Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Our View: 'Lowest-achieving' list
not necessarily bad news

Ten identified schools are first in line for education reform funding from Washington.

It would be easy to misread this week's announcement of the state's 10 "persistently low-achieving schools."

click image to enlarge

Nothing to be ashamed of: Portland's Riverton Community School.

Select images available for purchase in the
Maine Today Photo Store

This is not a list of the worst schools in the state, or even a list of failing schools. Not every school was included in the evaluation process, including some schools with serious problems.

What the list really represents is an opportunity for school districts that serve low-income students to break out of a negative cycle and make a difference for the families in their communities at a time when most education funding in Maine is facing cuts. This is nothing to be ashamed of, and these school districts should look at this listing as good news.

The 10 schools, which include Portland's Riverton Community School, are all schools that either receive or are eligible to receive federal funding through Title 1, a program designed to improve achievement of low-income students.

To get on the list, the school had to fail to show adequate yearly progress for two years, under standards set by the No Child Left Behind Program. Under a new federal program, the schools listed in each state as "persistently low-achieving" are offered more federal money to improve.

But this is not just throwing money at a problem, as some critics suggest. The federal funds come with tough conditions that some districts will not be willing to accept.

To be eligible, the receiving schools have to adopt one of four restructuring models. One, reforming as a charter school, would not be legal in Maine. Another, closing the school and transferring its students, wouldn't work in most rural communities.

The other two call for dramatic restructuring of the existing school. One choice, recently approved for a school in Central Falls, R.I., calls for the district to fire all administrators and teachers, and prevents it from hiring more than half the old teachers back.

The other calls for dramatic restructuring, including extending both learning and planning time. It also requires replacing the principal unless he or she has been on board for less than two years.

The Maine school districts willing to take this on would get help reforming their program and would be eligible for part of $12 million in federal grants over two years to implement those reforms. At a time when the state and localities are reducing funding for schools, no district should pass up a chance to make a positive difference in what they can do for students instead of just cutting programs.

If Maine is successful in its application for federal money from the Race to the Top program, more schools could get the same kind of reform efforts. Until that happens, these 10 schools have a unique opportunity, which makes this bad report card good news.