Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

Business leaders in Maine cannot find the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent they need to stay competitive. Students' lagging performance in K-12 is a critical reason why. The good news is that the nation's most effective STEM education programs can help turn the tide. Maine students have made progress in math over the…

This report presents findings from a randomized control trial designed to inform the decisions of policymakers who are considering using online courses to provide access to Algebra I in grade 8. It focuses on students judged by their schools to be ready to take Algebra I in grade 8 but who attend schools that do not offer the course. The study…

An early warning system is a data-based tool that helps predict which students are on the right path towards eventual graduation or other grade-appropriate goals. Through such systems, stakeholders at the school and district levels can view data from a wide range of perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of student data. This "Statewide…

In 163 Maine schools, the performance of eighth-grade students on standardized tests, especially reading achievement, was highest in elementary settings (K-8, K-9, 3-8) and lowest in junior-senior high school settings (6-12, 7-12, 8-12), when socioeconomic status and teacher experience were controlled. (SV)

A comparison was made of student understandings of marine science and marine resource concepts in two geographically distant but similar sociocultural regions of the United States. The study is based on the nature of ecological events, students' understanding in the context of meaningful learning, and the cultural context in which learning takes…

This report presents statistical data on the characteristics, distribution, enrollment rate, and academic achievement of language-minority children in Maine. The report contains three parts: (1) summative data on the total numbers of K-12 English monolingual and bilingual children in the state, private and public school survey return rates,…

This study assessed the level of scientific and natural resource knowledge that 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students in Maine possessed concerning acidic deposition. A representative sample of public school students (n=175) was interviewed on 12 concept principles considered critical to a full understanding of the acidic deposition problem. These…

This report compares Maine's reading and mathematics performance on the most recent administrations of the state assessment with performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To indicate how Maine is doing in narrowing the academic achievement gap between poor and non-poor students, the report presents NAEP data by family…