PORTLAND - A study from the University of Southern Maine suggests
that improving education in cost-effective ways is less a matter of
major public policy initiatives than of the culture inside each school.
Researchers at the university set out to discover what
distinguished 90 schools where students outperformed their peers at
similar schools and where per-pupil spending was lower than the state
averages.
They found that one-quarter of Maine's public schools are exceeding
expectations, which Professor David Silvernail said rounds out the
picture from a much-discussed report from Harvard University's Program
on Education Policy and Governance.
The Harvard study ranked Maine next-to-last in improving achievement since 1992. Gov. Paul LePage and Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen have cited the study in pushing their education policy agenda.
Schools all around Maine are producing results and can serve as
examples for others, said Silvernail, director of the Center for
Educational Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at USM.
"After the Harvard report, people were saying we need to look at
other states and other nations," Silvernail said, "and that's true. What
we're saying here is we need to look in our own backyard. We have
schools that are doing well with a variety of kids."
The USM report, written by Silvernail and research associate Erika Stump, was released last week after a multiyear study commissioned by
the Legislature and funded by the state, USM and the Nellie Mae
Education Foundation.
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