Despite some student resistance and new costs, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School is making progress with a new program to help lagging students show test improvements — which now is mandatory before they can get a diploma, guidance director Michael McCarthy told the high school committee Monday night.

“[Students] can’t graduate just by passing the MCAS anymore,” said Mr. McCarthy, referring to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests. “If we cannot prove that they have moved toward proficiency, then they cannot graduate.”

Massachusetts enacted the Educational Proficiency Plan (EPP) two years ago as a result of the federal No Child Left Behind demands for better performance on standardized tests such as the MCAS.

Now students who fall within the ‘needs assessment’ category in the MCAS take extra classes to improve their scores.

And because the programs are not funded by the state, the school has had to absorb the cost of installing a full-time and part-time teacher for the seven EPP classes offered.

Mr. McCarthy said that while students have shown some resistance to the program, it has forced them to take their test performances more seriously.

And as the students struggle to adjust to the mandate, so too does the staff. “We’re infants in this,” Mr. McCarthy said. “This is only our second year doing it. We’re developing it as we go along.”

In other business, high school administrators announced individual town contribution assessments for the fiscal year 2011 budget.

The assessments are as follows: Aquinnah, $250,771; Chilmark; $487,581; Edgartown, $3,243,939; Oak Bluffs, $3,609,177; Tisbury, $3,190,717; and West Tisbury, $2,173,732.

Assessments for Aquinnah, Chilmark and Edgartown have decreased over fiscal year 2010, while assessments for Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury have gone up between some four and eight per cent.

This year’s assessments total almost $13 million for all towns, an increase of roughly $476,000, or 3.68 per cent over the previous year.

According to an annual enrollment report by the New England School Development Council, enrollment at Island schools is expected to remain stable next year, and the high school is expected to see a long-term enrollment increase. The report forecasts another 30 students per year over the next decade.

The council’s projections for enrollment in grades nine through 12 for the fall of 2009 matched the actual number exactly — 708 students.

In the future, enrollment in up-Island schools is expected to remain stable; Edgartown and Tisbury are expected to show small growth. Increases are forecast for both the high school and the Oak Bluffs School over time.

“It’s the trend line that you look for, not the small ups and downs,” said Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss.

The trend is attributed partly to an increase in the number of births on the Island.