School administrators in South Portland and Cape Elizabeth said the Maine Educational Assessment tests are “meaningless” for 11th-graders, a fact they say accounts for their high schools not making “adequate yearly progress.”

The middle and elementary schools in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland met all standards in reading and math this year, but both communities’ high schools were cited for low scores.

Scarborough High School and Wentworth Intermediate School met all standards, while Scarborough Middle School will require monitoring for reading skills in students with disabilities.

Scarborough Superintendent Bill Michaud said he is pleased with the high school and intermediate school results, but still wants to raise scores in all areas, particularly math.

He said he is not yet sure what the reason for the middle school result is. He said some students take an alternate test. Last year the school was also on monitoring status until the alternate test scores came in, at which point the school was removed.

South Portland High School did not meet standards as a whole in reading and two subgroups, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities, did not meet standards for math. Students with disabilities at Cape Elizabeth High School did not meet standards in reading.

Every year all fourth, eighth and 11th-graders in Maine take the MEAs to measure their progress toward the Maine Learning Results. More recently they have become the yardstick used by the federal government to measure school’s accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act. The MEAs break down the performance of schools, as well as subgroups within the schools, including economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency and racial minorities.

South Portland Superintendent Wendy Houlihan said the problem with the federal government using the MEA scores of 11th-graders to evaluate the performance of high schools is that the tests are “high-stakes” for the schools, but “no stakes” for the students. A student’s performance on the MEAs carries with it absolutely no implications: Colleges don’t look at the scores, they don’t determine whether a student can graduate and they don’t affect a student’s grades.

“If you don’t see the point in something, what’s your motivation to take it seriously?” Houlihan asked. Houlihan said the MEA results are taken seriously by school administration, but people need to know that “the MEAs are one piece of a larger assessment puzzle.”

State moves to SAT

Houlihan said she had sees a discrepancy in the results of the MEA and SAT scores, which are used by colleges in admissions decisions. While the entire South Portland High School has been cited for low reading scores “the SAT scores in verbal are progressing nicely,” she said. “I don’t know what that means.”

South Portland High School Principal Jeanne Crocker said the MEAs are “fairly meaningless” for the 11th-graders. “They have other fish to fry,” she said. Students are preparing for the SATs at the same time and are “tested out.”

Like Houlihan, Crocker questions the results. “The information we have may not be completely valid,” she said.

Maine Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron seems to agree. Starting this year the SATs will become the indicator test for 11th-graders, and will be used to rate school’s progress. The MEAs will remain in place for fourth and eighth graders, and there will be a new No Child Left Behind pilot test taken in third, fifth, sixth and seventh grades.

The change in tests was not designed to make it any easier on students, but rather to give teachers a break, according to Sen. Libby Mitchell, D-Kennebec, chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee.

“The timing is an unfortunate coincidence,” Mitchell said of the announcements last Thursday. The goal was to reduce the amount of time teachers have to spend giving and helping create the standardized tests, which for grades four and eight will remain the MEA.

The Department of Education said 75 percent of Maine high school students already take the SATs, so the state could build on that existing base and encourage more 11th-graders to think about college. SATs are generally required for college admission.

“I honestly don’t believe it is backing away from accountability,” Mitchell said. “Rather it’s accomplishing two things at once,” she said.

Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, a member of the Education Committee, agreed.

“I’m supportive of the move,” Turner said. “We already have a very significant percentage of 11th-graders taking the SAT. This allows us to use something, which I think is a good proxy for the MEA.”

Not only will it save a school day – SATs are given on Saturday – it also is vetted nationally. “You substitute a test that’s nationally recognized,” Turner said.

Mitchell said the SATs are tough. “It’s not the SAT many parents think about,” she said.

“There’s no desire on our part to lower the standards,” Mitchell said. “If the committee determines that it is, I don’t believe it will be accepted.”

The MEAs and now the SAT figure into No Child Left Behind because the federal law requires each school to show improvement each year based on the number of students who meet or exceed standards on a test. States are allowed to choose the test, and Maine’s MEA is considered a difficult one. Adequate yearly progress is based on the whole school and the sub-group test scores. The federal law also requires 95 percent participation.

In the first year of reporting on No Child Left Behind, schools failed because not enough kids took the test. This past year the participation rate was more than 99 percent.

Local reaction

Crocker is very pleased with the move from the MEAs to the SATs. She said having a test that is high-stakes for the students will yield more reliable results and will “send a message that we’re about preparing students for their post-secondary education.”

To work on the possible deficiencies in South Portland High School a literary specialist and a math specialist were hired to work with struggling students. They would mostly be working with freshmen, “that transition year,” Houlihan said, “when we really want to catch those kids.”

Extra classes are also offered to freshmen who are struggling with math or reading; they could double-up by taking a math or reading essentials class plus their basic freshman math or English class.

There is also a specialist at the middle schools who will target struggling students. “We really have to work as a system from the early years,” Houlihan said, “which is the charge school departments have these days.”

Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Alan Hawkins echoed the concerns of his colleagues in South Portland. He said “the MEAs are pretty meaningless,” for 11th-graders who know that MEA results do not affect them at all. Cape Elizabeth High School ended up on the list of schools not meeting “adequate yearly progress” for the first time because students with disabilities did not score well enough on their reading assessments.

He said the results will help the school staff work on providing for those students who are struggling. “Is there anything in our instructional model missing that will help (students with disabilities) perform better?” He asked.

Staff Writer Ken Tatro and Victoria Wallack of Statehouse News Service contributed to this report.