PROVIDENCE — Only 10 percent of the public school district’s 11th graders passed the state’s new math test, although Providence wasn’t alone in doing poorly on the assessment.

Across the board, the city’s public high schools scored in the single digits on the math portion of the New England Common Assessment Program, a test that was developed several years ago in conjunction with New Hampshire and Vermont to measure competency in math, reading and writing.

In Central Falls, only 3 percent of juniors scored proficient in math while in Pawtucket, only 12 percent reached the standard. And the state average — 22 percent — wasn’t much better.

Even at Hope High School, the district’s poster child for success, no students in the Arts Academy reached proficiency in math; 1.1 percent did in the Information Technology Academy and 3.5 percent reached proficiency in the Leadership Academy.

At a State House news conference yesterday, Governor Carcieri and state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters said there are several reasons for the dismal test scores. First, the NECAP is much harder than the previous math test, the New Standard Reference Exam. The new test places much more emphasis on higher-order math skills such as math concepts and problem-solving. The previous test focused more on basic skills, according to Mary Ann Snider, the head of assessment for the state Department of Education.

Carcieri said he was disappointed but not surprised by the poor math performance because fewer than half of the state’s districts have adopted more rigorous math standards, called grade-level expectations, which were established a few years ago.

Expressing his disappointment in the math scores, Providence Supt. Donnie Evans said he doesn’t yet have a full understanding of why Providence high school juniors performed so dismally in math and writing. (Only 27 percent reached proficiency in writing compared to 37 percent for the state).

Forty-five percent of the city’s 11th graders scored proficient in reading:

“That is a major accomplishment,” he said. “When was the last time that happened?”

The state score, however, was 61 percent

Also, Evans said that this is the first time that high school juniors have taken the new test, whereas younger students have been taking the NECAP for three years.

“In my 36 years in education,” he said, “I’ve given the test and administered the test. In every case, whenever a new test was introduced, the first year has always been lower than expected. In my opinion, the first year doesn’t fully capture what children know.”

One of the city’s biggest challenges is that high schools lack a uniform curriculum in virtually every subject, including math, according to Sharon Contreras, the district’s chief academic officer. Without a core curriculum, she said, it’s difficult for teachers to create consistent expectations. The lack of continuity is particularly problematic in a district like Providence, where students move frequently.

Meanwhile, the School Department has hired a private consulting firm to evaluate overall curriculum and consultants are visiting schools this week. Contreras said that the group will issue its recommendations in a couple of months.

Another challenge, Evans said, is that many math teachers haven’t been trained to teach basic skills as well as higher-level math in the same classroom. This combination of skills is particularly crucial in urban schools because students often arrive in ninth grade performing well below grade level.

Arthur Petrosinelli, principal of Hope High School’s Technology Academy, said there hasn’t been a focus on math education since Michael Lauro, the district’s director of math instruction, left in August, adding that math teachers haven’t received the sustained instruction needed to boost student performance. Conteras agreed, saying that there really hasn’t been any training in grade-level expectations for math.

With the state facing a record budget crisis, Contreras said that the district will classify all high schools as Title I schools, making them eligible for a new stream of federal money.

Contreras said that the district also wants to introduce a series of steps to improve high school performance and these measures will be submitted to the Department of Education as part of the district’s corrective action plan. McWalters last year placed the district under corrective action because the majority of the schools failed to make adequate yearly progress on standardized tests for several years in a row.

With help from the Department of Education, the district hopes to adopt:

•A core curriculum for all high schools.

•Intervention programs in reading and math in the secondary schools.

•Assessments to identify student weaknesses at an early stage.

•Formal ninth-grade transition programs.

•More professional training in reading and math.

“This is a call to action,” Contreras said. “We’ll make certain that this is part of our corrective action plan.”

lborg@projo.com