Maine’s test scores are largely flat for the sixth year in a row – despite years of official assurances that scores would eventually improve.

Maine schools saw slight progress in math scores. But in all subjects, most students still could not fully meet state standards.

“We’re all kind of impatient about this,” Deputy Education Commissioner Patrick Phillips said Thursday.

In Lewiston, math scores rose two to four points. But the city lagged behind the state in every category except fourth-grade writing.

In Auburn, only 11th-grade math scores improved, and then only by one point. All scores were lower than the state average.

Long-term process’

The Maine Educational Assessment, or MEA, is a standardized exam given to students in grades four, eight and 11. It measures how well students meet Maine’s tough Learning Results standards in reading, writing, math and science.

Students receive scores between 501 and 580, which determine whether they “do not meet the standards,” “partially meet the standards,” “meet the standards” or “exceed the standards.”

Schools are judged to be failing or successful based on those scores.

The MEA was established in 1984 and revised in 1998 to test students on the new Learning Results. State officials predicted scores would remain flat as schools aligned their lessons to the standards, but they assured parents that students would improve after a few years.

That was six years ago.

This year, the statewide average math scores for all grades rose only one or two points. In a three-year trend, fourth-grade math scores rose four points – a significant amount, according to MEA Coordinator Brud Maxcy.

A few more students also started to meet the standards, particularly in fourth-grade reading and math and 11th-grade writing and math.

But even with those gains, most students didn’t fully meet the standards, no matter the subject or the grade tested.

“Sometimes, it’s really quite hard to dramatically improve scores,” Phillips said. “It’s sort of a very long-term process.”

Eighth-graders, who had state-issued laptops for two years, did not show much improvement in any subject. But the one-third of eighth-graders who used their computers for the writing portion showed higher scores, Phillips said.

Solutions

The Maine Department of Education still believes the MEA is a good test, but officials will consider whether the test is too hard. The evaluation was planned before the state received this year’s results, Phillips said.

The Department of Education also will consider a recent study that showed many schools have aligned their lessons with the Learning Results, but not completely. Students could be missing key skills tested by the MEA.

State officials also plan to meet with school systems that have improved their scores. They hope to learn what those schools have done and to share those practices with others.

Because MEA scores determine whether a school is deemed failing or successful, officials in both Lewiston and Auburn believe they’ll have schools on the “failing” list this fall. Both school systems fell below the state average.

In Lewiston, 100 percent of the city’s fourth-, eighth- and 11th-grade students took the test, a vast improvement over last year. But that also means 100 percent of the city’s poor, disabled and foreign-speaking students took the test – and those students generally perform worse than their classmates.

They can meet the standards, said Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque, but “our challenge is a little higher.”

Officials in both cities hope new lessons and programs will improve scores next year. “It’s like trying to get your house in order,” Levesque said. “It takes time.”