Campaign enlists 25 high schools to spur college aspirations

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has announced the names of 25 high schools that will work with their communities to design strategies to spur more students on to college.

Nine area high schools will be among the 25 statewide participating in the new 18-month Maine Readiness Campaign. They will receive $2,000 each to launch locally designed actions that make the necessary changes to better prepare students for college, career and citizenship.

The schools are:

Ashland Community High School; Woodland Junior-Senior High School in Baileyville; Calais High School; Fort Kent Community High School; Piscataquis High School in Guilford; Penobscot Valley High School in Howland; Forest Hills Consolidated High School in Jackman; Madawaska Middle-High School; and Presque Isle High School.

The first statewide workshop for the schools and their community partners will be Thursday, Aug. 3, at the Augusta Civic Center. Twenty five additional schools are expected to join the campaign this fall.

Schools and their community partners will be given data about the college readiness of their students; assistance in setting priorities; and suggested strategies.

These could include supporting college visits or early college programs; finding ways to help parents fill out college financial aid forms; creating internships at local businesses to show students that more education is required beyond high school; organizing mentoring programs; and eliminating tracking – or the funneling of students into particular courses based on their perceived abilities.

In a news release issued Monday, Gendron pointed out that only 37 percent of Maine adults have a college degree compared with 46 percent in New England. The release also indicated that workers in Maine without a college degree earn 43 percent less than their counterparts in the work force who have a bachelor’s degree.

“Technology, modern communications, and globalization have accelerated the pace of change across the globe,” she said. “To give our children the best odds for a bright future, we must understand the connection between quality education and economic success.”

Baileyville Superintendent Edwin McLaughlin said during a phone interview Monday that unlike a generation ago, schools can no longer send only half their students on to postsecondary education and know that the other half will be able to find good paying jobs.

“Today’s students are clearly going to need a higher skill level than those in the past,” he said.

The readiness grant will jump-start community conversations about “how we need to structure our schools differently and how to get to the point that all graduates are not only able, but willing, to tackle some postsecondary opportunity,” he added.

The Maine Readiness Campaign also is funded by the Mitchell Institute and the Coalition for Excellence in Education.