AUGUSTA, Maine — Call it a public relations campaign that just might work.
After the Maine Department of Education released its list of 10 persistently low-achieving schools last spring, it triggered a wave of outrage, shock and soul-searching around the state. On Tuesday, officials seem to have intentionally turned the temperature down as they released this year’s list.
“We are not huge fans of the way this list is developed, but it does allow us to provide some resources for meaningful school reform to those schools on the list,” Stephen Bowen, the new education commissioner, said in a press release. “What’s important is not how schools get on the list, or whether the list even makes sense. What’s important is the opportunity that is created by the list for some significant influx of funds to the school.”
The list now identifies Maine’s “ten improvement schools” that are eligible to apply for a share of about $4 million in federal grants to fund plans geared toward fostering student achievement. They are ranked under federal guidelines and must meet a series of detailed criteria to make the list, according to the department, which emphasized that in fact they are not the lowest-performing schools in the state.
The 10 improvement schools are East End Community School in Portland, Oak Hill High School in Wales, Fort Kent Community High School, Ellsworth High School, Southern Aroostook Community School in Island Falls, Hodgdon High School, Madison Area Memorial High School, Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, Georges Valley High School in Thomaston and Lawrence High School in Fairfield.
The Department of Education is making the entire school achievement and progress list available on its website.
For Dr. Patrick O’Neill, the superintendent of AOS 95-SAD 27 in the St. John Valley, the toned-down rhetoric is helping people to understand the possibilities presented by Fort Kent Community High School’s placement on the list. While the list was publicly released Tuesday, affected schools were notified in advance to help them prepare. The AOS 95-SAD 27 school board held an emergency meeting Monday night to discuss the matter and gave the superintendent the ‘green light’ to apply for the money.
“The way it was packaged last year, it made those schools seem like the worst in Maine,” O’Neill said. “This year, I think they’ve realized that does a lot of damage in a community. I think the state realized they have to release this information in less damaging ways.”
District officials are trying to see inclusion as an opportunity to rebuild and even as a blessing in disguise, according to the superintendent.
“I’m looking at it positively,” O’Neill said. “You don’t like to get labeled like this, but this could be an impetus to make some changes that we know we need to make.”
Under the federal guidelines, the Department of Education ranks the three-year average combined proficiency of students in reading and math and then identifies schools with low proficiency and a lower-than-average growth in proficiency over that time. These levels were determined mainly by the results of the SAT, which is used in Maine to assess high school achievement.
The identified schools were listed in two categories, both of which are related to Title 1 funding, which is reserved for areas with low-income families. Title 1 schools that have not made progress for two or more years according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act were classified as “Tier 1 Schools.”
High schools eligible for Title 1 funds but whose districts use those funds in other schools were classified as “Tier 2 Schools.”
Because there is just $4 million available in federal funds, down from the $13 million available last year, Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin said it’s likely that not all of the schools on this year’s list will receive funding, even if all apply.
“The unfortunate reality is that some of the schools will get the label, but not the funds,” he said. “We will do everything we can to spread the wealth.”
To be eligible for federal funds, a low-achieving school must adopt one of four aggressive plans: replace its principal and at least half its staff; close and reopen as a charter school (such schools are not allowed in Maine); close the school and move students elsewhere; or replace principals who have been at a school more than two years, along with other changes.
Brian Doore, an assistant professor at the University of Maine College of Education, said that he has been working with Lake Region High School in Bridgton, which last year was identified as a persistently low-achieving school. It has adopted the turnaround model, he said, adding that good schools don’t just try to help students cram for the SATs.
“A lot of the effort has been trying to engender a sense of community in the school, helping students and parents feel that academics, student achievements and future goals are really important,” he said. “That’s all part of this school turnaround. Changing teacher beliefs, student beliefs, parent beliefs. When kids don’t believe they can do it — they don’t.”
Not every school identified last year chose to apply for the federal funding, although those that received it split a pot of $10.6 million.
The seven Maine schools that applied for funds were Gov. James B. Longley Elementary School in Lewiston, Riverton Elementary School in Portland, Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan, Carrabec High School in North Anson, Deer Isle-Stonington High School in Deer Isle, Lake Region High School in Naples, and Livermore Falls High School.
Three of the 10 schools did not apply – Hodgdon High School, Houlton Junior-Senior High School and Madison Area Memorial High School.
Hodgdon High School and Madison Area Memorial High School made the list for the second year in a row. Efforts to speak with superintendents from either school district Tuesday were unsuccessful, as were efforts to contact Ellsworth High School officials.
Terry Comeau, the superintendent of the Southern Aroostook Community School, said that his school already has been working to make improvements, although the rankings don’t reflect that yet.
“It’s a list we certainly would rather not be on, of course,” he said. “It is what it is. It doesn’t mean that the majority of children aren’t doing well.”
He said that he also appreciated the renaming of the list.
“We are not one of the 10 lowest-performing schools. Far from it, in fact,” Comeau said. “They’re trying to take away some of the punitive measures… but the idea behind it is fine.”