MACHIAS, Maine — State Education Commissioner Jim Rier returned to his roots Monday, visiting Rose Gaffney Elementary School as part of a tour to recognize schools that have made the most gains under Maine’s report card system for grading school performance.
The prekindergarten-through-grade-eight school was awarded an A on its latest report card, jumping up two grades from the C it received in 2013.
Rier, who attended Machias schools as a youth, and two staffers from the state Department of Education toured the school before meeting for about an hour with Principal Mitchell Look, Machias Superintendent Scott Porter and a few teachers to apprise them of the school’s grade.
“That’s awesome,” fifth-grade teacher Kelly Woodward said upon learning about the school’s A.
“You should be very proud of that,” responded Rier.
Part of the improvement can be attributed to reviewing student performance on sample questions, said Look. “We break down every single question,” he said, in instances where students have difficulty.
Look explained later that once performances were evaluated, students were grouped into intervention areas where they were given the help that they needed in the concepts that they needed.
The school staff also has received “excellent” professional development in recent years, the principal said, particularly in such areas as intervention and literacy, which is taught in other subject areas beside language arts.
The reasons for the school’s improvement also led to discussion about the importance of such diverse areas as providing more nutritious school lunches, engaging parents and participation in afterschool programs.
Rier complemented the teachers, calling them “an extremely important factor” in the success of the students and school.
Rob Walker, executive director of the Maine Education Association, has been critical of the state grading system for schools, saying those school districts that score the lowest are those with a higher percentage of students from low-income families.
But the Gaffney school has demonstrated that students from low-income families can perform well academically, suggested Look. “You can overcome it. It’s not easy,” he added, but students are not locked in by their socio-economic circumstances.
Sixty-six percent of Rose Gaffney students are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch — the barometer of low-income — compared to the state average of 44 percent.
“But yet they are performing well,” Rier said.
Seventy-three percent of Rose Gaffney students demonstrated proficiency in math, and 79 percent in reading. The reading percentage represented a 10 percent gain, noted Samantha Warren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, who was visiting the school with Rier. “It’s really huge,” she said. Students also made incremental gains in other areas, she said.
“We think think there are good, sound reasons behind why that’s happening,” added Rier, and will work to share those reasons with other schools. The lesson, said Rier, is that schools can improve despite the argument that disadvantaged students are going to perform at a lower level. “We think there are good, sound reasons why that doesn’t have to occur.”
On Monday, Rier also was scheduled to visit Narraguagus High School in Harrington, which improved its report card grade from an F to a C. During the week, he will visit four more schools around the state that saw strong improvement on their report card.
All schools are expected to receive their grades on Tuesday, with the full results being released to the public on Thursday.