Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard's recent story about how more than three-quarters of the state's eighth-graders failed the writing portion of the state's Maine Educational Assessment was, in my opinion, an excellent example of watchdog newspaper journalism.

In mid-August, the state released its MEA results. Buried in the press release was a paragraph that said the state was withholding the results of a portion of the MEA results because they were inconclusive.

Most media outlets - ours included - reported that fact in the context of their next-day stories on the results. But Kelley didn't forget about the omission. Instead, she immediately filed a Right-to-Know request with the state for the missing results, as well as any communications within state government about them.

The result was her story, which ran above the fold on the front page of the Telegram and was copied - without reference to Kelley's shoe-leather reporting - by area TV and radio stations.

I asked Kelley to share some of her thoughts about the reporting of this story, which I believe broke new ground in the reporting on the issue of standardized testing in Maine. Here's what she had to say:

WHAT MADE YOU PURSUE THIS AS A STORY?
I was shocked that the department decided to withhold certain test results from the public. I understood that federal education officials don't require annual writing assessments, and so they wouldn't care if the state tossed the results. Still, anytime a public institution tells me I can't have information, it makes me want it all the more. So, I immediately filed a formal request under Maine's Freedom of Access Act for all documents and communications related to the eighth-grade writing test results.

WHAT OBSTACLES DID YOU FACE?
Once I sent the letter, department officials were very cooperative. They provided the information a few weeks later and did several interviews, including an hour-long conference call with the commissioner and her staff. The greatest challenge after that was to put the results in some real, simple context that made sense. That meant I had to learn something about testing practices and education regulations, which are extremely complicated at both the state and federal levels.

WHAT DID YOUR LEARN DURING THE REPORTING THAT YOU FOUND PERSONALLY INTERESTING?
I was impressed that the state now requires districts to teach persuasive, critical, academic writing by sixth grade. When I was a student in Lewiston schools, more than a few years ago, we started thesis writing as high school freshmen, and the process was nowhere near as intensive as it is under Maine Learning Results and the MEA/SAT.

Also, I was amazed, after all the controversy over No Child Left Behind, that each state establishes its own performance standards in reading and math and creates the tests used to assess whether students are meeting those standards. So, while some people use No Child Left Behind data to compare student performance from state to state, that's not really possible because they're not being taught and tested the same.

WHAT'S THE RESPONSE BEEN TO THE STORY?
I was surprised that it drew so much interest. The whole time I was reporting and writing the story, I was concerned that few people would want to read about a failed standardized test question. I think that pushed me to try to make sure the story would be relevant to readers. I hope government officials realize that it's better and easier to be up front with public information, good or bad, so reporters don't have to jump through hoops to get it and they don't have to deal with the fallout. Because eventually, we will get it.

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