Article from the Bangor Daily News

By Diana Bowley, Of the NEWS Staff e-mail Diana
Last updated: Tuesday, April 2, 2002

PCHS earns national acclaim for high standards

GUILFORD

Piscataquis Community High School has made great strides in setting high academic standards for all of its students and that, among other accomplishments, has brought national acclaim once again to this SAD 4 school.

The school is one of seven in the nation selected this year to be profiled by the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment at the National Educational Conference on School Improvement to be held this June in California.

"I think schools all over the state of Maine and the country could look to Piscataquis Community High School as an example that is worth studying," Richard Tappan, an associate with the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, said Monday.

PCHS Principal Bruce Lindberg credited the students and faculty for the educational improvements. "I congratulate the teachers and students at PCHS over the past 10 years for the hard work and pride they have in setting high academic standards," he said Monday. Thirty-eight members of the senior class will attend Wednesday's legislative session when the Legislature will recognize the school.

The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment is a nonprofit organization that conducted a case study last year for a report that will be given to the Council of Chief State School Officers on June 26 at Palm Desert, Calif.

More than 500 schools were nominated for the study, and positive data were obtained and reviewed from 125 of the schools. As the process was whittled down, 13 schools were visited and seven were selected for inclusion in the report, according to Tappan. These seven schools had remarkable stories of dramatic improvement, he said.

For example, at PCHS, studies over the past 10 years show that the apparent gains in SAT and assessment scores were not flukes but were part of a systematic education change, Tappan said. The fact that PCHS gives all of its students the same high-quality education rather than tracking students in college preparatory, business and other classifications was a plus. Tappan said some schools cater to the top percentage of college-bound students and provide the rest of the students with "watered-down curriculum," but that was not the case at PCHS.

From the school visit and associated study, the national center found that there is uniform compliance and application of the curriculum at PCHS; that the school is committed to preparing all students for postsecondary education; that the expectations for students, teachers and all others in the school are clearly communicated; that school climate is orderly, positive and polite with no signs of behavior problems; and that collaborative work dominates all classes.

According to Tappan, the study of these schools show that major change is possible in as few as two to three years, although it is difficult and rare and that major change can be sustained for years after the initial implementation and it can be done in any school.

The study shows that "you can raise the bar for students in all kinds of communities, not just the affluent," Tappan said.

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