A team of researchers from the Maine Education Policy Research Institute recently chose Great Salt Bay Community School to participate in a study of “higher performing, more efficient public schools in Maine.”
The researchers will visit Great Salt Bay Community School (GSB) Thurs.-Fri., March 24-25, to complete the portion of the study specific to the school.
“It’s an honor to be selected,” GSB principal Jeff Boston said March 22. “It should be a celebration for the entire community.”
Boston credited the hard work of students, staff and parents with contributing to the school’s success.
According to a March 18 letter from Boston to the parents of GSB students, the researchers will conduct classroom and common area observations as well as focus groups with students and teachers.
The team will interview administrators, teachers and other school employees, as well as parents.
The state legislature is funding the study. According to Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) documents, “The goal of the study is to identify the strategies and practices that [higher performing and efficient] schools are using to support all learners.”
MEPRI identified 90 “schools whose students are beating the odds by performing significantly better on state assessments than is predicted from student and community characteristics.”
GSB is one of only 25 schools that will receive a visit. The 25 include “comparison” schools or schools “obtaining average student performance.”
In addition to performance standards, MEPRI considers an “efficiency criterion” that “identifies schools… not spending disproportionately more than other schools for the higher performing student outcomes achieved.”
The institute, based at the University of Southern Maine, also considered schools’ “success in educating economically disadvantaged students” and other factors in the selection process.
The researchers will prepare a final report at the completion of the study, providing information to help schools and districts “improve educational outcomes for all” and providing “knowledge” to the legislature in order “to further the dialogue and promote critical policy change.”
