The Maine Department of Education on Monday released high school graduation rates for 2010-11, touting a 1 percent increase from the previous year, for a statewide rate of 83.79 percent. The rate has risen steadily since the 2008-09 school year, when a new formula, which records the percentage of students in a given class that graduates within four years of entering high school, was first introduced.

That rate puts Maine ahead of the national average, which at 75 percent is rising, as well, from 72 percent in 2001, according to America’s Promise Alliance, a national group working toward the goal of a graduation rate of 90 percent by 2020. In the last three years, 21 Maine schools have seen an increase of more than 10 percent.

However, while the graduation rates improved at 64 schools, 66 schools saw a decrease. Those include such high schools such as Scarborough and Gorham, which both fell slightly from rates of more than 90 percent. The higher the rate, of course, the more susceptible it is to yearly ebbs and flows, especially with the relatively small number of students at individual schools.

But the state’s report is clear on where schools should be focusing their energy in keeping students engaged and enrolled.

“Girls graduated at a higher rate than boys: 86.45 percent compared to 81.29 percent,” the report said. “The rate for students in lower-income families was 72.66 percent, approximately 2 percentage points higher than last year, but still below the statewide average for all students.”

Clearly, boys from lower-income families are the most at-risk for dropping out from high school, and programs need to target those students in order to continue to increase graduation rates. Fortunately, many schools are wise to the trend, and are modeling programs that could be used throughout the state.

One such program is the One Classroom Project, South Portland’s alternative education program, so-called because it houses 22 students spread across the four high school grade levels in one classroom. Each of the last two years, the group has joined in a boat-building workshop with the Portland-based Compass Project, which also conducts similar workshops with Gorham and Falmouth schools.

The program allows students who are at risk of failing in a conventional classroom the chance to learn practical skills – and build confidence – in a different setting.

“A lot of students become disinterested in school because they don’t think they’re going to succeed because they haven’t succeeded, and so they just drop out,” said Shane Hall, Compass Program supervisor. “But what we do here keeps those at-risk students engaged, on track to education and, which is our primary goal, out of the juvenile justice system.”

Schools should also continue to push students toward vocational studies when appropriate. Those programs, which have been a particular focus of the LePage administration, not only can keep students engaged who might not otherwise succeed in school, but they also can provide students with the specific skills needed to fill the Maine workforce.

“It turns the light bulbs on,” Rosie Schacht, vocational programs director at Lake Region Vocational Center in Naples, said last year, when that district opened a renovated building. “It turns on the enthusiasm when they come to school. We know that a student has so many more options now because of their vocational education program.”

Ben Bragdon is the managing editor of Current Publishing. He can be reached at bbragdon@keepmecurrent.com or followed on Twitter.

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