The Bow and Hopkinton school districts both had blemishes on their adequate yearly progress reports recently released by the state.

Bow Elementary School did not meet the state’s criteria in the reading category, while in Hopkinton both Harold Martin and Maple Street schools fell short in reading.

Students across the state in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 were given the NECAP test in fall 2007. Students’ progress at the school and district level is measured based on the results and students are broken into different subgroups, including special education and economically disadvantage, for analyzing the performance of particular groups of students.

If one of those subgroups fails to meet the bar in a particular subject area, the entire school is considered not having made adequate yearly progress. If a school fails to meet those standards for two years in a row, it earns a “school in need of improvement” designation. Such a school needs to make adequate yearly progress for two years in a row to exit that status.

High school students across the state were not tested last year to allow a transition from spring to fall testing, but high schools retained whatever status they earned from the prior year’s adequate yearly progress results.

In most cases, school officials say, the special education subgroup caused the school to miss the mark, which was the case in Bow and Hopkinton.

“We were disappointed that the elementary school didn’t pass AYP. We’re not panic-stricken yet,” said Bow Superintendent of Schools Dean Cascadden. “We have a number of initiatives we’ve been putting on. In the budget this year, we put an additional special education teacher, so we’ve had our eye on this area. It’s an area we’re going to pay attention to and have a response plan we’re ready to put into place.”

Hopkinton Superintendent of Schools Brian Blake said the district will analyze the results, but is cautious not to overreact.

“Overall, I don’t place a ton of weight in the results. That’s one assessment of several that students take,” said Blake. “We’re looking at the results, and looking to further help the students who didn’t do as well as we had hoped.”

Blake said there are several areas the school looks at to assess student performance.

“We look at not only the NECAP, but student grades in the courses they’re taken, the assessments given by students’ reading inventory,” he said. “We look at all of the data in terms of how we can help our students learn the information better.”

None of the schools are designated as a “school in need of improvement” because it was the first time coming up short on the test for each.

Cascadden said he is pleased to see Bow Elementary students improved in math over last year’s results.

“This year, their math scores were a definite increase. You have an issue, you look at it, and, hopefully, you get a good response. Our score increased significantly because we’re paying attention to it,” said Cascadden.

“No one wants to not make AYP, but if it’s an area we need to work on we’ll put a plan together, pay attention to it and we’ll be tested again this October.”