MAINE: Declining enrollment, increase in SPED since 2012, test scores going down

Oct 26. 2025, Maine Monitor: Leaders struggled to respond as more Maine students began to flounder

https://themainemonitor.org/leaders-struggle-students-flounder 

There is no consensus around why certain Maine kids are performing worse on tests, but losses may reflect deeper challenges facing Maine schools and families.

Maine’s test scores on a national standardized test have taken a staggering tumble since the 2000s, when Maine was hailed as one of the higher-performing states in the country.

Now Maine fourth graders rank in the bottom 15 states on standardized test performance in math and reading, and eighth graders have fallen to at or below average performance. 

A Maine Monitor analysis of 20 years of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — showed that low-income students and those with disabilities have seen the biggest losses in their test results since performance peaked in the 2000s.

But Maine leaders have struggled to react with a comprehensive effort to improve results due to a lack of consensus over what issues to address, as well as hesitancy to trust or use the test scores as a way to measure how Maine students are performing.

A representative, randomly selected sample of about 7,000 public school students in grades four and eight take the tests every other year, according to the Maine Department of Education. 

“There are so many different potential contributing factors. It’s not about finding any one single cause for this. It’s more important to now ask, ‘What do we do with this information?’’”

said Janet Fairman, a researcher at the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, which conducts analyses for lawmakers. “At the state level, there is a huge need for strong leadership on education. And that can make a real difference.”

Many have blamed the decline in testing performance on a variety of issues that plague Maine, such as absenteeism, smart-devices in the classroom, poverty and teacher shortages.

Teachers and education researchers have also argued that skyrocketing education costs in a tight budget landscape can limit schools’ abilities to pay for professional development, fund math and literacy coaches, or make sure instructional materials are up to date.

Maine now ranks in the bottom five states for the number of hours it instructs students each year, according to a study by the education research institute. Another study showed it’s common for Maine schools to rely on instructional materials that have been proven ineffective to teach core subjects such as reading.

The institute’s research also points to a rise in disruptive behavior in classrooms that makes it more difficult for students to learn.

Many states across the nation are seeing declines in test scores. The Boston Globe’s magazine reported this month that New England states especially are suffering in NAEP performance, losing ground to historically low-performing southern states since the No Child Left Behind Act was replaced in the 2010s. The controversial policy aimed to close performance gaps among marginalized students and boost academic competitiveness, but schools that did not perform well risked losing staff or federal funding.

Maine and Vermont’s reading scores dropped the equivalent of 1.5 grade levels since 2013, The Globe wrote, and New England leaders had “limited interest in truly confronting the region’s decline.” . . .

Students with additional needs, such as those with autism, attention hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia, have a harder time accessing standard education. In Maine, special education students — those with plans that allow specialized instruction or other accommodations — are more likely to be siloed off from the general student population compared with the national average, according to a recent Maine Monitor analysis. . . .

Even as the overall student population has declined, Maine has seen an increase in the number of students in special education since 2012. . . .

The state education department announced on October 9 that it plans to strengthen “back-to-basics reading and math skills” in Maine at the direction of Gov. Janet Mills. The effort, called the Maine State Reading and Math Action Plans, aims to increase evidence-based instruction in schools and boost training for educators to improve kids’ literacy and math skills.. . .