BETHEL – Lee Graham was disappointed with the recent results of SAD 44’s Telstar High School 11th-grade SAT scores in reading, writing and mathematics. But the district’s K-12 curriculum coordinator also said by phone Tuesday afternoon that she didn’t hold much stock in solitary test comparisons.

“The targets are arbitrary and, they don’t compare one child’s growth educationally with his or her growth next year,” Graham said. “They look at all 11th-graders one year, and then, an entirely different group the next year. So, they’re never measuring if any one child learns anything. They should look at all data, but there’s too many factors in kids’ learning to put much faith in any one test.”

Of 66 Telstar high school juniors tested for five hours last May, they averaged 428 points in critical reading, 407 in mathematics, and 398 in writing. Although the reading score was 15 points below the state average of 443 points, the math and writing scores each missed the state average marks of 444 in math and 435 in writing by 37 points.

“How our kids do on the SAT is just one score from one test taken on a Saturday in May. I’m disappointed. I’d like to think we can do better. We need to look at all of our data and improve our literacy. But, I’m not shocked or surprised by it. I would also suspect that we’re not a long ways off from other schools in our area,” Graham said.

Additionally, because Maine decided to use the SAT, an assessment of college readiness as its yearly proficiency assessment to meet standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, all of Telstar’s juniors tested last year were expected to hit arbitrary targets.

In 2005-06, the arbitrary annual yearly progress goals for a percentage of students meeting or exceeding the standard were 50 percent in reading and 20 percent in mathematics. The third annual yearly progress criterion is that a high school’s graduation rate had to be 63 percent or better.

Both Telstar’s juniors, as a whole, and Maine missed the target in reading, with Telstar scoring 36 percent and the state tallying 45 percent. But, the Bethel 11th-graders topped the second target of 20 percent in math, scoring 30 percent compared to 47 percent proficiency statewide.

And, Telstar’s graduation rate of 78 percent compares to the statewide average of 87 percent, according to a data sheet given Monday to SAD 44 directors at their monthly school board meeting.

The federal act’s basic philosophy, Graham said, is that every child in the nation must meet these standards by 2014. However, each state can set its own graduated scale to get there.

Last year was the first that all but the most profoundly handicapped SAD 44 11th-graders took the SAT. Previously, Graham said, only 60 percent of Telstar’s juniors took the college assessment tests. The district also hadn’t traditionally prepared students to take the SAT until this year.

Superintendent David Murphy said Friday that the high school must address literacy by analyzing data from the SAT and another national assessment test, create a literacy improvement plan and accept the responsibility for improvement. Graham said she is also working on curriculum instructional strategies and trying to improve test-taking skills of students.

This year, they’ve also prepared 11th-graders for SATs. Juniors take the exam Saturday.

Both Graham and Murphy said they expect students’ scores to improve yearly.