Most state schools meet fed standards

AUGUSTA – The Department of Education has announced that two-thirds of the state’s schools have maintained Adequate Yearly Progress under the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind act.

The department on Wednesday released a 20-page list showing which schools made AYP for 2007-08 based on the results of the Maine Educational Assessment tests taken by grades three through eight last spring and those of the Maine High School Assessment given to all third-year high school students last May.

This is the first year that MEA tests were taken by grade three through eight students and the second year for the high school assessment test.

The MHSA is composed of the SAT reasoning test and 18-question supplement known as the “math augmentation.” The high school results showed improvements in reading and writing over the previous year. The math scores could not be compared with last year’s because of the addition of the math supplement.

“Obviously we want to see that number increase, but we’re feeling pretty good about the fact that the high school test is taking hold,” department communications director David Connerty-Marin said Wednesday. “It certainly supports what we were saying all along about high school reform and pushing for 21st century skills.”

Rachelle Tome, the department’s NCLB Priority School and Adequate Yearly Progress coordinator, said the progress report was created to give parents and educators an indicator of how their schools are performing. She said 50 percent of a school’s students must meet or exceed a standard test score on a yearly basis to earn AYP.

“The intent is to help parents have a better sense of how the schools in their area are performing and to provide conversation within the schools themselves about measuring progress,” Tome said Wednesday.

All told, 403 of the state’s 635 public schools made AYP this year. Of those that did not make AYP, 39 showed enough progress that they could be removed from “priority” status altogether in 2008 if their scores improve for the second year in a row.

A school that does not make AYP for two years in a row is designated a priority school. The majority of the schools on the priority list are either middle schools or high schools. This year, 53 schools were on the priority list, an increase of 10 over last year. At the same time, nine schools were removed from the priority list.

Tome noted that 16 percent of the schools did not make AYP in reading only and that 6 percent did not make AYP in mathematics. Eight percent of the schools did not make AYP in both reading and math, she said.

To achieve AYP status, each school must meet the proficiency target for the whole school as well as for five subgroups. The subgroups are categorized as Native American, African American, economically disadvantaged, limited English proficient and students with disabilities.

Tome said AYP looks at the entire school and how its students perform under testing, including the various subgroups. She said every student is assigned a code for identification and the test results are matched against their designation. She said many of the schools having difficulty meeting AYP have found that their economically disadvantaged students were testing lower than others. The goal of NCLB is to eliminate that discrepancy and raise the performance of all students, she said.

“There is nothing that should stop an economically disadvantaged student from performing as well as an economically advantaged one. It has nothing to do with cognitive abilities,” she said.

Tome noted that because this was the first year the state tested all grade three through eight students, next year’s AYP rating should present a clearer picture of a school’s annual progress.

“The test of time is what you look at,” she said. “This is our baseline year.”

Complete AYP results as well as an ATP Fact Sheet and additional AYP information can be found at www.maine.gov/

education/pressreleases/ayp.

Walter Griffin may be reached at wgriffin@ bangordailynews.net or 338-9546.