South Portland High School was among 51 high schools the Maine Department of Education identified as not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two or more years, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
    The 2006-2007 AYP status of Maine high schools was determined by the results of the 2006 administration of the SAT to all third year public high school students in Maine. 2006 was the first year that the SAT reasoning test was used as the state high school assessment for NCLB. Previously the grade 11 MEA was used as the state assessment for this purpose. For this year’s reporting Maine used only one year of assessment data because of the use of the new test. Previously, years two years of data were used.
    To achieve AYP status, each school must meet the proficiency target for the whole school and for five subgroups, including American Indian/Alaskan Native, African American/Black, economically disadvantaged, limited English proficient, and students with disabilities. To make AYP, the students in the five subgroups, as well as the whole school, must achieve targets in both reading and math.
At SPHS, the “economically disadvantaged” and “students with disabilities” subgroups failed to make AYP for four consecutive years in reading and economically disadvantaged students failed to make AYP for two consecutive years in math. The previous year the whole school was identified as not making AYP for three years.
    The target for reading was 50 percent of students being determined “proficient” (meeting or exceeding the standards); in math it was 20 percent. If any one of the subgroups does not reach the target in either content area, the school does not make AYP.  In the first year, the school would go on “monitor” status and if it does not meet the target a second year in a row, it goes to “Continuous Improvement Priority School” status.
    The 2005-06 results would normally have been released last fall, but because of the shift to the SAT and a federal review of that test’s use as a high school assessment, the AYP results were delayed.
    Cape Elizabeth High School was one of the 36 of the state’s 118 public high schools that made AYP for both reading and math. Nineteen schools did not make AYP for the first time.
    Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the results provide vital information for high schools about which student populations are not performing to targets, and the number of schools not reaching the targets shows the need for action on high school reform. All schools will be required to meet 100 percent proficiency in whole group and all subgroups by 2014 under current federal law, though there are some efforts in Congress to make adjustments, according to the Dept. of Education.
    “The failure of many schools to meet the required targets is consistent with our position that schools are not meeting standards for all sub groups and that more work is necessary to bring all students to a higher level of achievement,” Gendron said. “The data gathered in the AYP process is extremely beneficial in helping schools to develop strategies for addressing academic achievement.”
    Gendron said school districts and the Department of Education have been working to promote curriculum reforms in high schools to better prepare students for college, career and citizenship, including the commissioning of a study last year to examine why Maine’s test scores, once the highest in the nation, have remained flat while other states’ scores have climbed. AYP results for 2005-06 can be viewed at: www.maine.gov/education/pressreleases/ayp/fy2007/0607grade11.rtf