WESTBROOK – Test results at the junior high and high schools this year have continued to fall below state standards, but school officials say they are implementing changes they hope will lead to higher scores.

Last month, the Department of Education sent letters to schools throughout the state regarding their statuses under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Based on standardized test scores, both Wescott Junior High School and Westbrook High School did not make adequate yearly progress in math for two so-called subgroups – students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students. The high school did not make adequate yearly progress in reading for the whole student population.

This is the fifth year the junior high school has not met state targets in math. Though the high school made adequate progress in math last year, this is the fourth year the school did not meet the targets in reading.

“Student performances in the past three years show we have to do something different,” said Superintendent Reza Namin.

All four elementary schools, however, met standards in both reading and math, which has led Namin to believe there should be a greater focus on students transitioning from one school to the next.

“That’s what we need to study to see where the gap is,” he said.

The new superintendent said he’d like to provide more time for teachers from the different schools to meet before the year begins to talk about students.

“We need to know our students better academically and emotionally,” he said.

Namin said about 50 percent of the district’s population is part of the free and reduced lunch program. Because economically disadvantaged students were one of the groups not meeting standards, he said he thinks the schools need to do a better job of reaching out to parents and figuring out what external factors may be influencing the students’ performance in school.

Principals at both the junior high and high school say they’re studying the standardized test results and trying to figure out where students need more support.

For Brian Mazjanis, principal at Wescott Junior High, that’s meant making some changes to the school’s math program in terms of when during the year certain skills are taught.

There are already options for students to get extra academic support, including learning labs during the school day and additional help time on Saturdays. Mazjanis said the school needs to figure out which kids are in need of the extra help and make sure they’re getting it.

Though Mazjanis said he hopes the school’s test scores improve and is hopeful that they will, having to examine what changes could be made to the curriculum to improve student performance is a positive thing.

“It’s a good process to help us really look at what we’re doing,” he said.

At the high school, Principal Marc Gousse said there are programs in place, as well, to help boost students’ reading ability. The school last year started offering an intensive reading and writing workshop that’s become increasingly popular with students.

Also beginning last year, the school changed its schedule to increase the amount of days students are in each of their teachers’ classrooms – a change that the school had been studying for five years prior.

“I never like to do a knee-jerk reaction to anything,” said Gousse. “You have to look at things holistically.”

In addition, Cari Sbardella, head of the high school’s English Department, said she’s been changing the curriculum to make the books the students read more relevant to them. She said the department has added titles by Frank McCourt, Jon Krakauer and Jodi Picoult into its reading list with the hope of engaging more students.

“You’re not going to raise test scores demanding that kids read Shakespeare if they’re not into reading,” Sbardella said.

According to Rachelle Tome, Maine’s coordinator for No Child Left Behind, the Department of Education will release statewide statistics on schools’ progress next week. She said it’s ultimately up to the commissioner whether sanctions need to be placed on schools that are not making adequate yearly progress. Most important, she said, is that the schools have plans for improving and are communicating those plans to the Department of Education.

With several initiatives in place as the new superintendent of Westbrook schools this year, Namin is taking on the challenge of affecting change, and time will tell if his adjustments to the district make a difference.

“You can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over,” he said.