The number of elementary schools meeting the requirements under No Child Left Behind has improved, with only 51 of the 516 schools tested failing to better their scores for 2006, as compared to 92 the year before.
What’s missing in the results released by the state Department of Education Monday are the scores for the state’s high schools, whose 11th-graders were given the SAT for the first time earlier this year as a replacement for the Maine Educational Assessment. The department said the SAT scores will be released at a later date.
A redesigned Maine Educational Assessment was given to all students in Grades 3 through 8 in March, and because the test was changed, educators caution about making comparisons between this year and last, when only fourth-, eighth- and 11th-graders were tested.
Next year’s results will be a more meaningful indicator of which schools have made so-called adequate yearly progress in improving their scores, as is required under the federal act.
This year, 26 schools serving either fourth- or eighth-graders failed to make adequate progress in improving their scores for the first time. Another 25 failed to make progress for the second, third or fourth year in a row and have been designated priority schools. Many of those schools were put on the list not for the entire class, but for smaller groups, like students with disabilities or those who are economically disadvantaged.
Those priority schools are the Fred Wescott School in Westbrook, for math scores for students with disabilities; Gorham Middle School, for reading scores for students with disabilities and math scores for students with disabilities and those who are economically disadvantaged; Lake Region Middle School, for reading scores for students with disabilities; Saco Middle School, for math scores for students with disabilities; Biddeford Middle School, for reading scores for students with disabilities.
Also, South School in School Administrative District 5, based on math scores for students with disabilities; Rockland Middle School, for reading scores for students with disabilities; Searsport Middle School, for math scores for students with disabilities; Ellsworth Middle School, for reading scores for students with disabilities; and Wiscasset Middle School, for reading scores for students with disabilities.
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