U.S. students are making slow but noticeable progress compared with students from around the world, a new report from Harvard University says, but Maine students are lagging behind in growth, ranking second-lowest in the nation for improvement.
Since 1992, Maine outgained only Iowa on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance & Education Next. Maryland led the nation, with Florida second and Delaware in third place, the report found.
Forty-one states had participated in the NAEP’s long enough to be included in the study.
In 2010, authors Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson and Ludger Woessmann note, “only 6 percent of U.S. students were found to be performing at the advanced level in mathematics, a percentage lower than those attained by 30 other countries,” and only 32 percent of U.S. 8th-graders were found to be proficient in mathematics, “placing the United States 32nd when ranked among the participating international jurisdictions.”
And while 24 of the countries participating in the study trailed the U.S. rate of improvement, an equal number appear to be improving at a faster rate. “Nor is U.S. progress sufficiently rapid to allow it to catch up with the leaders of the industrialized world,” the authors warned in the study, called “Achievement Growth: International and U.S. State Trends in Student Performance.”
Most troubling for states such as Maine is that states with “the largest gains are improving at a rate two to three times the rate in states with the smallest gains,” the study says. And even when taking into account that the states with some of the largest gains began further behind in performance than higher-performing states, the authors conclude that “initial level of performance explains only about a quarter of the variation among the states.”
They also note that the variation in per-pupil spending is not significantly correlated with the performance gains.
Maine Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen issued a statement on the study Tuesday:
“The findings of this study are truly disappointing, but they are consistent with what we have been saying for some time — while Maine’s test scores are high for the nation, we are just not moving the needle, and as this study makes clear, other states are making considerably more progress.”
Bowen said Maine has been studying what high-performing states are doing to help formulate changes.
“We know, for instance, that effective teachers are the most important in-school factor in student achievement, so we passed a comprehensive bill around educator effectiveness that we are now working to implement,” the statement said. “We know high-performing systems have high academic standards, so we are also working with districts throughout the state on implementing rigorous new standards in English language arts and mathematics, and preparing for the implementation of new science standards.”
States that made the largest gains in student performance tended to see the greatest reduction in the number of students performing at the lowest levels, the report said.
If proficiency on these standardized tests were linked to graduating/obtaining a driver’s license, etc. I bet we’d see DRAMATIC increases in student motivation. Right now, many Maine high school students operate on the philosophy of “What’s the least amount of work I can do to get by?” There is no reward for mastery and there is no consequence for apathy.
Excellent points
An audit trail is needed here. While the state reduced funding and required consolidation for its K-12 systems, it gives to the Maine Maritime Academy increasing amounts of subsidy reaching now more than $9 million ($10,000 per student per year) to maintain a sports and spa facility for out of state jocks which now comprise 1/2 of the student body. The MMA is not what you assume it is and its time for it to be removed from the dole and privatized like Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby.
If proficiency was tied to being able to play high school sports, you would see more parental involvement. Remember, schools can lay off teachers left and right without a sound at a school board meeting, but if you want to make JV junior league B team fly fishing a “club” instead of a taxpayer funded sport, you will have a riot on your hands.
There are countless kids in schools now who care NOTHING about graduating. They come to school (at least part of the time), hang out with their friends, do zero homework, don’t study for tests or quizzes, don’t read the books, but then the education system has “failed them.”
The problem is they pass them.
That’s part of the “self-esteem for everyone” program. No one’s a loser and everyone gets a trophy. Too many people think graduating and being educated are synonymous. In Maine public schools, at least, one doesn’t seem to have much to do with the other.
there’s no consequence… kids don’t know how hard the real world is… they are not prepared for the realities outside their little “bubble”. Not to mention it’s the government that says a parent cannot punish their child as they see fit… I agree child abuse is horrid, but having parents affraid to scold their children, for fear of DHS, and jail time is rediculous.. Parents should take away what the child does’nt need.. TV, Cell phones, internet (unless for school work). You cannot blame this solely on the “school system” that’s bad parenting…
Many times there are no consequences from parents. They will fight schools tooth and nail because little Susie got her cell phone taken away/got a detention for skipping or for being late to school 5 times OR you should hear the parents when their kids are caught red handed cheating. Kids learn from parents that “no matter what I do, I am perfect and I can do anything I want”
When that attitude is reduced in countless parents I have seen during my time in education, things can start to slowly get better.
“There is no reward for mastery and there is no consequence for apathy.” In my day I would have received a constant stream of rewards and consequences from my parents. Where are and what are today’s parents doing in this regard? I’m guessing for the most part just about as much as their children are doing in school.
In our day, dad could make enough money at his job to support the family and allow mom to stay at home so the kids had a guiding hand after school. With today’s wages, the family is lucky if mom and dad only have to work one full time job each to make sure the family doesn’t go without.
When you have to fend for yourself so often from a young age, what are you going to learn besides looking out from your own self-interest if nobody is there to teach you better?
I’m in complete agreement here. The lower wages and higher prices that forced both parents into the workforce 30-40 years ago does indeed correlate well with the slow and continuing collapse of our children’s educational (Among other things) performance. Now to take that one step further. If you grew up fending for and only thinking of yourself and nothing else, which political party would you be drawn to the most?
The advent of technology and cable/satellite TV is another factor in the equation.
Democrat party and that is the problem. We used to have jobs that paid enough so that mom could stay home and be there for the children but after the democrats regulated us to death and kicked what business Maine had out the door, we found we all needed to work in order to make ends meet and provide for our families. Those that chose not to demanded and got handouts from our government that has been run by democrats for all of those 40 years. Thanks for pointing this out.
The answer to your question is easy.
The growing number of people voting for Democrats in the state corresponds quite well with the slide in education, a shrinking economy and the growth of welfare rolls.
Through all the years I was in school (1-12 grades) I had no mother and my father had his own problems and activities. During that time he signed my report card once! The rest of the time I signed it myself. When challenged he could not tell which was his signature or mine.
Incidentally, I have two university degrees BSEE and MSEE from the university of Maine! The difference is the fire in the student’s belly. It is the difference between the winners and the losers!
I’m not at all surprised that once again you suggest that shortfalls in Maine student performance are entirely due to the lack of parental involvement in their children’s education, but please, will you now have us believe that Maine parents rank second to last across the United States in terms of their commitment to their child’s education? I for one do not buy your argument and suggest that there are other factors at play and we will not make progress in this state until we come to terms with the fact that Maine has shortcomings in its educational system that need to be addressed.
The most critical link in a child’s education is his/her parents or guardians. If the school is failing, it is the parents’ responsibility to see that it gets fixed. Well-educated children come from societies that genuinely value well-educated children.
Look at Maine’s welfare program. It actively encourages young women to be single parents and enables young men to not be involved or responsible for the children they father.
Single parent families have greater challenges. We need to connect those dots. Families need help, but it is not a lifestyle. Our welfare system entices and enslaves and the children are the ultimate losers.
We are seeing it in the black community with 70% + children being born to single parent families.
Blame their parents. Parents are the keys to education. If the parents don’t care enough to get involved, the kids won’t care enough to get educated.
This is the same paper that ran an article just the other day where the majority or students in the state were claiming they weren’t challenged enough right?
Yeah, “yeah mom, um, like the reason I failed everything is cuz, like I’m bored and stuff”
Yeah, sure.
It’s hard to grow when the teachers union is holding you back. The teachers union cares more about gay marriage than they do about the students they’re supposed to be teaching.
Boy is this a stupid statement.
I couldn’t agree more, Gary Libby.
I work in schools and while I disagree with the politics of about 98% of the teachers I work with, they care much more about kids than gay marriage.
Yes clearly same sex marriage is the cause and root of all evil in this state….and now same sex marriage is the cause of low student scores (clearly pete you are a victim of such scores) …..come on I know if we all try hard enough same sex marriage will also be found to cause global warming, solar flairs and earth quakes….so I will answer who is pete…..who is pete? Pete be stoopid that be who pete is.
Yes, and same sex marriage also causes hurricanes, tornadoes, locust swarms and other general pestilence.
Agreed, Pete should have finished school – in another country, preferably……..as should have the people who “liked” his comment.
OMG I had no idea about he locusts!! Good to know…..and yes I agree Pete et al should have finished elementary school.
Not every teacher is in the union. I wish all of you who keep making statements about how education is bad “because of the union” would open your eyes and stop generalizing.
The anti-union nuts are trained to think and speak as they do. Anyone with a solid grasp of US history would have a great fear of what would happen if the unions were gone. Still, the poison is being spoonfed to us from wealthy folks who care only about “winning the game by having all of the money”.
When unions are gone, wages will fall far below subsistence levels. In other words when they are gone, very few will be able to make ends meet.
If you think things are bad now, wait until the unions lose a bit more power.
A union is simply workers, moms and dads and firemen and teachers, coming together to have a voice that can stand up to the wealthy and demand fairness. Without the unions, there is no way to get fair treatment. This was once universally understood because the struggles to be heard were fresh in the American psyche. Now those lessons have faded and we will have to fight the old battles once again. We fought this battle before. The elites controlled everything. This is the third time America is relearning the same history lesson. This is a painful lesson. Keep the powerful in check or they will exploit everything and bring about vast suffering.
Mark my words, when the unions are gone there will not be ANY middle class. The wealthy do not share. The wealthier one gets the less they care, this is a documented sociological principle.
The real instigators of the anti-union rhetoric are happy they have found so many willing dupes who will fight against their own futures and give away any hope of prosperity. I am afraid for the children of these folks who are selling them short.
Teachers, by and large, care. The vast majority go to work and do the best they can with what they have. The demonization of these fine citizens makes me sick. By letting the elites frame the discussion we are destroying ourselves, and they knew we would. Don’t help them.
GET MAD. FIGHT BACK. Our children need us to stand tall and fight the disinvestment in them and their futures.
Spoken as a “loser” that is typical of union types! If you can’t make it on your own, join a union so you can blame your lack of success on everyone who can make it on their own though hard work and ambition!
Motto: “If you can, do. If you can’t join a union!”
I have never belonged to a union in my life. That said, I watch wages falling, inequality growing and union membership declining and have read enough history to see they are related.
You will understand this too, when they are gone and workers are reduced to slaves with no power and very poor wages. It is all connected.
If one is so inclined, they can always find an excuse for lack of success rather than pursue the alternatives: Education, move to where the opportunity is, show a proper attitude to your employer, work hard . . .
Uh, most people are not in a union and most people do better than subsistence. I’m not in a union and I do significantly better. Of course, I’m willing to work 60 hour per week. Many of my friends are not and they make less. All about choices…
You dont get that the union affects how we ALL get paid. You will understand quickly when they are gone. You will be screwed.
There are probably lots of reasons for this. We need to look at what some of the more successful states are doing and emulate them. And guess what, it might costs something!
Exactly. I agree. Too bad our governor does not support education so we aren’t going to get any funding.
Better parenting shouldn’t take any state funding.
According to the Left it does.
What proof do you have to offer for this conclusion?
Funding?
We already fund education to a level above the national average ( I think.) So what more do you want?
parents that want to be friends of their children and not the parents is one issue. laptops basically given away without proper monitoring is another. i am a big tech fan, and could hold my own against anyone when it comes to computers, but there has to be limits in place. i wonder how many of these students even understand how computers work. i suppose they could google the answer.
Eat it when your lost in the woods.
Probably be better off looking at what more successful countries are doing. No point in shooting for mediocrity. Of course, I think we would find that the first, and key, ingredient in a successful education is an involved and engaged parent.
Finland is one of the top scoring countries, but when they hear what they do in Finland, they say no way.
Well said, Gary. Teachers must be top of their class in university. They’re one of the more lucrative professions (like doctors and lawyers), and they’re respected. Classes are small, and the community makes a commitment to excellence. Results, not ideology, drive their program.
Oh, and this is key. If a school board member even suggested the school take a budget cut that might affect the excellence of their educational programs, he or she wouldn’t serve another term.
But we can’t have any of that; they’re a social democracy.
Maybe if the teachers actually pushed kids and demanded more, we’d see some changes. My kid is in the most advanced classes and rarely comes home with homework. In 8th grade!
Parents, for the most part, want to say their kid’s school is tough……as long as their kid does well. I say for every parent like you who wants more rigor in the school, there are 5-10 calling the principal when their kid doesn’t make the honor roll. I work in education and see it.
Maybe if the parents supported the teachers when they do push the students it would help as well.
I know that I had a class that I pushed pretty hard. Only one student got an A and the parents were so angry that their little Johnny didn’t get an A. Instead of being glad that I was challenging the kiddos and making them work, they were mad that it wasn’t easy enough.
It’s a catch-22. If we push them too hard, parents get mad. If we don’t push them hard enough, then everyone talks smack. What are we supposed to do?
I agree with you: teacher need to be empowered and shielded from winey helicopter parents
So, will the BDN’s crack political reporting team be asking Angus King how those expensive laptops are working out?
I would just like to say that I am a teacher going into my fifth year in the profession. I keep reading on here about what little teachers do for the kids and how overpaid we are and what lavish benefits we have. I read about how strong our unions are, and how much money we suck out of our local taxpayers.
During the school year I am at school from 7AM until 4:30 or 5:00PM. I coach a sport and run the scoreboard for two other sports. I serve as a class adviser and I run a mentoring group for at risk students.
This summer I have taken an AP US Government and Politics Preparation Course, and I am currently seeking a Masters in American and New England Studies. This is all because I want to improve my ability to teach my subject.
At this point, I suppose I am just wondering where all the hate for teachers comes from. The vast majority of us go to work everyday for the kids. That’s why we chose to be teachers. We aren’t doing it for the money (I made $32,500 in my fourth year), the benefits, or those summers off (often spent working low wage jobs and taking college courses or seeking other professional development opportunities).
“States that made the largest gains in student performance tended to see the greatest reduction in the number of students performing at the lowest levels.” Apparently Maine has a lot of students performing at the very lowest levels. Yet just this weekend Mr. Bowen and crew informed us that Maine students have reported to them that they don’t find school challenging enough. If so then I’ll say again, if it’s so easy for our kids, why do they fail, fail, fail, on any measurable test we provide to them? I sure hope Mr. Bowen’s educational philosophies aren’t as shaky as the surveys he provides to us in order to take control of children’s education and millions of our tax dollars!
Unions will keep your score down. There is no interest at improving scores.
mass. is the most unionized state in the country
how come mass test scores are the highest in the country?
Because frank5 has nothing more than rumor, anecdote, and partisan foolishness as his evidence.
Nice try – but, baseless comment that is not consistent with reality.
its always something else,unions,schools,
the tests,laptops
how about this cause: this state is full of
dummy parents with dummy kids
google “men from maine video”
many PUBLIC SCHOOLS in the country, now
give out mandatory summer reading assignments
to students
name one maine school that does that?
1_______________
2_______________
3_______________
4_______________
5_______________
well….i am waiting!
Please let us know how many you’re talking about. And while you’re at it, name them:
1_________________
2_________________
3_________________
4_________________
5_________________
well….i am waiting (oh…such a clever idea you had there).
While we’re at it…Whenever Maine schools push kids, the kids and their parents complain that they’re being pushed too hard and push back. This happens at all levels because parents and kids tend to believe that they are all at genius level already, and when you push them toward something like that, they get upset that they are actually having to work.
FAR TOO MANY kids in this state think they are brilliant because they were the brightest kid in their 6th grade class and have coasted ever since…REALLY push them, and you’ll get pushed back. Besides, education is a mirror of society…if working at Denny’s or Walmart is good enough for mommy and daddy, it’s good enough for junior. Try to change that and you’ll catch Hell. Education will happen when people see it as important to get what they want.
Almost a hundred years ago (back when education was supposedly good…yeah right…another fairy tale people keep believing), humorist Don Marquis said, “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; but if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.”
Man, that dude was SPOT ON!!!
ALL OUT OF STATE SCHOOLS:
The Kinkaid School: 7th Grade Summer Reading List
MNSD 7th Grade Summer Reading List – Marple Newtown, PA
Pearl R. Miller School Required Summer Reading List I
Brockton Ma. Public: Summer Reading 2012
Summer Reading – Pollard Middle | Needham, MA
EASTON MA. SOCIAL STUDIES SUMMER READING LIST Grade 8 ..
Summer Reading Lists – MA schools – Newton Public Schools
Bellarmine School / Required Summer Reading
Quaker Valley School District: Summer Readingwww.qvsd.org › Home › Academics › Summer ProgramsSummer Reading – Quaker Valley School District. … Middle School Summer Reading List 2012 · Grade 6 Summer Reading Requirements · Grade 7 … Note: High school students can find the books for the Summer Reading List 2012 in the
.
Ok, here is a question about your “mandatory” reading. What happens to the kid who comes back this fall at “The Kinkaid School” who did not do his or her “mandatory” reading? Do they get held back? Must they attend a summer school next summer in order to go to high school (you know, where grades actually matter in some way).
I don’t suppose the PARENTS could actually make their kids read over the summer, and they would be the first ones against such a thing. For any “mandatory” program to work, there has to be a real consequence of NOT doing it. How many parents would be crying to administration if their kid was moved down a level in the fall because they didn’t do some “mandatory” reading. ….just stuff to think about as I know how many parents think and the stuff they complain to schools about.
Narraguagus AP English
The school I teach at has mandatory reading and math assignments for anyone doing AP classes.
Many AP courses (including the AP courses at the school where I work).
maybe our schools should focus more on teaching students instead of teaching to standardized testing. interrupting regular classes for a week or more at a time 2-3 times a school year for one set of tests or another really seems to be helping our kids learn…
maine’s school year is the shortest in the country
when there was an attempt to make it longer 7
years ago, mainers were overwhelming against it
You are headed in the right direction, Motorcycle. Attendance! I have been teaching for twenty-seven years in Maine. The longer I teach, the worst the student attendance problem has become. This year has been the worst by far.
I have had students that have been absent for 8 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks 15 weeks and 16 weeks of school. That is correct! Student are able to simply not show up at school from 40 -80 days.
They are not medically ill. Quite a few just want to stay home. Quite a few go to the mall with one or both parents. Often, their parents are tired of the struggle to get them up and off to school. It is also not unusual for parents to take their children for a vacation, a week or two after the normally scheduled school vacation, in order to take advantage of the non- holiday fares.
A schools truancy { symbolic }plan does not legally force a parent to send their children to school. It may cajole and threaten and plead but, ultimately their is no teeth in the law.
The DHS will not get involved. I have spoken with them, The District Attorney will not get involved. I have spoken with them. School administrators will do just about anything to avoid confrontation with parents over attendance.
If you have some time, look into your community’s school attendance policy. Check into any school’s policy. You will be surprised.
And the real surprise here is that anybody would be shocked about Maine schools not performing well.
I teach in a fairly large K-8 school. I have only seen two students retained in twenty seven years. It is Elementary and Middle School philosophy to not retain students. I suspect this may be the norm in K-8 schools across Maine. I would actually feel a bit better if I were wrong about this. We dump this problem on the High School’s; which then creates the drop out problem.
It would be interesting if Mr Bowen or Mr Alfond were to contact me through this forum.
I would be glad to speak with them.
In the mean time, I don’t really fret about Maine’s unemployment rate. Many of these students will become the adults who have little interest in work.
There is a lot of research that retention is not a successful intervention. That being said, and I’ve been teaching for 30 years, it is a wise choice in individual situations.
Amen.
and maybe parents need to actually parent. You how many times I have seen a kid get in trouble for being on their cell phone in school, and it was there mom or dad calling/texting them at 9am? What exactly do the “parents” think the kid should be doing at that hour?
Excellent !!! Let’s keep cutting the education budget!!!
In other countries, the kids put much more emphasis on learning. Kids here value TV, computer, phone and video game time, and of course they have sports to play, friends to visit… School work is done the bare minimum they can get away with. Priorities of kids and families is a huge issue.
Excellent points! You could replace the word kids with parents throughout your comment and it would still be just as true.
Personal responsibility is what will educate your child. Many parents ( and I use that term loosely) use school as a daycare. You as a parent need to take charge of your child’s education and advocate for the best possible opportunities. Public education provides the bare minimum, it is not enough by itself to get into a University that will contribute to the cost of education or guarantee a job upon graduation. There is no substitute for hard work and parents helping their children become the best they can be. Remember schools are a government agency, controlled by unions, enough said.
want to improve your kid’s tests scores? easy. send them
to any out of state school system in the country
The kids are lazy and the parents need to be more involved. We can’t keep forcing teachers to administer new standardized tests and act like they’re babysitters for us. It’s ridiculous. We need to do our part too.
…….and what else is new……
Not surprised. With a backward, ignorant Governor cutting anything that has to do with education, what do you expect. LePage’s goal is to turn Maine into something even worse than Mississippi.
Can’t fix 40 years of a democratic education systems in 18 months, along with all the other issues left behind by the donkey.
These studies reflect information collected from 1992 thru 2010…..Gov. Lepage’s inauguration was Jan. 5th, 2011…..your comment and attitude reflect the results more-so than your claims against another…..reality is apparently non-existent is some people’s worlds….
So, you’re saying that Maine’s poor educational performance is the result of LePage’s two years in office? Care to elaborate? It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the previous Governors, who were not Paul LePage? Sounds like you’ve got some other scores to settle.
Pretty sure the Left owns ALL of this one.
So the survey start time was 1992, and your blaming the current “ignorant” governor, who didn’t start until 2011… brilliant observation Sherlock Holmes !
So the decay in education that began long ago is now LePage’s fault? Wow, but I bet you believe everything was “Bush’s fault” too.
Well, there is a whole lot that is Bush’s and Cheney’s fault, but our education issues are not really LePage’s fault- we need to reflect on what we do, and figure out what we need to improve.
1st improvement: parenting
In many cases, probably yes.
How exactly do you improve parenting? Our culture of parenting just reflects who we are as people. If we are poor parents, then we are poor people.
Say what?!
Amen!
The largest gains were made in states who also had the greatest reduction in students performing at the lowest levels. At least, I think that was one of the conclusions. That would seem to indicate that NCLB was working because that was one of the basic premises of that program, raising the educational level of poor performing students. Now how many of the people commenting who are complaining about Maine’s performance would also complain about NCLB?
My suggestion: Take away the in-school computers, and calculators and take away the internet. Students will have to learn to write and spell and add, subtract, multiply and divide again. Oh, and teachers will have to actually teach again. Oh, and replace the useless study halls with quality time teaching.
Great suggestions and agree……but likely never to happen…..
In 1992 Maine and Iowa had some of the top scores in the country. Maine’s score was 246 compared to Mississippi’s score of about 217. Maine’s increase has been about 0.7 while Mississippi’s has been about 2.5. This is an example of diminishing returns. When your scores are higher, it is more difficult to add to them. Think about playing golf. When you are beginning and horrible, improvement comes fairly quickly, but as you get nearer your ability level, you have a much more difficult time knocking off the next couple of strokes.
The study did deal with this issue. They said that only about a quarter of the difference could be attributed to where the schools had started back in 1992. That probably means the correlation is about 50%. Some states who had been performing well did show considerable gain. Massachusetts was at about 243 and has been gaining 3.1. But, of course, that must be a fluke. Massachusetts is a liberal state. West Virginia started at about 230 and has been gaining at a rate of only 1.1. What has made the difference? Harvard, get back to work. We need more answers.
When the best job a college grad can expect in Maine is a department store job,, why try… Service and Retail jobs is where the country is at.. why try?
Why try? Because there are other states out there that have plenty of high paying jobs. Just one or 2 years of education beyond HS opens the door. Don’t be foolish to limit yourself to Maine which is heading and there in last place in jobs and education, even below Mississippi. The educated young of Maine have been leaving for many years now. Maine has to import foreigners now to run the tourist traps.
Pride and self-respect, maybe? Stop looking for excuses. Plenty of people in Maine DO find good work or create their own livelihoods everyday. If you can’t, there are highways now that can get you to where there are jobs suited to your skills or lack thereof. Buses and trains, also. It’s 2012, not 1712. Why do people think they can go no farther than 10 miles from home to make a living?
When the college graduates have majored in “basket weaving’ what kind of job do they expect to have upon graduation?
Our state university system offers myriad degree programs that have no value in today’s economy they keep students out of the work force for four years but do not give them anything to further their ablility to make a living or contibute to society! All this is done at taxpayer expense. Why doesn’t someone see something wrong with this?
Maine was actually doing well until we had to change the way we teach in order to meet the requirements of NCLB. We were actually told in a meeting by a representative from the department of education that we should focus our energy and monies on the kids were just below the line of meeting the standards so we would make AYP. We had to follow the model of Texas, which was way down on the list. They were like 48th on the list of states, improved to like 43, then we all had to follow that model.
Predictably, by providing the definition of “progress”, the study enters the abyss of fallacious thinking by proving the facts through the conclusion. In so many areas not measured within the parameters of this study, Maine students are succeeding in measurable and non quantatative ways. There is no barometer to measure the square corners of a beautifully built deck, a free flowing plumbing design, or the assistance provided by a CNA during a hospital visit. There are many venues crying for educational redress, and I have spoken of them often. Those notwithstanding, it would be of greater service and inherent perspective to recognize all of the achievements of our students who in so many ways contribute in a very positive way to all of our lives. Ken
Very nicely & wisely stated Ken…..
Thanks for your kind words. Ken
This is not the teacher’s fault so much as the programs they are trying to implement across the state. If you took a look at individual school systems I think you might find Bangor well ahead of the pack.
The article stated that more money per pupil spent had no bearing on the level of achievement. Throwing more money at the schools will not help increase achievement. Nor will smaller class size. We need to find the very best competency based math programs and implement them. We need to find the very best reading programs out there with a strong phonics component and get these children reading. The lions share of time should be devoted to making sure each and every child can read. The buck stops with the schools. We already spend an inordinate amount of money on per pupil spending. Let’s get this right and fast. Go look at what the most successful states are doing to teach their kids to read. Go look at the most successful math programs. This is disgraceful.
Is there a connection between these stats and all of the Maine teachers who retire and then take their job back per diem?
Do we have an old teaching force that is not keeping up with advancements in Education? Maybe. Time to end the double dipping, and give the new generation of teachers a chance.
I wonder why??? Could it be that too many Ed Techs or maybe some of teachers do not know how to teach like they did years ago.
I think the teachers are being taught how to teach just fine. Kids have to care about learning and show up at school ready to learn (and actually come to school more than half the time).
Couple that with the “everybody gets a medal” mentality. Hey, you played peewee soccer, you must get a trophy. Hey, you came in 9th in a 10 person race, you get a medal. Kids grow up thinking they are so much more special and talented than most of them truly are. The bell curve exists for a reason.
If you saw the behavior issues that schools have to deal with, you would think schools don’t have enough ed. techs.. And still it’s cheaper than residential placement.
All Maine students need to know is where the local drug clinic is and how to receive entitlements. One more thing keep voting democrat to sustain this lifestyle.
and don’t forget, have LOTS of kids so they can just keep getting more and more. Gotta keep that family legacy of being the recipient class going.
It seems strange, that children who learned in school using slate boards in one room school houses, did very well back in the day, without all the high tech stuff schools have today. Bad behavior was not a problem back then either.
what would happen if a teacher cracked a hand with a ruler today? yikes!
Schools are trying to make all kids learn the same things. Not all can learn at the same level. We need to educate each child to his or her ability. Not to NCLB!! They give up when it becomes to difficult for them. We need administration to teach all kids. Not to what they feel all should learn. What that child can learn. We still need electricians, auto mechanics, carpenters, plumbers. But schools want to send all their kids to 4 yr. colleges. Schools fail kids. Not the kids failing. Parents fail their kids by not holding them responsible for their actions. ( my child would never do that). Haha Your kid did, so own up. Schools need to own up. Most teachers are great. But when you have consistent issues for the same thing with a teacher, its time to get rid of them. Mean nasty teachers must go. There are some. Superintendents need to know more, as does our under educated school board members.
Superintendents are self serving..Thats one problem.. They always want to look good at any cost even the childs education. The administration system is the trouble.
When you teach classes to the lowest common denominator, that’s what you get. When we mix the bright kids with those who need extra help, we end up slowing down the learning process. As a result, the smart kids are bored and don’t end up making the progress they could. I loved the days of tracking…
I know the solution. We need to throw
MORE MONEY to education. That is
the answer. With all that has spent so far,
we shouldn’t have one uneducated person in
this country.
Hum, since 1992? Gee, what happened from 1992 until just recently? Well, for 16 of those years Maine had democrat/liberal governors and was completely controlled by the Democrats!
Nah, that can’t be it.
Isn’t that about the time they claimed most kids in schools needed Ritalin to mellow out?
the billion dollar apple laptop program has really helped!
/sarcasm.
This
article is deceptive. Look at the title “among lowest states for
school progress”. If you are consistently outscoring other states in
the nation, there isn’t as much room for progress, ie. (and Im not
saying Maine is scoring all “A’s”) but
if your average score is an A it’s a little harder to make progress than
say your state is scoring a “C”. The MLTI program is a very
progressive, forward thinking invaluable program that other states are
scrambling to catch up with. If you take a look at the National
Assessment of Educational Progress website, you will see that Maine 8th
graders consistently outscore the national average since the early
1990’s in both reading and math.
Say what? This post is incoherent!