AUGUSTA (AP) — A new Harvard study that gave Maine low marks for student test score improvement serves as a wake-up call that more must be done to improve public schools, Gov. Paul LePage said Wednesday.
The study, “Achievement Growth: International and U.S. State Trends in Student Performance,” put Maine second from the bottom among states for test score improvement between 1992 and 2011.
LePage said he’s calling on the education commissioner, school administrators and teacher unions to implement new educational practices focused on student learning.
“Clearly, the status quo in education is not working,” LePage said.
Education officials said Maine students still have above-average test scores, but that there’s been little improvement during years. In 1992, Maine had the thirdhighest test scores, but the state has since fallen to No. 12, LePage said.
The report, released by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, took a look at international and U.S. state trends in student achievement growth for fourth- and eighth-grade test score gains in math, reading and science.
Among countries, the U.S. ranked in the middle of a group of 49 nations that were included in the study.
Maine had the second-slowest rate of improvement between 1992 and 2011 among the 41 states included in the study.
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