Maine’s schools are shrinking, their academic performance hasn’t improved substantially in years even as it has in other states, and an achievement gap persists between low-income students and their higher-income peers.
There are pressing challenges in Maine’s education system: Schools are educating an increasingly low-income student body, many rural schools that have seen their enrollment drop over the years are struggling to pay for a decent education for the students who remain, and Maine schools often have trouble recruiting strong school leaders who can guide their improvement.
The BDN’s Maine Focus team recently dove into these trends, examining what is holding back Maine students from realizing their full potential and holding up examples of promising efforts to address many of these challenges head on.
Here are some takeaways from the series that resulted, called Your School.
Direct funding to low-income schools, and spend the money on proven strategies. Family income is a persistent, dividing line in education.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “4 lessons from a look at the pressing challenges facing Maine’s schools,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Matthew Stone, please follow this link to the BDN online.
