JAY — School Superintendent Bob Wall shared the results of the 2009-10 federal education report card with members of the School Committee on Thursday.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires all states, school districts and schools to provide annual report cards to parents and communities that include the Maine Comprehensive Assessment System data.

That data is broken down into subgroups, attendance and graduation rates, status of adequate yearly progress, and information on “highly qualified” teachers, according the Maine Department of Education.

The report card also displays statewide academic achievement results in grades four and eight on national assessments of reading and math, as well as the participation rates for students with disabilities and limited English proficiency on the exam.

All of Jay’s teachers are listed as highly qualified, according to information Wall shared with the board.

“It is important to know though achievement increases, we know our bar is higher every year,” Wall said.

Adequate yearly progress is how well districts are progressing in students being proficient in reading and math, he said. The goal is to have all students proficient in those subjects by 2013-14, he said.

The high school tested 96 percent of students, though the state required only 95 percent be tested.

Forty-four percent of those tested at Jay High School either met or exceeded reading proficiency. The state average was 48 percent, according to the data.

Thirty-one percent of those tested at that level also exceeded or met proficiency standards in math.

The high school level progresses at a slower pace, he said. One of the tests used at that level is the SATs. Educators are not in agreement that it’s the best way to test student achievement.

“There has been progress but it has been slower at the high school level,” Wall said.

The school may not be considered making annual yearly progress but could show it has made a certain percentage of increase, middle school Principal Scott Albert said.

School Committee Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce asked if there were strategies being put in place to help all students increase proficiency.

The high school has established Freshmen Academy and is working on individual and schoolwide strategies, Wall said.

With increasing budget constraints, some programs that would assist students are cut, high school Principal Gilbert Eaton said.

He said he is hoping with consolidation between Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls more of those types of programs will be implemented to reach more students.

What concerns him, Eaton said, is that high school students were four points lower than the state average of 48 percent, but the state’s goal is 71 percent.

He wondered if the state has set realistic goals, Eaton said.

There are successful students going through this system that will be successful in life, who quite frankly don’t show up that they have met or exceeded proficiency, Albert said.

The SAT is a national test designed to determine what colleges a student would go to, Eaton said. It was never designed to be a high school achievement test, he said.

At the elementary level, grades three through eight, 98 percent of the students were tested, three percent above what the state required.

Seventy-five percent of students tested in grade three either met or exceeded the benchmark in reading, which means they are at grade level or above, Wall said.

In grades four through eight, 81 percent of the students tested met or exceeded reading proficiency.

The state average for reading in grade three was 71 percent and 66 percent in grades four through eight.

In math, 74 percent of students in grade three who were tested exceeded or met math proficiency compared to the state average of 63 percent.

Sixty-two percent of those tested in math in grades four through eight exceeded or met proficiency compared to the state average of 61 percent.

dperry@sunjournal.com