun said the same situation at St. Albans Consolidated School resulted in its being listed among the 10 failing schools.

“I have the entire district’s multihandicapped classroom in that school,” said Braun, including two children who are completely unable to communicate. “Five years ago, St. Albans was listed nationally for outstanding language arts and reading achievements. These new listings have nothing to do with the quality of the education.”

Two other SAD 48 schools, Nokomis Regional High School and Hartland Consolidated School, were also listed as underperforming.

Nokomis, Hartland and Warsaw were among 143 schools identified by the state Department of Education as not having met this year’s federal performance targets, which require that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Maine uses the Maine Educational Assessment, a test given annually to all students, regardless of ability, in grades 4, 8 and 11, to measure progress.

The schools designated as underperforming – where too many students fail to meet minimum testing standards – have a year to improve.

Gallagher said Warsaw’s poor performance rating was based in actuality on a tiny, struggling segment of the overall school population.

“The results of the testing are established based on what these children can do, and they were not able to meet expectations,” he said. “This category includes children who are severely and profoundly disabled.”

With such a wide range of disabilities among all special education populations, Gallagher said there was nothing Warsaw Middle School nor the district could have done to improve the students’ scores.

“This test may be an unrealistic assessment for many, but it is completely unrealistic for some,” he said.

Gallagher added that “the effect here is really that all schools will eventually become ‘continued monitoring’ schools,” he said. “It will become almost impossible not to make the list.”

Braun said the Nokomis issues also centered around a disabled population. Since only 25 of the 29 children identified with disabilities chose to take the tests, Nokomis was placed outside the 95 percent reporting requirement.

At Hartland, however, it was the fourth-grade boys’ math skills that caused the school to miss the performance standard by a full 4 percent. Braun said the district changed its math requirements two years ago and expected a dip in scores as the students adjusted, but now the entire math program is under review.

“What this is really about is meeting the outcomes of the test,” said Braun, denying that teachers will begin “teaching to the test.”

When it comes to special education students, preparing for higher scores could be an unrealistic goal, said Gallagher.

“We will make changes, but whether any of them will have any significant impacts remains to be seen,” said Gallagher.

“The concept of the No Child Left Behind program is not all that bad, but when it is actually placed out in the world, it gives us all a helpless feeling,” he said.