Disclosure: The Maine Wire is a project of the Maine Policy Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to expand individual liberty and economic freedom in Maine.
Once a national leader in education, Maine’s K-12 public schools system is facing a multitude of challenges, including declining reading and math scores, an increase in behavioral and mental health issues among students and a dire teacher shortage, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Maine Policy Institute.
The 91-page report, entitled “The Decline of Maine K-12 Education,” was authored by Maine Policy Institute education fellow and social science researcher Jonah Davids, and details a staggering decline in student achievement, teacher satisfaction and classroom safety in Maine schools over the past 38 years.
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Utilizing the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) ranking as a measure of academic achievement in math and reading, the report found that while Maine consistently ranked first or second for math in reading in the 1990s, by 2022 the state’s ranking has plummeted to an average of 36th nationwide.
A 20 percent increase in the average inflation-adjusted amount Maine schools spent on each pupil from 2006 to 2022 resulted in math and reading proficiency remaining stagnant or falling.
The report attributes this decline in part to a shift in educational policy driven by state and federal mandates that have “undermined local control over education” and burdened educators with multiple “deleterious effects” stemming from new teaching, testing and class management requirements.
Among those effects set forth in the report include teachers being forced to adopt new, often experimental, teaching methods that haven’t yielded consistent improvements, and schools having to juggle an ever-growing list of complex responsibilities, from raising test scores to addressing mental health concerns of students.
The report cites national statistics indicating that the median American teacher spends only half their time teaching, and 27 percent on grading, planning and administrative duties.
These “top-down, centralized, and bureaucratic” policies, Davids argues in the report, have resulted in a significant increase in administrative duties, leaving teachers with less time to actually teach, and have “blurred the line between teacher, therapist, and activist.”
According to statistics cited in the report, only 32 percent of experienced teachers in Maine are “very satisfied” with their job, and 56 percent recently considered quitting the profession.
Davids points to a 2020 study showing a significant source of job dissatisfaction among public school teachers is low pay, especially in Maine where salaries have fallen behind the national average and those of neighboring New England states.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt acutely in Maine schools, with the report finding that Maine experienced one of the largest drops in test scores during the
pandemic.
Maine is also currently facing “one of the direst teacher shortages in America,” with 1,311 educators quitting and 927 retiring in 2022, with a sharp uptick in resignations among public school educators beginning in 2020, per the report.
Also highlighted in the report is a recent rise in behavioral and mental health issues in Maine schools.
According to the report, incidents involving violence, drugs and weapons have nearly tripled in Maine schools since 2014, while Maine teachers now resort to using restraints and seclusion on students at a higher rate than any other state in the nation.
The mental health of students, particularly girls, is another troubling area discussed in the report, finding that nearly half of Maine high school girls reported feeling hopeless or sad in 2021, with a third reporting engaging in self-harm and 11 percent attempting suicide.
Additionally, Davids outlines the growing influence of gender ideology in schools, noting a tripling in the number of female students identifying as transgender — now one in 25 identifies as transgender — between 2017 and 2021, and instances of guidance counselors facilitating gender transitions without parental involvement.
Maine education, according to Davids, has become increasingly ideological, with schools prioritizing “therapeutic and ideological initiatives like social-emotional learning and diversity, equity, and inclusion over conventional academics.”
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“While individuals in good faith can disagree about these issues, schools that promote divisive ideological views violate the public trust, alienate many of their students and staff, and distract from core functions of schooling, such as teaching children mathematics, science, and history,” Davids writes in the report.
The full “Decline of Maine K-12 Education” report can be read here.
The Maine Policy Institute’s press release and summary of the report can be read here.
Davids joined Matt Gagnon, CEO of the Maine Policy Institute, on Newsradio WGAN Tuesday morning to discuss the findings of his report and the contributing factors behind Maine’s fall in nationwide education rankings.
“I think what’s perhaps unique about Maine is that it’s been a leader in education reform for a long time, and arguably just the reforms of the last couple of decades, and really the last decade in particular, have been really, really bad,” Davids said. “And so, being number one, being the leader, is not always good if the things that you’re leading in are themselves not great.”
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Emphasizing the role of top-down educational reforms and standards, Davids told Gagnon that “many of things can have some good elements to them, but you have to have a whole bureaucracy in place to do that, which ends up sort of cutting into the time and the bandwidth of normal teachers who are just trying to teach their classes.”
“I think right now is the time to look critically at what’s going on, go to your own school district, get involved, and just start to have these conversations about what can we get out of our schools,” Davids said, stressing the importance of schools getting “back-to-basics” on teaching.
Listen to Jonah David’s segment on Newsradio WGAN with Matt Gagnon below:
