By Dominik Lobkowicz
The Department of Education released this year’s report cards for Maine’s schools May 15, and 12 of the 18 schools ranked in Lincoln County saw their scores slide from 2013.
The report cards are part of the Maine School Performance Grading System, and use a number of factors including student proficiency and graduation rates to provide each school a letter grade on the traditional “A” to “F” spectrum.
The department’s website says the system will provide a starting point for understanding how the schools are performing and present existing data in “an easy-to-understand format to bring transparency and accountability to school performance across the state.”
The department cautions, however, “Just as no one single score or grade tells the whole story [of] a student, neither does it tell you everything about a school.”
| High Schools | 2013 | 2014 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | Score | Grade | Score | |
| Boothbay Region High School | C | 303.5 | C | 294.5 |
| Lincoln Academy | C | 293.8 | D | 298.3 |
| Medomak Valley High School | C | 275.1 | D | 255.7 |
| Wiscasset High School | C | 241.4 | C | 228.2 |
| Elementary & Middle Schools | 2013 | 2014 | ||
| Grade | Score | Grade | Score | |
| Boothbay Region Elementary School | B | 283.4 | C | 245.7 |
| Bristol Consolidated School | C | 247.6 | C | 264.1 |
| Dresden Elementary School | A | 318.2 | A | 305.3 |
| Edgecomb Eddy School | A | 331.6 | A | 341.2 |
| Great Salt Bay Community School | B | 291.0 | C | 256.9 |
| Jefferson Village School | C | 279.8 | F | 195.3 |
| Medomak Middle School | D | 202.4 | F | 192.0 |
| Miller School | F | 178.3 | F | 195.7 |
| Nobleboro Central School | B | 285.3 | C | 251.2 |
| South Bristol Elementary School | A | 356.2 | A | 353.2 |
| Southport Central School | B | 282.3 | A | 323.9 |
| Whitefield Elementary School | F | 188.6 | D | 204.0 |
| Wiscasset Middle School | C | 241.7 | D | 219.0 |
| Wiscasset Primary School | B | 284.8 | D | 220.0 |
The 2013 and 2014 letter grades and scores for the 18 schools ranked in Lincoln County.
Click the letter grades to see the state’s full report
card for each school.
“We believe these improvements will allow the conversation to move beyond the merits of school grading and the validity of the data used so the focus can be where it should: celebrating successes in our schools and surfacing areas needing more support,” said Commissioner of Education Jim Rier in a recent post.
When the letter grades were released last May, Lincoln County had 15 schools at or above a C, and while C has remained the mode for this year’s grades, now scores have slipped and eight schools have a D or F score as opposed to only three the year before.
Though somewhat similarly derived, the scores for elementary and middle schools face a slightly different scale than high schools for determining what letter grade is given.
High schools have a maximum possible score of 500, and the letter grades break down as 350 or higher is an A, 300 or over for a B, 225 or over for a C, 200 or over for a D, and an F for scores under 200.
For the elementary and middle schools, the maximum possible score is 400. 300 or over is an A, 280 or over for a B, 225 or over for a C, 200 or over for a D, and under 200 is an F.
The scores are calculated on a formula based primarily on students’ proficiency in math and reading and the progress made from prior years.
Proficiency in the elementary and middle schools – only grades three to eight – is based the New England Common Assessment Program; in high schools, proficiency is measured in third-year students alone by the SAT.
Proficiency can also be measured in either case by the Personalized Alternate Assessment Portfolio, a department program designed for students with “significant cognitive disabilities.”
For elementary and middle schools, proficiency in math and reading counts for 50 percent of the letter grade, and proficiency growth counts for the remaining 50 percent.
For high schools, proficiency in math and reading counts for 40 percent of the letter grade, 40 percent is the progress the students made in those subjects, and the school’s four- and five-year graduation rates make up the remaining 20 percent.
Letter grades are also affected by the percentage of students that participate in assessments at a given school. Those schools with less than 90 percent participating automatically receive a failing grade; those with less than 95 percent receive a single letter grade reduction.
Two Lincoln County schools have had their letter grades affected due to participation rates.
Lincoln Academy actually went up in their total score from 2013 to 2014, but lost a letter grade because of an assessment participation rate of less than 95 percent.
Boothbay Region High School earned a ‘C’ in 2013 but would have earned a ‘B’ had they not lost a letter grade due to participation; this year they had 100 percent participation, but their total score dropped nine points, moving its base score into the ‘C’ range.
Last year, administrators of Lincoln County schools with grades both high and low in the spectrum took the grades with a grain of salt, generally pointing out that there are more aspects to a given school than the factors addressed in the report cards.
Learn more about the Maine School Performance Grading System here.
Read more about the report cards in the May 22 edition of The Lincoln County News.
