Lakes Region Principal Roger Lowell, who is losing his job based on past results, is buoyed.

NAPLES – It turns out Roger Lowell, the veteran principal of Lake Region High School, was right.

On April 26, the day the School Administrative District 61 board accepted his retirement, as well as millions of dollars in federal money to reorganize curriculum in hopes of elevating SAT test scores in the district, Lowell predicted that “the kids (would) prove everyone wrong” and do well on May 1’s SAT test.

True to Lowell’s prediction, the 11th-grade students did much better on this year’s SATs, reversing the three previous years of less-than-stellar scores that helped to land the district on the now-infamous top 10 list of persistently lowest performing schools in Maine.

“To me, this speaks well of the kids and the people who believed in the school through the whole process. Those people had some faith in us, and those who didn’t, well, they may have to do some soul-searching,” Lowell said.

Lowell has received the reading, writing and math scores from the May 1 test. The science portion of the SAT, scores which don’t factor into the state’s formula determining the lowest performing schools, have yet to come back, Lowell said.

While scores for some students who were either sick or failed to show up for the May 1 test have yet to be tabulated – those will be published in August – the results are significantly up from previous years. In reading, the junior test-takers averaged a score of 451, compared to 439 last year. In math, the students averaged 431, compared to last year’s 414. In writing, which also does not factor into the state’s ranking, the Laker juniors averaged a 438, a full 20 points higher than last year.

The scores are good enough to get Lake Region back into the state average, Lowell said.

“We’re up to state average, well out of the danger range,” he said.

Lowell’s last day is June 30. As part of the school district accepting the federal No Child Left Behind funds, the 13-member SAD 61 board had to fire the principal and bring in education consultants, whose goal is to raise standards at the school and help Lake Region improve.

Lowell, who shouldered the responsibility of the poor scores and announced his year-end retirement prior to the school board’s discussion April 26, is happy to see the improved SAT results and questions whether “the whole crazy process” did more harm than good.

“I feel this begs the question, what was the point of everything? A lot of people around the state don’t know us, and the only way they can judge us is by one test. Some local people condemned us as well, so to be able to turn that around, it’s really rewarding,” Lowell said.

And Lowell gives the credit to the students.

“When the news went out (of the top 10 designation), I think the kids became more concerned about their academic level of accomplishment,” Lowell said. “They stepped up to the plate, and they produced. I’m really proud of them for doing that.”

Superintendent Patrick Phillips used the educational term “consequential validity” to describe a likely cause of the increased scores this year.

“For a test to be an effective measure, there has to be consequences that are understood in order to motivate a student to do his or her best,” Phillips said. “A lot more kids showed up prepared to take the test seriously, so it stands to reason the results would be better.”

Another factor into why students scored higher than in previous years, Phillips proposed, is that a different set of students were tested this year. He called this year’s juniors “a pretty good group. That’s always a variable to keep in mind.”

He also believes the embarrassment that has come upon students, through taunts on social networking websites and even in the stands at athletic contests, may have sparked an extra effort on May 1.

“Through interviews performed by the (Lake Region High School) Status Committee, the kids said they felt embarrassed and unfairly singled out. And that probably motivated them as well,” Phillips said.

Phillips isn’t going so far as to say the scores are a “vindication of Roger,” but instead said, “This is a single data point. Remember this was a three-year tabulation. And this is one-third of what the school was judged on. So I take little comfort in one year (of scores). The true test will be what happens in the future, when there’s not a spotlight” on Lake Region High School.

Phillips, who served in the Maine Department of Education under former Commissioner Susan Gendron, said he doesn’t believe the state is correct in judging schools – and determining which districts receive federal money – based on two portions (math and reading) of the SAT.

“I feel it would be wise for the department (of education) to base their determination on a wider set of criteria, a matrix taking into consideration such things as graduation rate, drop-out rate, college enrollment and test scores, rather than using a single data point,” Phillips said.

Concerning the search for a new high school principal, Phillips said he will be conducting interviews over the course of the next few weeks and that “we do have some highly qualified candidates” who have applied for the position.