LEWISTON – According to No Child Left Behind, the federal law that says every child must be proficient in reading and math for their grade level, four Lewiston schools aren’t making the grade.

Those schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress are Lewiston Middle, McMahon, Montello and Longley elementary schools.

According to schools Superintendent Leon Levesque, the standards are unfair to systems like Lewiston’s with diverse populations, and unfair to immigrant students who don’t know English but must take exams in English.

Learning a language “takes time,” he said. “They have one year to learn the language; that’s what it amounts to.” That’s not enough, he said.

The measuring process “ignores the good work and achievement our kids are making, that’s the sad part about it,” Levesque said. “My biggest comments to my administrators and staff is this is not a time to be discouraged. This is a time to be encouraged.” Lewiston students “are doing well in schools. This just happens to be the way the data is collected.”

Test scores from three of the schools, McMahon and Montello elementary and Lewiston Middle, show the schools made adequate yearly progress, according to the law, for the overall student body.

But when considering student subgroups as required by the law, the three schools did not make adequate yearly progress for limited English proficient students, or immigrant students, the bulk of whom are Somali.

Longley Elementary, an inner-city school with one of the highest poverty rates in Maine, did not make adequate progress for either the overall student body or students learning English.

As mandated, the four schools sent letters to parents explaining they did not meet standards. Parents who want their child transferred to another school should contact the principal, the letter said.

But that transfer offer was more a formality, according to Levesque, who said there’s no way many students could be transferred because most schools are already near capacity.

Since 1,500 letters went out, 11 have families contacted administrators. “In the end, we transferred four students,” Director of Curriculum Janice Plourde said.

When parents first heard their school did not made adequate yearly progress, “It’s ‘Oh, oh, this is terrible,'” Levesque said. “But when you dig deeper and understand why,” parents are less alarmed.

Lewiston Middle School Assistant Principal Scott Walker said he hasn’t heard from parents. His wife, Althea Walker, principal of the MacMahon school, heard from one father who complained that a single subgroup of students was unfairly singled out in the letter.

“He’s right,” Scott Walker said. “If you’re learning a language, how can you be expected to take a test in that language?”

Abdi Musa, the Lewiston School Department’s parent community specialist for immigrant students, said parents he’s spoken with are unhappy about the letter that went home. They objected that it singled out the limited English proficient and black African Americans as needing improvement in test scores.

Fears that their children will be blamed for schools not making adequate progress have raised tension, Musa said. “People are afraid.”

He’s explained to parents that the federal law calls for certain subgroups that are not passing be identified, Musa said. He’s reminded them that “we are all new to this country,” and the United States is helping them improve their lives. “This is the land of opportunity.”

Lewiston’s demographics show several schools have a high rate of poor students, and a high number of students learning English. “When you look at who we are relative to the state, we’re not average. We’re unique,” Levesque said.

Despite the high rate of impoverished students, all schools except Longley made adequate yearly progress for all students.

The city’s immigrant student population is about 800, or 20 percent of the student population. In the past year, 100 new immigrant students arrived at Montello, English Language Learning Office Director Susan Martin said.

The Lewiston schools that have demographics close to the state – Martel, Farwell and Pettingill – do well academically, Levesque said.

“That tells us our curriculum is aligned. We have good expectations. The standards are there,” Levesque said. “The staff is working very diligently and doing good work.”

Levesque said he welcomes accountability for his schools, “but we want to be accountable in a fair way. … Hopefully after the next (presidential) election whoever’s elected will take a look at this and correct this unfortunate legal mess.”