OXFORD – Local educators have laid out a plan of action to address the district’s failure to meet the state’s adequate yearly progress benchmark under a new testing system.

“We know we need to do a lot of work,” Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School Principal Ted Moccia told SAD 17 directors at last week’s meeting.

The district joined the majority of 70 out of 118 schools statewide that did not make the mark on the Student Achievement Test earlier this month. According to the test results, 37 percent of OHCHS juniors failed to make AYP in the reading SAT and 41 percent failed to reach the benchmark in the math SAT. Statewide, 45 percent of students reached AYP in the reading SAT and 47 percent in the math SAT.

The state’s reading target was 50 percent and the math target was 20 percent. “As a whole school in math, we made AYP,” noted Kathy Elkins, SAD 17 curriculum coordinator.

Under the 2002 Federal No Child Left Behind Act, adequate yearly progress refers to the growth needed in the proportion of students who achieved the state benchmarks of academic proficiency.

Last year, the Department of Education mandated that all third-year high school students take the SAT in place of the week-long Maine educational assessment testing that had been used in the past. The move was part of a statewide educational reform strategy.

Last year, SAD 17 students met AYP in both math and reading under the Maine education assessment tests.

Department of Education officials said earlier this year that its purpose in using the SAT is to encourage all students in the goal of attaining college and high-level workplace readiness, plus to measure academic achievement. Most colleges require test results from the SAT for entrance.

Local educators said the performance factors were based on only one year of data with no “Safe Harbor” credit, which makes scoring allowances based on the number of students receiving special education and economically disadvantaged, available.

Paul Bickford, SAD 17’s coordinator of guidance and academics, said the two tests raise different bars for student achievement. While the MEA shows student achievement in mastering Maine Learning Results, the SAT is a college readiness test. “It’s an entirely different goal,” Bickford told SAD 17 directors.

Other educators agreed that to compare the two tests is difficult.

“It’s too much of a disconnect,” said Elkins.

Educators told SAD 17 directors that they have developed a series of initiatives to improve grades, including expansion of literacy studies by students behind grade level, more literacy training by tech staff, summer bridge courses for eighth-grade students deficient in math and a continuation of heterogeneous grouping in ninth grade math.

SAT preparation will also occur in daily curricular activities. There will be more advanced placement course offerings, a review of the program of studies to address equity issues, cross-school seminars for professional development in areas such as reading and writing, and a refinement of special education services and existing interventions.

Last month, junior class students were provided a series of workshops to enhance test-taking strategies for both English and math and other specific content material on the SAT during a two-week preparation session. They were also able to prepare for the SAT online through several Web sites.