NORTH PROVIDENCE — After failing to make adequate progress in raising the scores of its special-needs students on statewide tests, the school district last week was cited as being one of 10 districts in the state needing state intervention.

The confirmation that the district had moved from “watch” status to “intervention” status came last week when North Providence High School was put on the list of schools making “insufficient progress.” The scores turned in by 10th graders in the special education program fell short of the target required in math and English language arts for the second year in a row.

The news followed a report of a similar situation in the town’s elementary schools. Although the six elementary schools had been classified as doing well individually — either as high or moderately performing schools on the basis of their students’ performance on the New England Comprehensive Assessment Program (NECAP) exams — they were downgraded as a group because their special-needs students, when added together, were found to be not doing as well.

Elliott Krieger, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the department automatically puts a district on “intervention” status when two or three of its components — elementary, middle or secondary — make insufficient progress two years in a row.

While districts that have been in intervention status for several years generally find themselves increasingly under the gun to improve or risk being put under tighter control by the state and having some of their federal aid channeled into alternative programs, Krieger said the state’s involvement is typically less severe in the first year.

North Providence is one of four districts, along with Cranston, Middletown and Newport that are entering intervention status for the first time. Others on the list are South Kingstown and West Warwick, which have been on the list one and three years respectively, Central Falls, Pawtucket and Woonsocket, which have been on the list for five, and Providence, which is in its sixth year of intervention.

During the next few weeks, Peter McWalters, the state commissioner of education, will assign a team to work with the district, which will then set up a series of meetings with school officials to help resolve issues and to provide whatever help they can.

At some point, says Krieger, the two sides will negotiate a district agreement, in which “the district will pledge to do certain things and the state will pledge to provide certain things.” In the first year, he said, “it’s pretty low-key.”

Joseph Goho, principal of North Providence High School, says that it’s hard for him to predict what sort of recommendations will emerge, given that the state Department of Education’s Office of Special Populations sent a team to study the district’s work with special-needs students last February and “came away with no major recommendations.”

“They came away impressed with what we do, and seemed to say we should continue what we’ve been doing,” Goho said.

There was one important recommendation that Goho says has been implemented. To bring more special-needs students out of their self-contained classrooms, the district hired another math teacher in September, and moved its 9th- and 10th-grade special education students into regular algebra classes with the idea that it might help them learn and perform better. It has also begun moving those same students into regular English classes, taught by a regular teacher and a special education teacher.

“It will take time,” said Goho, “but we hope to see improvements.”

Neither School Supt. Donna Ottaviano nor Assistant Supt. Robert J. Gerardi could be reached for comment, but acting School Committee Chairwoman Helen Reall said she understands that Ottaviano is preparing a report on the intervention and that Goho and Gerardi will make a presentation at the next School Committee meeting, on Jan. 23.

The latest test scores for the high school were based on performance by students on the New Standards Reference Exam which was administered last spring.

It marked the final year for the test, which had been in place for several years. Three months ago, students were administered the NECAP exams, which are being used in the middle and elementary schools.

Developed collaboratively by Rhode Island and two other New England states, the NECAP’s are seen by some to be better tools in helping teachers identify students’ needs.

rdujardi@projo.com / (401) 277-7384