Goffstown School District has won an appeal to the state Department of Education to be removed from a list of districts in need of improvement, the superintendent of schools said.

However, the town’s high school is still considered a school in need of improvement, Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood said.

The district’s listing as being in need of improvement came due to adequate yearly progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind act.

Under the provisions of that act, students are divided into subgroups, and students in all categories must show adequate progress in standardized testing each year. Districts are listed as needing improvement if they miss the progress requirements for elementary/middle school students and high school students two years in a row for the same subject.

Goffstown High School failed to make adequate yearly progress in math due to the performance of high school students in the educationally disabled subcategory, Lockwood said.

High school results are based on New Hampshire Education Improvement and Assessment Program tests, which were administered in May 2005.

The Department of Education reversed Goffstown’s status as a district in need of improvement due to the “safe harbor” clause of the act, Lockwood said.

Under that clause, schools which have 10 percent fewer students scoring below cutoff points than the previous year achieve adequate yearly progress.

School board Chairman Keith Allard has said a committee has been organized to address the needs of students that have been underperforming. That committee is composed of educators from each one of the schools in the district and has met twice thus far. The group, facilitated through a $5,000 grant, will present its recommendations in the spring, Allard said.