News & Views

I recently visited Texas Instruments in South Portland with a group of teachers. Our purpose was to gain an understanding of the skills employers seek when hiring today’s high school and college graduates. Touring the semiconductor plant, we learned that engineers work in teams to create improved templates for technology and to solve efficiency problems.

Imagine that you are a fourth grade teacher working in an economically deprived school in the foothills of western Maine. You teach in a small town where the factory and farming jobs that used to be the economic engine of your community no longer exist. In this once thriving community, many parents now struggle to find jobs that pay a living wage. Many parents struggle to buy school supplies and clothes for their children.

When you think about segments of society that strongly support investing in early childhood development, the business community may not immediately come to mind. But it should.

Humble. It’s a word I have heard used over and over to describe an accomplished teacher. I have listened as parents, students, colleagues and administrators share information about skilled and compassionate educators that teach in their communities, but they often end by saying, “And of course they won’t tell you any of this, because they are extremely humble.”

Last year at this time I was honored and celebrated with 15 other County Teachers of the Year, including 2015 Maine Teacher of the Year Jennifer Dorman. It was humbling, strange and a little bit embarrassing. It’s not often that the spotlight is on the teacher instead of the student.

The report by Educate Maine found that although 87% of Maine high school students graduated in 2014, only 48% of Maine students graduated college on time, which is 11 percentage points lower than the New England average. That gap increased by 5 percentage points from 2007 to 2013.

Listen to the radio interview with Ed Cervone, Executive Director of Educate Maine.

The report, from the business led advocacy group Educate Maine, showed progress in key areas. It also revealed a troubling gap that continues to widen between the achievement of students from low income families, compared to students from higher income families.

Maine students continued to score above the national average in math and reading on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress test, despite a slight drop in state results since 2013, according to data released Thursday.

"Education Indicators for Maine 2015" reports where Maine students stand within ten education indicators, compares them to students throughout New England, and connects benchmarks to each indicator. This year’s report finds both progress in some areas and a widening achievement gap among students from lower-income families.