Susan Pratt, SAD 40
superintendent; Beth FIsher, director of the Midcoast School of
Technology; William Shuttleworth, Five Town CSD and SAD 28
superintendent; and Judy Lucarelli, Superintendent, RSU 13.
Rockland — Are
students prepared for jobs when they leave school? Is this part of the
reason for the high unemployment rate and resulting economic woes? If
so, what can the state and schools do?
Those were broad questions that the governor, superintendents, educators and employers discussed at a forum Oct. 3 at the Strand Theatre.
Gov. Paul LePage put his emphasis on getting the best teachers and lowering the dropout rate by getting students interested — whether it be through a favorite subject or the ability to choose what school they attend.
“We have to give them choice, a broader curriculum,” LePage said. “More opportunity to learn. Life is nothing but a learning experience.”
The governor said the education system needs to focus on how to give students the chance to succeed in life.
“What we need to make sure so that the kids don’t drop out of school is that we teach them to learn,” LePage said. “It’s amazing, if we can teach them early enough how to learn, they get into the habit of learning. It makes no difference what career path that they take. Because really learning is from kindergarten all the way through your career. Even once you have a career you really have to continue to learn or you're going to be falling behind.”
The governor said the common denominator for successful school systems is the quality of the teachers, and having teachers with specific subject knowledge.
“I maintain that we need to have effective teachers,” LePage said. “How do you do that? You get the best and the brightest. You increase the standards so it’s tougher to get good teachers through the system. You raise the standards for our kids and you’re more demanding on what is going to be acceptable to pass or fail. We need to have stricter requirements. Once we have the best and the brightest, we have to pay them. So we have to right-size our educational system.”
He said the top 10 countries with the best education systems put their teachers in a high status, such as doctors and engineers.
“It’s a very high status and it’s very difficult to get into the education profession in some of these countries, and they’re very well paid,” LePage said.
The governor said 54 percent of community college students have to take remedial courses before they start their college work. LePage said one reason higher education is so expensive is that students have to be taught twice.
“That’s one of the things we can do right now — raise the standards in our K-12 system,” LePage said. “And rather than graduate kids based on age, or social graduation, we graduate and move them on once they’ve met the standards of information that they’re supposed to learn at the grade level. We need to go to standards.”
The forum, "Education – an Economic Imperative for the Midcoast", was co-hosted by the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, Rockland Economic Development Advisory Committee, Community and Economic Development Advisory Committee of Camden, Maine Coast Economic Alliance and the Many Flags/One Campus Foundation. It was sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank.
A panel discussion, Multiple Pathways – One Goal: How the high school experience may evolve in the 21st century, featured Judith Lucarelli, superintendent of Regional School Unit 13; William Shuttleworth, superintendent of Five Town Community School District; Susan Pratt, superintendent of School Administrative District 40; and Beth Fisher, director of Region 8, Mid-Coast School of Technology.
Superintendent Shuttleworth said schools are not meeting the needs of boys. He said 70 percent of dropouts are boys; 70 percent of students who are suspended or given detention are boys; 70 percent of all the top 10 students last year were girls.
“Public schools right now, however hard we are working, are not meeting the needs of our boys,” Shuttleworth said. “We need to retool that and face that.”
Shuttleworth’s main points were: Promote preschool education; stop telling students that they will be considered a failure if they do not attend college; support adult education; promote school choice, and start career education earlier.
“I’d like to promote school choice for all students in the state of Maine, which would allow students — at their cost and transportation — to attend any school that they wish as long as there’s an opening,” Shuttleworth said. “If kids from Rockland want to come to Camden or vice versa, they can do that. I think it would increase the quality of options for kids.”
Those were broad questions that the governor, superintendents, educators and employers discussed at a forum Oct. 3 at the Strand Theatre.
Gov. Paul LePage put his emphasis on getting the best teachers and lowering the dropout rate by getting students interested — whether it be through a favorite subject or the ability to choose what school they attend.
“We have to give them choice, a broader curriculum,” LePage said. “More opportunity to learn. Life is nothing but a learning experience.”
The governor said the education system needs to focus on how to give students the chance to succeed in life.
“What we need to make sure so that the kids don’t drop out of school is that we teach them to learn,” LePage said. “It’s amazing, if we can teach them early enough how to learn, they get into the habit of learning. It makes no difference what career path that they take. Because really learning is from kindergarten all the way through your career. Even once you have a career you really have to continue to learn or you're going to be falling behind.”
The governor said the common denominator for successful school systems is the quality of the teachers, and having teachers with specific subject knowledge.
“I maintain that we need to have effective teachers,” LePage said. “How do you do that? You get the best and the brightest. You increase the standards so it’s tougher to get good teachers through the system. You raise the standards for our kids and you’re more demanding on what is going to be acceptable to pass or fail. We need to have stricter requirements. Once we have the best and the brightest, we have to pay them. So we have to right-size our educational system.”
He said the top 10 countries with the best education systems put their teachers in a high status, such as doctors and engineers.
“It’s a very high status and it’s very difficult to get into the education profession in some of these countries, and they’re very well paid,” LePage said.
The governor said 54 percent of community college students have to take remedial courses before they start their college work. LePage said one reason higher education is so expensive is that students have to be taught twice.
“That’s one of the things we can do right now — raise the standards in our K-12 system,” LePage said. “And rather than graduate kids based on age, or social graduation, we graduate and move them on once they’ve met the standards of information that they’re supposed to learn at the grade level. We need to go to standards.”
The forum, "Education – an Economic Imperative for the Midcoast", was co-hosted by the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, Rockland Economic Development Advisory Committee, Community and Economic Development Advisory Committee of Camden, Maine Coast Economic Alliance and the Many Flags/One Campus Foundation. It was sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank.
A panel discussion, Multiple Pathways – One Goal: How the high school experience may evolve in the 21st century, featured Judith Lucarelli, superintendent of Regional School Unit 13; William Shuttleworth, superintendent of Five Town Community School District; Susan Pratt, superintendent of School Administrative District 40; and Beth Fisher, director of Region 8, Mid-Coast School of Technology.
Superintendent Shuttleworth said schools are not meeting the needs of boys. He said 70 percent of dropouts are boys; 70 percent of students who are suspended or given detention are boys; 70 percent of all the top 10 students last year were girls.
“Public schools right now, however hard we are working, are not meeting the needs of our boys,” Shuttleworth said. “We need to retool that and face that.”
Shuttleworth’s main points were: Promote preschool education; stop telling students that they will be considered a failure if they do not attend college; support adult education; promote school choice, and start career education earlier.
“I’d like to promote school choice for all students in the state of Maine, which would allow students — at their cost and transportation — to attend any school that they wish as long as there’s an opening,” Shuttleworth said. “If kids from Rockland want to come to Camden or vice versa, they can do that. I think it would increase the quality of options for kids.”
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