Town seeks separate status in hearing

Bangor Daily News, July 28, 2007

(excerpt) Another subject addressed Wednesday centered on Gov. John Baldacci’s school redistricting plan. A local planning committee is being formed as required by law and those selected for the committee will meet with regional officials to discuss regionalization. School Committee member Pete Johnson will represent his board. Selectmen agreed Wednesday to wait until the Aug. 15 meeting to select a municipal official for the committee. The board also is soliciting names of people who would like to serve as the community representative. Anyone interested is asked to contract the town office.

Town and school officials are exploring ways to opt out of the state process to become a private or a school solely funded by the community. The schools received $350,000 in state subsidy last year out of the $3.4 million budget.

"The threat of taking that away is minimal; the real threat is trying to go it alone but be forced to pay into another district we’re not participating in," Simko said Friday.

"I hope we can find a way to opt out if we find that’s in our best interests," he said.

Bangor subject to consolidation steps
Bangor Daily News, July 28, 2007

(excerpt) Also during Wednesday's meeting, school committee members fielded a complaint from resident Nick Bearce, who wanted to know why contact information about school committee members had yet to be posted on the school department's Web site, a request he first made in July.

Committee Chairman Martha Newman said she was considering it.

Ervin said it was "generally not the policy" of the school committee to do so, though he characterized the request as "reasonable."

Bearce asked when the information would be posted, given that doing so "isn't rocket science," but was not given a timeframe.

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Todd Benoit: The trouble with educating boys

Bangor Daily News, July 21, 2007

(excerpts) In 2005, Gendron created a task force on gender equity in education as statistics were piling up that showed boys doing worse than girls by most academic and social measures. Boys’ grades are lower, most of their test scores are worse, they are more likely to be suspended or expelled from school and are far more likely to kill themselves. Boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed with learning or emotional disabilities.

...

No one wants to go back to shortchanging girls, but teachers have a limited number of minutes of classroom time and a limited number of ways they can connect with students; schools have limited budgets for hiring staff. Given the serious deficit in boys’ progress, the task force members must know if they had emphasized the challenge of helping boys catch up, some of those resources would have been redirected.

Educators say tracking won't end soon

Portland Press Herald, July 20, 2007

(excerpt) In a new report, the Sen. George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute recommends eliminating tracking in high school to boost enrollment in college.

"Politically, it doesn't make a lot of sense right now," said Cape Elizabeth High School Principal Jeffrey Shedd.

He said communities are preoccupied with other major shifts in the educational landscape in Maine, such as the new law requiring school districts to reorganize, and will resist more change.

The Mitchell Institute report, released on Wednesday, looked at the gap between college aspiration and college enrollment.

The study showed that while more students are graduating from Maine high schools with plans to enroll in postsecondary education, fewer graduates are following through with such plans than five years ago.

The report concluded that the biggest barrier to college attendance is academic tracking, the widespread practice of placing students in courses based on academic performance, such as college preparation, vocational or general courses of study.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron also is pushing for an end to tracking. She plans to go to the Legislature with a proposal to do so next year, following a report by the State Board of Education supporting the elimination of tracking.

College ambitions grow in Maine, but enrollment is on the decline

Portland Press Herald, July 19, 2007

(excerpts) The study, which Brooks worked on, showed that from 2001 to 2005 the number of Mainers who left high school with plans to attend college increased, but fewer actually enrolled.

Sixty-four percent of seniors graduating in 2001 said they planned to attend college, compared with 70 percent in 2005, the study found, but actual enrollment dropped from 62 percent to 57 percent.

In 2006, 26.9 percent of Mainers 25 or older had bachelor's degrees. The rate for the other five New England states was 35 percent, and the national average was 28 percent.

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Since then, there has been a major push in Maine to raise college admission levels. The state Department of Education now requires all students to take college-entrance exams, and the Legislature passed a measure this year that will require every high school student to fill out an application to a college or other post-secondary school, or the military.

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Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the study's findings add weight to her push to end academic tracking in high schools.

Department of Education officials are drafting a measure to put before the Legislature next year to end tracking by 2010. The bill also would require a review of all the state's high schools to ensure that their courses are as rigorous as the state standards and that they offer learning opportunities, such as apprenticeships, that appeal to boys.

Merger details mire Maine schools

Portland Press Herald, July 15, 2007

(excerpt) School administrators and local officials are racing to meet an Aug. 31 deadline to notify the state of their merger plans under a new law passed last month aimed at slashing the state's 290 existing school districts to 80.

With just seven weeks to go, a few school districts are already engaged, most are still playing the field and a few have vowed to stay out of the courtship game if they can manage it.

Only a handful are trying to meet the state's suggested merger date of July 1, 2008, and take advantage of part of a $2 million incentive pot set aside for fast-trackers. Most districts plan to take the full two years allowed under the law and will not be fully merged until July 1, 2009.

Aug. 31 is the first of several deadlines school districts face as they move toward consolidation. They must submit final organization plans by Dec. 1, and by Jan. 15, 2008, cities and towns must vote on whether to approve the mergers.

So instead of spending the summer planning for the year ahead or reviewing the year that just ended, they are locked in a frenzied courtship dance that only a few entered enthusiastically. In interviews last week, many superintendents described the process as slow, complicated and stressful.