OXFORD — School officials say steps will be taken immediately to ensure that Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students make the grade.

The high school has been placed on the Continuous Improvement Priority School list by the Department of Education for not meeting adequate yearly progress requirements and the state expected graduation rate.

“The bottom line is the scores aren’t good,” Principal Ted Moccia said. Hew as referring to the SAT standardized tests that are owned and developed by the College Board and taken by juniors each year. The test results are used by many colleges and universities for admission and course placement.

According to information released at Monday night’s Board of Directors meeting, the high school did not meet adequate yearly progress in reading and mathematics in all three scoring categories: as a whole school, in the economically disadvantaged category and for students receiving special education category. The high school did not make annual yearly progress in math and reading as a whole school last year, placing the school on monitor status at that time.

The school did score higher than the state average in the economically disadvantaged category in both reading and math. In reading, 41 percent of the students passed as opposed to 33 percent statewide, and 36 percent passed in math as opposed to 30 percent statewide.

The state of Maine as a whole also did not make adequate yearly progress in the same categories, Curriculum Director Kathy Elkins said.

CIPS status means the school must show two years of improved scores going forward and must provide tutoring to those students who have not met adequate yearly progress.

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.

In 2006, the Maine Department of Education mandated that all third-year high school students take the SAT in place of the weeklong Maine Educational Assessment testing that had been used in the past. The move was part of a statewide educational reform strategy, but some school officials were critical of the move, saying the MEA showed student achievement in mastering the Maine Learning Results, while the SAT is a college-readiness test.

“We’re going to improve our results,” Moccia told the Board of Directors. He said the entire staff has to take responsibility for the low test scores, not just the junior class teachers, as has been suggested.

“We’re going to get some focus and go after it,” he said. While the teachers will not “teach to the test,” he said, data analysis will be done to find the gaps and teachers will then “teach to the gaps.”

“The idea in our school that it’s a junior (class) teaching issue, that has to change,” he said.

The immediate approach is to identify the students with the low test scores and to create minicourses on targeted skill building in a learning lab environment.

Next week the administration will meet with the high school staff to discuss the SAT data.

Elkins said the high school also did not meet the state mandated 83 percent graduation rate this year .

The high school was on monitor status last year and will continue on a CIPS 1 status. The status means that Title I funding is not available to the high school, but because the school receives no Title I funding, there are no financial consequences to the CIPS designation.

That does not mean there will not be financial consequences down the road, Elkins said.

“It is not clear if there will be consequences down the road if a non-Title I school continues not to make AYP… the state and federal Education Departments are hoping for a reauthorization of NCLB requirements with a transition to a growth model of accountability,” she said.

If the high school continues to not meet adequate yearly progress next year, it will be considered a CIPS2 school at that point — but again with no financial consequences because they do not receive Title I funds, Elkins said.

“Two years ago we were the only Class A school not a CIPS. Now we’re there,” Moccia said.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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