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THEODORA KALIKOW: 3 Maine programs show the way to successful student experiences

Theodora J. Kalikow

The state of education in our country needs to be improved. Even the president of the United States says so. Do we succeed by high-stakes testing? Abolishing teacher unions? Creating tiger parents? Starting charter schools?

Maine actually has answers. I have three favorite programs for today. Pay attention, America!

My No. 1 favorite program is Partnerships for Success. Based at the University of Maine, Farmington (humor me here), it works with the school districts in Dixfield, Rumford and Jay to increase post-secondary education aspirations for all their students.

Staff members from the Partnership, plus UMF faculty, UMF students and community mentors provide tutoring for individual students, professional development opportunities for teachers, cultural excursions, college visits and job-shadowing programs in local businesses and industries.

Families are involved. Regional companies, private foundations, and state and federal agencies all cooperate to provide funding, mentors, programming and in-kind contributions.

Major partners among the more than 25 in this work include Federal Gear-up, the Melmac Foundation, the Finance Authority of Maine, the 21st Century Fund and Franklin Memorial Hospital.

The program is more than 10 years old and it works. Almost 80 percent of the high school graduates in the Dixfield schools consistently now go on to college or training programs. When the program started, it was 37 percent.

My second favorite program is Educare in Waterville. This one was inspired by Doris Buffett, who saw an earlier example in another state. She decided that Maine needed Educare, and she teamed up with Karen Baldacci, the William and Joan Alfond Foundation, Waterville public schools and a host of other community agencies and individuals to make it happen.

Now a brand-new facility is beside the Mitchell School, and it can serve up to 200 low-income children.

Only the 12th Educare in the country and the first in New England, the program offers comprehensive early childhood education services by partnering with and bringing on site community-based agencies such as the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program and Head Start to deliver them. The services include early childhood education by highly qualified professionals, nutrition and health counseling and full-spectrum support for the whole family.

My third favorite program is Jobs for Maine's Graduates (JMG), presided over by Craig Larrabee, UMF Class of 1992.

JMG serves more than 4,000 students per year from sites in more than 60 schools, with a program specialist based at each one.

Jobs for Maine's Graduates started as a program for at-risk high school youth and has now expanded to include programs to help middle-schoolers transition into high school, a statewide mentoring partnership and a financial literacy program called Opportunity Passport.

Jobs for Maine's Graduates also has a well-developed, impressive network of support from school districts, government funding, private Maine and national foundations, and business and industry.

I hope the pattern is clear. What do the students -- of any age -- need to succeed? That is the focus. Perhaps it is the awareness of what training and education are needed for an imagined career. Or maybe it is help in imagining a career at all. Or perhaps the student would learn better through a job-shadowing experience, an adventure education program, a visit to a college, a tutor or a mentor.

Maybe the child would thrive if Dad made a better breakfast. Maybe if Mom goes back to school or helps out on a school trip, the children's achievement will rise.

All these programs are at least 10 years old. While Educare is in a new facility, the ideas on which it is based are tested and proven. The same is true for Jobs for Maine's Graduates and Partnerships for Success. They have been doing their thing here in Maine for a long time, and their track record for improving student success is solid.

So why are we still asking the same questions when we know the answers and have the models?

In Maine, we do not need to go around saying what a bad job somebody did or how we have to wreck the school system or punish teachers or make testing more severe. We have to do more of what we know how to do, what we already know works and what everybody wants to do. Government, business and industry, private foundations, and educational institutions are all engaged in doing this work.

When these programs work with schools, the schools' results improve. That is the bottom line. Schools are not isolated from society. They live or die by active community involvement. All three of these Maine examples mobilize the community to serve the schools and ensure student success.

We know what to do; let's do more of it.

Theodora J. Kalikow is president of the University of Maine at Farmington. She can be reached at kalikow@maine.edu