Writing to the local media is not something I plan to make a practice of as the high school principal. However, with the addition of Calais High School to the “list of underperforming schools” published in the Oct. 25-26 Bangor Daily News, I find it is time for this commentary.

Academically, and in terms of school citizenship and character, our students are among the finest in the state, and the commitment and level of best practice of our faculty at Calais High School would be difficult to match. I imagine that our students and faculty, and much of our community, felt as I did when I read our name on the list. On behalf of our students and community, and in support of our teachers and staff, then, my intent is to provide details of the school “report card” that was used to add Calais High School to the list. News headlines so seldom tell the whole story.

We will study the Maine Educational Assessment test data and use it wisely to inform our curriculum and programs, and we will identify areas where we need to try new approaches, but for now, it is important to provide more information.

The state “identified” schools based on failure to meet standard in any one of a number of areas including graduation rate where Calais High School topped the state standard by 13 percent. But the chief measure of whether or not a school was identified as an “underperforming school” was determined by the school’s student performance on the MEA administered under the direction of the State Department of Education, this year, specifically in the area of reading and math.

. Math: Our students met the state standard in the math performance area.

. Content areas: In social studies, science, and in the visual and performing arts, student performance improved significantly from the previous year: Student scores improved in social studies overall by 43 percent, by 21 percent overall in science, and by 7 percent overall in visual and performing arts. But the state is not yet using these performance areas to “identify” schools although the MEA assesses our students in these areas as well.

. Reading: Calais High School was identified as a “low performing school” based on our overall student performance scores in this area, 2002-03.

Last year in reading, our overall student average scaled score was six points below the state standard; however, the previous year, our overall student average scaled score was three points above the state standard. The state “identified” any school that demonstrated three consecutive years of failing to meet the state standard and concluded that Calais High School was not a “low performing school.”

We took the state’s advisement to focus on improving the performance of our students scoring in the lowest performance category, and 8 percent of our students (2002-03 MEA) moved up from the low-performing category into the 520-540 range, on target with the state standard. The 2001-02 standard was set as fewer than 20 percent of a school’s students scoring in the “Did Not Meet” scoring category.

However, the state changed the rules. The percentage of students across the state in the lowest scoring category grew from 8 to 10 percent, while in the spirit of “No Child Left Behind” at Calais High School, we reduced the students who performed in that category by 8 percent from 25 to 17 percent. When I spoke with a State Department of Education official recently, I was told that had the state applied the same standard and the same rule as last year in reading, Calais High School would not have been identified this year.

The standard in reading which the state applied this year to the 2002-03 scores is that 44 percent of the grade 11 population must “meet the state standard.” As I was informed from a spokesperson at the State Department of Education, had the state not “changed the rules” this year, Calais High School would have met “Adequate Yearly Progress” and would not have been placed on “the preliminary list” this year.

As I have stated, “they changed the rules.” But we made progress on what the state asked of us last year, and we can make progress on what they ask of us now. Right now, our students and faculty need to be recognized for the good work they do every day at Calais High School.

James A. Underwood is the principal of Calais High School.