LEWISTON (AP) – A private school continues to rankle Florida officials by granting diplomas to high school students who have failed to graduate after flunking assessment exams in their home state.

For a charge of $444, the North Atlantic Regional High School allows students to transfer credits and receive diplomas. The school, which is located in an old mill and caters to home-schooled students, doesn’t require a passing grade on Florida’s tests.

Steve Moitozo, founder of North Atlantic Regional Schools, said he is merely helping students who have been let down by the Florida public school system. Moitozo said he is against tests that hold back students just because they are bad at taking tests.

The tests “have morphed into deciding whether an individual is entitled to a high school diploma,” Moitozo said.

But critics say North Atlantic is exploiting a loophole in Florida’s graduation standards. They question the value of a diploma from the school, which has not been approved by the state of Maine.

“We firmly believe that a diploma in Florida should have meaning behind it, and these students have not demonstrated that they have mastered the skills that we think are important for success in life,” said Florida Education Commissioner John L. Winn.

For the past two years, Florida has required that students pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test before they can graduate. Last year, when about 150,000 students graduated from Florida public high schools, more than 10,000 high school seniors failed either the reading or math portion of the test.

Half the states now require students to pass high school exit exams to graduate, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act subjects students to annual testing in English and math to make sure they meet state standards.

The era of assessment standards promises to help private schools such as North Atlantic, which awards credits and diplomas based on assessments of the students’ work by a team of about 25 certified teachers. It is accredited by the National Private Schools Accreditation Alliance in Orlando, Fla., which is not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

So far, about 400 students in Florida schools have obtained diplomas from North Atlantic. A graduation ceremony for 92 students took place in Miami last year, and another is planned this year.

Not everyone in Florida is upset with North Atlantic.

Jean-Rene Foureau, a social studies teacher at Miami Edison Senior High School and head of the Haitian Refugee Center, said North Atlantic is making post-secondary education possible for many Haitian immigrants. Foureau said those students had earned all their high school credits but could not graduate because they were failing the English portion of the tests.

“It has been a tragedy for these students who performed in school, had good grades and then at the last minute were stopped from getting higher education,” Foureau said.