DIXFIELD – Last week, after learning that the state said a SAD 21 school didn’t measure up to its criteria for reading, Superintendent Thomas Ward appealed.

Then, on Friday, the Maine Department of Education released a list of schools it claimed had failed to make adequate yearly progress required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The district’s T.W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School made the list, much to Ward’s chagrin.

But, according to the latest Maine Educational Assessment test scores, on which the adequate yearly progress report is based, the middle school was only a couple of points off the state’s 2002-03 average performance score.

“Over the last two years, we’ve been at 535 and 536, with a cumulative 3-year average of 536, which is one point below the state,” Ward said.

Perplexed, he tried without avail to call the state education board, hoping to learn the status of his appeal.

Wednesday afternoon, the state admitted it had mistakenly placed the middle school on the adequate yearly progress list of schools not making the grade.

“I’ve just been notified we’ve been removed from the list,” Ward said. “The state said the appeal wasn’t read accurately, but they reviewed the appeal again and we passed.”

But despite the good news, Ward said the 2002-03 educational assessment tests revealed some shortfalls in the district, which includes the towns of Canton, Carthage and Dixfield.

“Math was the really glaring one and we’ve got people working on the issue,” he said.

According to the grade 11 results of the March 2003 educational assessment testing, Dirigo High School had established a downward trend, falling behind the state average.

In 2000-01 testing, 11th-graders scored an average of 526, two points shy of the state average. In 2001-02, however, they dropped to 522, and sank further to 520 this spring, seven points below the state average.

At the high school level, similar trends are occurring on science and technology, social studies and visual and performing arts scores.

Ward attributed the scores to curriculum and student attitude, both of which will be considerably scrutinized and revamped this school year.

“We need to look at our whole alignment and what we’re using for textbooks for K through 12 and do a gap analysis of our curriculum. I have a concern here where we’re consistently going down in math,” Ward said.

For the past few years, SAD 21 staff have been trying to better tie mathematics to the Maine Learning Results.

“I’d like to move Algebra One to the eighth grade. That’s desperately needed. As for the Math Department, district wide, we’ll be making big changes,” he added.

Ward, who started his superintendent job this year, admitted that lengthy and heated negotiations between outgoing Superintendent David Pierce, the School Board and the Cancardix Teachers Association over the past three years probably had a big impact on student attitudes.

“Student attitudes can make a big difference on test scores. We need to try and get their pride up in themselves, the school and the community,” he said.

At the elementary school level, SAD 21 was making slow improvements in math, science and technology, social studies and “hovering right in there” with the state average for reading, writing and health education.

Eighth-grade testing showed a downward trend in reading and writing although the 3-year average pretty well met the state average.

“Reading, writing and health scores for grade 11 were tremendous!” Ward said.

In those categories, the district outperformed the state average.

“For a school district of this size in a rural area in Maine, you always want to be above the state average, but year after year, if we can hang in there with the average, we’re doing well,” Ward added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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