AUGUSTA – Nineteen Maine elementary schools have been identified as needing improvement because students failed to meet state academic standards for two or more years, the U.S. Department of Education announced Monday.

Most of the schools are small and rural. They are among an estimated 8,600 identified nationwide as not meeting standards in their own states.

The schools were cited if the average Maine Educational Assessment scores in reading, writing and math were below a certain level, and if the percentage of students who met or exceeded the standards was less than a certain level, said Maine Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Judith Lucarelli.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act – the new federal education law passed earlier this year – parents of low-achieving students who receive help in reading and math through Title I funding have the option in September of sending their children to a higher-performing school in their district.

But Lucarelli said most of the districts in which the schools are located have only one elementary school.

Students take the MEA in the fourth, eighth and 11th grades, and are scored on whether they exceed, meet, partially meet or don’t meet state standards.

School personnel have been working since last year with the department’s Title I staff to help improve reading, according to Lucarelli.

The deputy commissioner doesn’t consider the schools to be failing. “It means they’re the priority for department assistance. They have a smaller percentage of kids who meet the standard, but it’s not a pass-fail kind of thing,” she said. “I’m not any more worried about these schools than any others … they all know their status and they’re all working [to improve].”

She also said Maine’s MEAs are tougher than the standardized tests in other states.

While Maine, like many states, uses standardized tests as a means to gauge a school’s progress, there’s a lot more to evaluating students, according to Lucarelli. “Before I come out and make the charged statement that a school is failing, I’d want to have a much broader array of evidence than two years of MEA [results],” she said.

The new federal law, which says that all schools reach “100 percent proficiency” by the end of the 2013-14 school year, states that schools be judged using local assessments in addition to the MEA, she pointed out.

These particular schools might not have been cited at all if other quality indicators were used, such as the number of students who make the honor roll, participate in activities, present behavior problems or attend school regularly, she said.

By fall each school must notify eligible parents that they can switch to a different school. But Lucarelli cautioned parents about rushing to action. “If a child is having difficulty in reading in one school, what would it be about going to another school that would improve his reading? Just another school by itself isn’t necessarily going to mean that as soon as the child goes there [he or she] will learn to read.”

Department surveys of Maine parents about their local schools continually yield “strong positive responses,” she said.

“This is still the local school they’ve always liked … we’ll encourage them to work with teachers about how to improve the program so the child performs better. Parents should ask what is the improvement plan for this school and start thinking if it will make a difference for my child.”

As an inducement for districts to be “responsive to the needs” of children, they will have to provide transportation to other schools in the district out of their Title I money beginning this September, if parents so request, Lucarelli said.

Starting in September 2003, a district also has to provide supplemental services like tutoring, after-school help or summer school with Title I funds. “This is an incentive for schools to improve programs so they can continue to spend all their Title I money in helping kids learn to read,” Lucarelli said.

Under the 1994 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the predecessor of the No Child Left Behind Act, each state was responsible for developing state content standards, assessments and definitions of its “adequate yearly progress” standard. In each state, schools that failed to make state-defined adequate yearly progress for two or more years were identified as in need of improvement.

States reported the numbers to the U.S. Department of Education this spring. Because of differences in the ways each state defines school progress, state comparisons aren’t valid, according to federal officials.

Meanwhile, Union 96 Superintendent Harvey Kelley, who supervises one of the schools on the list, said the MEA isn’t an accurate measure of a student’s progress, especially in small schools because “it doesn’t take much to skew the results.”

“While MEAs can be very helpful over a period of time, you have to look at four, five or six years of results to clearly be able to ensure you have [an accurate assessment],” he said.

The Ella Lewis School in Union 96 is in Steuben. Principal Anita Merritt said teachers will meet with the curriculum director this fall to start an improvement plan.

“We’re just in the planning stages,” she said, adding she was only notified of the school’s status just before school closed for the summer.

Deputy Commissioner Lucarelli said she’s more concerned with the big picture.

“When I’m losing sleep at night, it isn’t localized at one school. It’s about how am I going to help the staff in schools help all children meet the Learning Results,” she said.