Farmington and Oxford schools were removed from the list of schools that failed to make adequate progress.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

The Maine Department of Education has revised its list of schools that failed to meet the standards of a controversial federal law.

The department removed 19 schools Wednesday from a list of 143 released last week. Those dropped from the inadequate progress list included Farmington’s Cascade Brook and Oxford Elementary schools.

Three schools, including Phillips Middle School, were added to the list of High Performing Schools.

Commissioner Susan A. Gendron revised the lists based on additional information received from schools.

Implementing the guidelines of the federal No Child Left Behind Act proved to be more complicated than education officials had expected, Gendron said in a prepared statement.

“Our hope in the future is to refine our internal data collection procedures and seek statutory changes to allow the department to complete a thorough review and verification of all such high-stakes accountability reports prior to public release,”” Gendron said.

The lists may be further updated as the review process continues, she said.

State officials first released the list of schools that failed to meet standards and make progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act last Friday.

At the time, state officials said 143 Maine schools had made a one-year monitoring list, including 27 from this region. There were 29 ways schools could make that list, including low student performance in reading or math, low test participation rates, poor daily attendance or poor graduation rates.

If schools are listed for two years or more, they face federally mandated sanctions and must deal with several new requirements, such as paying for students to transfer to another school in the district.

States are required to keep track of schools that don’t make adequate progress for two years or more under the No Child Left Behind Act, a controversial federal education reform law.

Gendron said the state decided to release the one-year monitor list to give schools an early opportunity to improve.

Many state and education officials have condemned the No Child Left Behind Act, in part because they believe it portrays Maine schools as failures since students and schools are required to meet Maine’s high standards and not more relaxed national standards.