BANGOR – Despite higher academic target levels, 69 percent of the state’s public schools met or exceeded federal education standards for 2004-2005, according to a progress report released Thursday by the Maine Department of Education.

But those higher standards also accounted for an increase in schools that didn’t meet the yearly targets set under No Child Left Behind in either reading or math or both for the first time. Those schools totaled 100 this year, up from 82 previously.

The status of schools was based on the Maine Educational Assessment given in the fourth, eighth and 11th grades in math and reading. Of the 706 public schools tested, 489 demonstrated adequate progress, Commissioner Susan Gendron said. Forty-eight schools didn’t meet the standards in either math or reading or both for the second or third consecutive year. Another 69 schools require further analysis to determine whether they have made adequate progress.

Under No Child Left Behind, states are required not only to measure the general progress of students, but to monitor the performance of specific subgroups of students such as those who are low income or have disabilities. The aim is to prevent states from boosting the overall performance of just some of their children while leaving others behind.

According to the law, each state sets a timeline with progressively higher educational standards that must be met, thus laying out how much schools must improve each year so every child can meet the goals as measured by the Maine Educational Assessment. The ultimate goal is that by the spring of 2014 all students will show 100 percent proficiency at grade level in reading and math.

The latest scores are based on performance expectations that went up anywhere from six to nine points at every grade level in both subjects.

Due to those higher targets, 100 schools – or 14 percent – were designated “monitor” status this year and must take steps to improve test scores.

“By raising the target, we anticipated more schools would be identified,” said Gendron, noting that the goal would remain constant for the next two years and then start to climb again.

The timeline “tries to give us a chance to really identify strategies and implement plans,” she said.

On the positive side, this year saw fewer schools that didn’t show enough progress in either math or reading or both, for the second or third consecutive year. There were 48 “continuous improvement priority schools,” down from 50 last year. These schools now will work with education department officials to develop an improvement plan and implement new strategies.

Federal money is provided to the state to help these schools in their efforts.

Once a school is identified as “continuous improvement,” said Gendron, “we’re seeing good progress that focuses attention on student population and on understanding the needs of individual students. It affirms that Maine’s approach to analyzing data and using the data to inform instruction is clearly on target.”

Catherine Miklovich, principal of Kermit Nickerson School in Swanville, said her elementary school was designated “continuous improvement” in 2002, but is off the list as of this year. She credited the state’s efforts for making the difference.

With the additional funding, the school was able to purchase a new reading program, provide workshops for parents to give them strategies to help children at home, develop individual learning plans for every child, and hold seminars for teachers, Miklovich said.

In SAD 22, where the Samuel Wagner Middle School was designated as having “monitor” status because students with disabilities didn’t meet the targets in reading and math in eighth grade, curriculum director Kyle Ritter said changes would be forthcoming.

“We’ve got to take stock of what we’re doing, ramp up our intervention services, and see what we can do to meet the needs of these students in the future,” she said of the Winterport school.

Also according to the new report, Maine as a whole didn’t make adequate yearly progress for the second year, in part because math proved to be particularly challenging for the students with disabilities subgroup and the economically disadvantaged subgroup.

“This points to the additional challenges to get all students where they need to be for life in the 21st century,” said Gendron.

She added, “While many schools individually are working successfully with those subgroups, as a state we need to continue to keep those groups on our radar and support all schools.”

It’s not surprising that the state as a whole didn’t make adequate yearly progress because of the ambitious targets and degree of difficulty of the assessments, the commissioner pointed out.

Under No Child Left Behind, each state must show that its students are making continuous and consistent progress toward reaching a “proficient” level of achievement in reading and math. The states, however, have some flexibility in defining the goals and how they are measured.

“We’ve established high expectations for ourselves,” Gendron said. “We could have lowered those, but ultimately we still have to get all students [to 100 percent proficiency], and we think the better approach is to focus attention on our populations and really zero in on subgroups and on the school as a whole.”

The commissioner also noted that although some schools may not actually be meeting the targets, students’ scores are improving. “Schools are working hard to meet the needs of different groups,” she said.

Also according to the newly released progress report:

. Of the 63 schools identified for not meeting the targets in reading for the first time last year, 42 met them this year;

. Of the 16 schools identified for not meeting the targets in math for the first time last year, 10 met them this year.

Gendron said the report highlights the need for the state to “continue to push our students and our schools to ensure we have a rigorous K-12 curriculum. It’s the depth of that curriculum that’s critical. This affirms for us that we have more work to do in order to meet the expectations for students.”