LEWISTON – Three Auburn schools, the same number as last year, made a list of poor performers released Thursday by the State Department of Education.
Lewiston High School made the list for the third year running, based on reading scores, but it was the only school in the city that didn’t pass muster. Last year, there were four.
That’s progress, according to Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.
“The good news is that schools are becoming more and more focused on their student populations,” Gendron said. “They’re developing plans to get better, and what we’re seeing now is good progress.”
In a list released Thursday, the Maine Department of Education ruled that 148 of the state’s 706 schools, about 21 percent, haven’t made the “adequate yearly progress” required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. They all need to get better or face consequences.
“All I can say is that we’re working very, very hard,” said Janice Plourde, curriculum director for the Lewiston school system. “We’re making every attempt, and it looks like we’re actually making some gains.”
Edward Little High School in Auburn has made the failing list for both reading and math scores three years running. School officials could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Tougher standards
The statewide failing list has more schools on it this year than it did last year, but that’s because the standards are tougher, Gendron said. Last year, 132 schools in the state failed to meet standards. The year before, 118 made the list.
“The first three years, the target for the schools was the same,” she said. “This year it climbs and better performance is expected.”
For example, before this year, about 44 percent of a high school’s 11th-grade students had to pass the reading portion of the test for the school to show progress. That changed this year. Now, half of 11th-graders had to pass. The percentage gets tougher on the schools each year through 2014, when 100 percent of students must pass.
“They’re still making progress, but we’ve raised the bar,” Gendron said.
Under the controversial federal law, enacted in 2001, schools can fail in dozens of ways. They make the state list if any students, including those in special education, don’t do well enough on any part of the state’s standardized test. They also make the list if fewer than 95 percent of their pupils take the test. Elementary schools are listed if they have poor average daily attendance. High schools are listed if they have a poor graduation rate.
Schools that fail for the first year are monitored and must develop a plan to improve. Schools listed for two years or more face greater consequences, including mandated tutoring.
In Buckfield, the high school made the list for reading, but that wasn’t a surprise, said SAD 39 Superintendent Rick Colpitts. School officials did their own assessments last year that showed literacy would be a problem.
“We’ve already started a literacy program that focuses on that like a laser beam,” he said. The district has brought in a literacy consultant and hired new staffers for reading programs.
“So we’re not disappointed we made the list,” he said. “Regardless of what the (adequate yearly progress) list said, we’ve already acted on our need.”
Colpitts said the adequate yearly progress list actually comes in too late to be much help. That’s a complaint Gendron is used to hearing, she said.
“We’re trying to get feedback to the schools earlier in the summer, but that’s something we haven’t been able to do,” she said. She hopes the state eventually will be able to release the list in July.
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