For taxpayers, few figures resonate quite like per pupil costs. In a massive, complicated budget, using the average amount spent on each student is a quick, uncomplicated way to compare school districts.

As students prepare to return for the school year, a newly released statewide study aims to take that assessment a step further by introducing achievement into the equation. The study, funded by the Legislature and conducted by the University of Southern Maine’s Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation, identified schools that are exceeding state averages on a number of measures of student performance while exhibiting a higher return on spending. The group then visited these “More Efficient Schools” to see what made them that way, and how that can be translated to lesser-performing schools.

The study begins by noting that K-12 education in the United States faces unprecedented challenges. Global competition calls for greater and greater performance, in the face of funding shortfalls and limited resources. We would add a rising income disparity and the ever-increasing demands on special education as intense challenges to providing quality education to all students.

But the good news is that the Maine schools excelling in this study are found throughout the spectrum. They are urban and rural, large and small, and spread out across the state. And they provide at least a loose guide for developing high-performing schools in a time of severe budgetary distress.

According to the study, the state’s most efficient schools work tirelessly and tenaciously to get the most out of all their resources, all for the purpose of increasing achievement for all students. Teachers are given a clear and structured course for professional development, and push each other to improve. Administrators are a visible presence throughout the school, visiting classrooms and offering advice to teachers on a formal and informal basis. Parents and volunteers are engaged, and asked to participate in school and after school in activities focused solely on improving the students’ academic and social education, and not merely for the sake of outside involvement.

In addition, time in school, from classes and study halls to, at the lower levels, recess and snack, is considered precious, and not a bit is wasted. Staffing is structured so that more students can be taught by fewer educators, and holes in the curriculum forced open by budget cuts are filled using creative means, such as community help and grant funding.

As the study says in its summary:

“More efficient schools were more consistent in their high expectations and high standards for all members of the school community and implemented more rigorous curricula with engaging instruction. In addition, more efficient schools had good leadership, supportive school cultures, and many of the other characteristics found in our literature review.

“A deeper analysis of the evidence also revealed that in the more efficient schools, these features came together to form a distinctive culture: a culture that is more than the sum of the individual parts, and consists of features that cut across and encompassed the categories of characteristics found in earlier studies.

“What we found to be unique among the more efficient schools is a singular, sustained focus that places students and their intellectual development at the center of all work.”

The measurements used in the study are not perfect. But they are a good starting point at a time when most school districts are being asked to do more with less, and the cost of not doing it well is higher than ever.

Ben Bragdon, managing editor

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