AUGUSTA -- Nearly 80 percent of 49 Augusta-area schools made "adequate yearly progress" in math test scores last school year, while 84 percent of those schools met the benchmark in reading, according to data released Monday by the state Department of Education.

The data released Monday put Augusta-area schools' marks above statewide numbers. Across the state, 62 percent of schools made adequate progress in improving student test scores.

State officials mined test data from the 2007-08 school year to determine which schools met the federally established benchmark. Public school students in grades 3 through 8 took standardized tests in math and reading. Grade 11 students took the SAT, which tests math, reading and writing.

Adequate yearly progress is a measure created by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, sweeping education legislation that became law in 2002 and required standardized testing for public school students in grades 3 through 8 and 11.

The number of schools statewide not meeting the federal benchmark this past school year increased over numbers released one year ago, according to the Department of Education.

In reading, 139 schools statewide did not make sufficient progress in testing during the 2007-08 school year, compared to 121 during the 2006-07 academic year.

In math, 117 schools did not meet the benchmark this year, compared to 74 last year.

Schools this year faced increasingly ambitious targets for making adequate yearly progress.

In reading, 57 percent of students had to meet or exceed test score expectations, compared to 50 percent the previous year.

In math, 31 percent of students had to meet or exceed expectations, compared to 20 percent last year.

By 2014, according to the Department of Education, adequate yearly progress targets will be based on 100 percent of students either meeting or exceeding expectations.

The state places schools not making sufficient test score progress for the first year on "monitor" status.

After two years of not meeting requirements, schools must implement plans and set aside funds for professional development opportunities for teachers, according to Rachelle Tome, a Department of Education official who works with schools on the "priority" list for not making adequate progress.

After three years of failing to make adequate progress, schools are required to offer parents the choice to transfer their children to a nonfailing school in the district -- if that choice is available -- and to offer students educational services, such as tutoring, outside school.

After five years of insufficient progress, Tome said, schools need to work with state officials to restructure in an effort to improve test scores.

"When they get to that point, then they really need to take a look at the organizational structure, the governance," Tome said.

Augusta-area school officials reached Monday said that, overall, they were encouraged by test scores but pointed out areas where their schools need to improve.

"When you look at the test and you mine the data, you can find some very exciting things happening in the schools," School Administrative District 16 Superintendent Donald Siviski said.

At Hall-Dale Elementary School, which serves Hallowell and Farmingdale students, 77 percent of students met or exceeded math expectations while 68 percent of students met or exceeded reading standards.

At the middle school level, 49 percent of students met or exceeded math benchmarks; 65 percent met or exceeded reading standards.

Still, for the first year, the elementary school did not make adequate yearly progress in reading, and the middle school did not meet the benchmark in math for the third consecutive year.

In both cases, the schools did not make adequate yearly progress when evaluating scores of students with disabilities.

"This is one piece of a large continuum of data," Siviski said. "It's a snapshot of one day's test. It's a compilation of a lot of small groups and our concern is that kids with disabilities are being held to the same standard as kids without disabilities."

In Augusta, Cony High School did not make adequate progress in either math or reading. The Department of Education cited insufficient participation in the SAT as a factor.

"That's something we need to work with kids and families on, and that is an expectation that they need to take the SAT even if they don't plan to go on to college," Augusta schools Superintendent Cornelia Brown said. "For some, that is a bit of a shock for them."

The 2007-08 school year was the third consecutive year in which Maine high school students took the SAT as the state's standardized test.

This past spring, Brown said, was the first year Augusta public schools encouraged adult students aged 16 to 20 to take the SAT and included their scores with the rest of the district's.

"That was a first for us," she said. "It was difficult to get students in that category to take the test. I think that's something that affected our participation scores and that's something we need to focus on this year."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com