MES in the news

Check out Saturday's article in the Portland Press Herald. Mr. Murphy did a superb job in capturing the potential of schools that "would be a blend of a traditional school and small-business incubator."

Group wants schools that mix business with lessons

We have a few quibbles about a few lines that could create some misunderstanding. Not the fault of Mr. Murphy, whose cheese-making example (crafted with some help from MES board member, Rosemont Market special project juggler, and very funny PPH wine writer Joe Appel) explains simply and elegantly the potential of learning linked to doing linked to the real work and markets of Mainers. The challenge Mr. Murphy, and MES faces, is describing a very different approach in the terms of the current system, which, quite frankly, makes some assumptions about learning and schools that we do not.


Quibble # 1: "D'Anieri said, the school would probably cost the same amount to run as a traditional school, especially with some of the education being provided by business people who aren't earning teaching salaries." D'Anieri (me) neither said nor thinks that our schools will "probably" cost the same. On a per-student basis, our schools WILL cost the same or less, and we have a financial model that makes that clear. And if we think in cost-per-graduate terms - figuring in employability, incarceration, and other post-graduation (or in many cases, post-dropout) costs - we're a downright bargain: see Jon Riggleman's excellent Times-Record piece, Time to Address Child Poverty and High Dropout Rates in Maine.)

Quibble #2 in that sentence (you see why this is so complex) is implication that the savings we'll achieve will result from "some of the education being provided by business people who aren't earning teaching salaries." Our funding staffing models have the school side replicating the adult/student ratio of the public school system. While we are absolutely designing education experiences that integrate the collaboration of enterprise-side adults, the phrase "with some of the education being provided by business people who aren't earning teaching salaries" will set off a bile-storm of folks who think we're privatizing schools and letting uncertified teachers teach.

In fact, a non-negotiable is that these schools function as "best-practice"public schools, including teaching jobs that attract a much wider variety folks to the teaching profession. We very much intend to pay these folks teacher salaries and have a draft of "portability" contract that can enable existing, certified, union (or not) teachers to maintain their career trajectory. And we fully expect that some of our teachers (like most of the adults I know) will be good at more than one thing and may choose a hybrid position: half-time chemistry teacher, school chef, and caterer. Our model is meant to enable our adults to run businesses in ways that bring young people into their fields AND provide a rigorous context for high-standards academic learning as well.

Quibble # 3: "He said Maine Enterprise Schools would like to see Maine law changed to make it easier for students to pick schools outside their towns." Well, sort of. But even truer is: Maine Enterprise Schools would like to see Maine law changed to make it easier for students to HAVE, and therefore attend, schools in their town.

There are already mechanisms for student "picking schools outside their towns." Where such mechanisms can be adapted for approaches such as ours, we hope to do so. Our Bath proposal, for instance, will be built on the funding structure of the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, which already draws students from 4 Midcoast districts (RSU1, RSU 12, AOS 93, and AOS 98). Many towns in Maine retained status as "sending districts" in the new consolidation model, and use a $9,066 dollar state-established tuition rate to "tuition" their students to neighboring districts, or in some cases, private schools. MES model establishes our schools as FULLY public schools that, in many cases, can keep public money that is currently going to private schools in Maine, and in the communities where those property tax dollars originate.

But an even more significant potential to the MES model is that it makes small, PUBLIC schools viable in towns that are thought to be too small to sustain them. Our model can thrive with the aforementioned $9,066 dollars per student, as long as we have at least 40 students. More important, though, is that our schools are designed NEVER to be larger than 100 students. Lubec, which closed it's high school, could have kept the doors open. Northhaven, which spends an enormous amount per-kid (and could continue to, but would not have to) would be able to fully realize the potential of their superb community based model. How can we do that? It is stunningly simple, despite all the arguments we'll hear from people who say it is impossible.

One of the simplest elements is that our small school model enables us to use existing community assets - public trust farms, mothballed school buildings, etc - assets that are often part of the non-profit, rather than public school, infrastructure. But more importantly, our education model is built on teaching kids, not classes. We neither accept, nor are encumbered by, the age-based, batch-sorting, everything must be taught by a narrowly-certified teacher standing in front 20-30 kids for 45 - 90 minutes model. Schools for students who learn best that way abound...and we wish them well. But our schools will offer a model made for those who do not thrive in such one-size fits all classroom. And our teachers will be trained in the best-practices (see the Nellie Mae Foundation's work on defining standards for 21st century Learning) that are being recommended for all schools - but will be able to implement those practices in schools that explicitly designed for them to thrive in.

Currently, the average school in Maine employs 11-14 adults for every child. 6-7 of those are teachers and administrators, and 5-7 of those are ed. techs and other hourly workers. With those 11 to 14 talented adults - and 100 kids who may range from 6th grade to 12 grade - our real-world based curriculum combines with online learning, flexible grouping, genuine STANDARDS-based learning so that students move on when they are ready and get extra instruction of they are not. Once schools get larger than 100 students, they tend to begin to behave like large schools - sorting and budgeting in ways that, more often than not increase inefficiency and decrease accountability.

So...we want our towns to have schools, regardless of the size of the town. We want our students to have adults they feel accountable to - who they genuinely want to impress - even if those adults are - lets be honest - not the ones they go home to every night. We want our parents to be accountable to the school - but we also our teachers to be accountable to the parents, businesses, and neighbors in a very real way.

So...apologies to Mr. Murphy for quibbling at such length. His article really does capture the vision. Because we're just as focused on the reality, as we are the vision, we need to get as clear as we can on the actual mechanisms, models, implications. For more on the policy pieces, please see our InnovationMaine education blog. And keep coming back to our this blog site for more on how to join us, to begin a conversation in your community, or support is in our mission: to preserve and transform community assets, create sustainable jobs, and help our young people envision a future in Maine.