Aiming for Excellence

Citizens for Excellence in Maine’s Elementary Schools is a little less grand than its name suggests but no less important. It is, its founder, Thomas Collins of New Harbor says, a new group few in number. But its value is that it undertook these important questions: What factors go into making a successful elementary school and how might other schools learn from these successes?

These are issues that education officials consider regularly, but it is especially commendable when a private citizen, with nothing more in mind than offering experience and some serious legwork to make schools better, gets involved. Mr. Collins, a retired executive with Procter & Gamble, had been active in Ohio on several educational efforts before moving to New Harbor. Here, he turned his talents to surveying the state’s top elementary schools in search of commonalties (and differences) that help them succeed. He chose to examine fourth grade because it is the first grade for which there is a statewide assessment, and his findings are notable, if not wholly surprising.

For instance, he observed that the overwhelming number of successful schools returning his questionnaire used the Reading Recovery program. Maine has been a leader in using this highly effective one-on-one method of instruction for first-graders, making a huge difference to these students throughout their school years and beyond. Also not entirely surprising but well worth noting is that while the most common elementary school configuration is K-8, Mr. Collins reports, only five of the top 33 elementary schools had this arrangement. The rest had fewer grades, suggesting that the focus on younger students in those schools has meaningful results.

One conclusion in the CEMES study will make the state especially proud: “All principals gave credit to staff and cited alignment of curriculum with Maine’s Learning Results (MLR) as reasons for school success.” But there were differences also. Benton Elementary, for instance, holds lunch in the classroom and teaches table manners. Jonesboro Elementary stresses “highly structured English Language Arts”; Dr. Levesque Elementary in Frenchville got added staff technology training from the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Mr. Collins said one of his motivations for being a booster of Maine schools is “the certainty that there is nothing more important to the future economic vitality of the state. … The prospect for Maine, endowed with some of the most spectacular natural beauty in the nation, to attract more and more entrepreneurs to live and work in Maine is bright.” But to attract entrepreneurs, Maine needs entrepreneurial leaders, he says, starting in the state’s elementary schools. So in his retirement he is helping out, giving educators a sense of that entrepreneurial spirit.