After Westbrook High School failed to meet federal standards in the latest round of standardized testing, some high school students and administrators are questioning whether the tests provide an accurate picture of the school.

Westbrook High was recently placed on monitoring status for not meeting federal No Child Left Behind Act standards in reading. Principal Marc Gousse said just the school’s economically disadvantaged students failed to meet the standards. Because one small group of students did not meet the standards on the test, he said, doesn’t mean it’s fair to characterize the entire school as failing.

“We’re not a failing school,” Gousse said. “We’re talking about a slice of the pie, let’s look at the whole pie.”

Taking the tests seriously

While the school is concerned about the test scores, some students say because the tests are not required for graduation, students don’t feel like the tests matter to them and as a result, they don’t prepare for them as seriously as they do for the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Unlike the Maine Educational Assessments, which are used to determine a school’s progress, the SATs are also examined by a majority of colleges and universities as part of the application process. With this in mind, the state is switching the way it tests 11th graders by dropping the current test and substituting the SAT in its place.

Students said some kids have a tendency to blow off the state tests because there is nothing in it for them. While schools can continue to stress the importance of the MEAs, some high school students simply will not put the effort into the tests as they would if the results were going to have a direct effect on their future. “I think people focus or study more for the SAT due to the fact they know colleges are looking for it,” said senior Chad Cleaves. “I don’t think people take the MEAs as seriously if they are not going to look at them.”

When he took the test with the rest of his class last March, senior Anthony Dahms said he tried his best, but he added he didn’t think the results had much of an effect on his future. “To me they weren’t that important,” he said. “I know colleges don’t really look at them and it doesn’t really mean that much to me.”

Senior Vanessa Enman said she treated the Maine Educational Assessment test as practice for the SAT. She also put some extra work into the test after Gousse talked to her class about how important the test results were for the school.

“I took them a little more seriously because I was trying to prepare for the SATs because I know colleges take them really seriously,” Enman said. “And when Mr. Gousse talked to us about the MEAs, I wanted to try and help the school do well. So I took them more out of consideration for Mr. Gousse than I did for myself.”

Aware that many students do not care how the school does on the state tests, many schools have tried many different approaches to get the kids to do their best. Some schools have special celebratory assemblies after the test for the kids that have worked hard on the test.

In Westbrook the school grants extended senior privileges to students whose test scores meet or exceed standards. The privileges allow students with study halls in the first or last periods of the school day to arrive later or leave early. Usually, this privilege is available to all seniors during the second half of the year, but seniors who do well on the tests are given the privilege during the first month of school.

Incentives like that work for many students, but there are still some who just don’t care about the test. “A lot of them don’t take them very seriously or study,” Enman said. “They just go through the motions.”

Students also questioned whether the tests gave a fair picture of what kids were learning.

Enman said she took geometry last year, and despite that, she struggled with that part of the test. “The people that didn’t take geometry, I don’t know how they got through it,” she said. “I don’t think it’s set up fairly. How do they measure the whole school if everyone’s not at the same level?”

Dahms said he felt the current test did not take into account that not all students were taking the same classes at the same level. “The test is saying all the kids are on the same level, and they don’t look at what classes the kids are really in,” he said.

Because the MEA is a standardized test, it is difficult to develop a test that is completely applicable to students at all levels. Keeping that in mind, schools have begun to turn to other tests to help augment the MEA results when it comes to charting student progress. In Westbrook, one of the tests being used at the high school is a computerized test that has the capability to adjust the difficulty of the test depending on the student taking it. The other advantage of the computerized testing is that teachers have almost instant access to the results and are able to see where a student may need extra help.

Switch to SATs

In an effort to give the annual tests more meaning for the students and provide better results to the schools, the state Department of Education is going to substitute the SAT in place of the MEA with the state paying the cost of the test.

In a letter to school administrators, Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron said because so many students believe their SAT scores play a big role in their post-high school future, having students take the SAT will provide a better snapshot of student progress because kids will want to score as high as they can on the test.

Cleaves said he thought scores will start to come up as kids strive to score as high as they can on the SAT. “I think everyone will take it more seriously,” he said.

While he wants to see the school’s scores improve, Gousse is concerned about the plan to switch to the SAT. He is not sure how the scores from the Maine Educational Assessment and the SATs could be compared, and he is concerned that the school will be evaluated based on results from two different tests. “This is high stakes stuff,” Gousse said. “I need to know what the ground rules are.”

Dan Hupp, a Maine Department of Education math specialist, said there shouldn’t be a problem comparing the scores of the two tests because from the state’s point of view they are equivalent, said Hupp. “Both of the tests are rigorous,” he said. “The material is basically the same.”

Looking to improve

While the school is looking forward to the next round of state testing, the high school’s staff is constantly looking at ways to improve test scores. The school is putting a heavy emphasis on reading, something the students confirmed.

“Teachers really push reading,” said Enman.

In addition to working at the high school level, school administrators are looking at easing the transition from junior high to high school. The high school is looking at dividing incoming freshmen classes into academic teams, which would share the same core group of teachers. Gousse said this would allow teachers to keep a closer eye on student progress and be able to easily identify students that need extra help.

While he knows there is always room for improvement, Gousse is generally pleased with student progress at the high school. “I’m proud of the kids,” he said. “I think we’re getting it done. Can we do better? Yes. And we’re going to.”

Westbrook High School senior Anthony Dahms looks over a textbook. Dahms said the recent round of Maine Educational Assesment testing showed that some students are not taking the test seriously, and as a result the school’s scores are suffering.Westbrook High School seniors (from left) Anthony Dahms, Vanessa Enman and Chad Cleaves all said that while they took the Maine Educational Assesment seriously, they felt some students don’t care about the test since it doesn’t have the effect on their future that the SAT does.

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