Maine unveils plan to boost math and reading scores
After years of declining test scores, the Maine Department of Education is introducing a plan to bolster math and literacy skills statewide.
The department is taking a more hands-on approach than it has before, from helping districts identify evidence-based teaching materials and offering professional development for teachers to include families in learning plans.
While it can’t mandate that districts use the plans developed by expert advisory councils to promote better instruction, teachers and schools across Maine have been looking for guidance and would benefit from the support the department is now offering, according to several education experts that spoke with Maine Morning Star.
Maine students in 2024 had the lowest test scores in three decades in both reading and math, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, pronounced nape), which is administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Although national assessments only offer a snapshot into student achievement, some members of the Maine Legislature and several education experts expressed concerns about the consistent decline in learning outcomes.
While the department said the work to strengthen math and reading instruction was already underway, the poor test results underscored the importance and timeliness of offering districts additional support, according to Beth Lambert, the department’s chief teaching and learning officer.
“The national assessment results definitely reinforced what we already knew: too many students are struggling with these core skills,” Lambert said.
The department is hoping this effort will provide more sustained support that will turn the tide, she said, versus a quick response that “fizzles out.”
Over the past few months, the department formed councils led by school leaders and curriculum experts from across the state to develop plans to improve literacy and numeracy. The plans, which are now public, outline what the department will prioritize. The literacy plan is focused on using learning materials proven to help students read better, while the math plan aims to incorporate the subject more ubiquitously and remove some of the common student fears associated with it. Both plans focus heavily on teacher training and ongoing support.
The department will start by internally training staff to be coaches sent to districts for curriculum support and professional development, Lambert said. The feedback has already been positive, with many districts asking for resources like these to help them develop better methods to teach literacy and math, she said.
“I feel very hopeful and reassured by the department’s announcement,” said Janet Fairman, a University of Maine professor and co-director of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI,) which conducts legislative research. “That is exactly what’s needed, and I think educators in schools will welcome it.”
Both plans also address some gaps in support that educational experts and district leaders have pointed to as potential reasons for consistently falling scores. Some reasons students weren’t doing as well included the likely failure of schools to use evidence-based literacy and math programs; changing state-level assessments, which resulted in an unclear picture of academic performance over a period of time; and Maine’s strong prioritization of local control, which means the state doesn’t intervene enough, leaving it up to districts to figure out their own academic recovery strategies.
Evidence-based literacy
A 2023 Maine Education Policy Research Institute report found that the literacy programs used by schools vary widely, and aren’t always evidence-based.
The two most common reading programs Maine teachers were relying on in elementary grades did not meet quality standards, according to EdReports, a national nonprofit that studies and reviews instructional materials that was cited in the report.
Only 20% of administrators who responded to the research institute’s survey were using programs that met the EdReports quality requirements, which are based on the widely accepted Common Core standards.
Fairman, one of the report authors, said that’s because some districts did not have any specified reading curricula, and teachers aren’t sure what to use so they go online, ask their colleagues for ideas and materials, and rarely find resources that align with what’s been proven best for literacy. That’s one of the big reasons why reading scores have not been improving, particularly since the pandemic, Fairman said.
Now, the department plans to align all literacy plans with the science of reading, a vast body of research into what works when teaching students to read. The literacy plan also includes ensuring teacher preparation programs align their reading courses with evidence-based practices and make sure incoming teacher candidates complete a dedicated reading methods course.
The teacher training aspect is critical to improving reading outcomes, according to Sara Flanagan, an associate professor within the University of Southern Maine’s College of Education and Human Development.
Flanagan said professional development is “a critical part of the literacy plan so that teachers receive guidance and feedback on their instruction, and access to training to help implement and evaluate instruction in a way that aligns to evidence-based practices.”
Research has shown that when teachers have the preparation and support, they need to deliver effective reading instruction, their students are more likely to also have positive gains in reading, Flanagan said.
Incorporating math into all instruction
Renita Ward-Downer, director of instruction at the Brewer School Department and a member of the math advisory council, said the new numeracy plan she helped design is focused on building children’s confidence in math at an early age, integrating numeracy into everyday life, and addressing the negative attitudes towards math.
“Our big push is to really think about how we can get it out there that everybody has to do math every day,” she said.“Math has such a negative connotation, but it is all around us. This is about building the culture of thinking in that mathematical format.”
That will start by introducing math into other subjects, particularly at the elementary level, and training elementary school teachers accordingly, Ward-Downer said. The Brewer School Department is already partnering with the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (called the Rise Center) within the University of Maine to train teachers to adopt that approach this year, she said. She noted that professional development in math is not as widespread as it is for literacy.
The plan is also focused on demonstrating to students how math can be used in the real world, which will include close partnerships with the career and technical education centers.
“For example, you’re pulling in that construction person and talking about how they’re using math every day to build a house or build a deck,” Ward-Downer said.
At the end of this year, Brewer schools will survey teachers, students and families about their relationship with math to gauge whether they see themselves as problem solvers or mathematical thinkers as a result of the more integrated curriculum, and use the results to adjust instruction and professional development accordingly, she said.
Legislative support
Earlier this year, during a meeting of the Maine Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee,, Republicans and Democrats expressed their disappointment in the national test scores and told Maine Department of Education representatives that their response was “not sufficient.”
“I’m very, very unhappy,” Rep. Holly Sargent, D-York, said during the meeting.
Three members of the committee told the Maine Morning Star they’re encouraged by the department’s new initiatives.
“Student success depends on so many factors, including family life outside of the classroom, and improving student performance requires a comprehensive approach,” said committee co-chair Rep. Kelly Murphy, D-Scarborough.
“Focusing on evidence-based practices in reading and math and providing teachers with better access to high-quality instructional resources will have a positive impact on students throughout Maine.”
Pointing to the $10 million in literacy grants the DOE awarded to districts last year, Rep. Mike Brennan, D-Portland, said the reading and math plans are “the next step,” but added that there still needs to be accountability to ensure that the curricular support and teacher training is working.
“What I’m going to be looking for and talking DOE about is some further ways that we can measure outcomes and see if some of the training that we’re doing is effective with teachers,” he said. “Ultimately, we want to be able to monitor pretty closely how well students are doing and increase proficiency in both math and reading.”
The national test scores aren’t the best way to measure proficiency, Brennan pointed out, but since Maine has changed its state assessment system frequently over the last decade, it is not yet clear how the state will determine how successful these initiatives are.
Republican Rep. Barbara Bagshaw from Windham partly credited the Trump administration’s focus on “traditional academic learning” and Maine’s compliance with federal executive orders for the learning plans.
“For years, Republicans have been calling on the DOE and the Mills administration to focus on the basics in order to boost student achievement, so this represents a positive step in that direction,” she said. “I can’t help but think that federal support for children’s wellbeing is helping bring this about.”
Brennan disagreed, saying this is the culmination of work the department and the Legislature started five years ago.
While the department is using “back to basics” to describe the initiative, which is a phrase used nationwide by some Republican leaders to signal a shift from social emotional learning to more traditional education, both Brennan and the department emphasized that the label refers to a renewed focus on core learning principles.
“When we talk about ‘back to basics,’ we’re really talking about going back to what research shows us works, which is explicit and systematic instruction and reading and math,” Lambert said.
“It’s not a shifting of resources or moving of priorities.”
This story was first published by Maine Morning Star and is republished here under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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