A large percentage of the international secondary students in the United States come from Asian countries. Their enrollments are closely connected to the cultural, curricular, and extracurricular diversity of their American schools. Despite their contribution, stereotypical depictions of these students and deficit-informed research still abound in…

This publication is the complete transcript of a weekly radio program devoted to contemporary issues in American education. This particular program is the second of two that focus on the topic of school consolidation. In separate segments of the program, Wendy Blair and John Merrow of National Public Radio discuss declining school enrollment and…

This third-party evaluation report, presented in six sections, begins with an introductory section on the procedures used to evaluate the Bilingual Human Services Educational Consortium. (The consortium, a one-year college level program, prepares underemployed and unemployed Franco-Americans for paraprofessional human service jobs.) Also described…

This report presents results of the third year of a project designed to enhance employability and career mobility of limited English speaking Franco-American adults in jobs providing services for the elderly. The first section states project objectives of the college-level, credit-bearing program conducted at five university campuses: (1) to…

Background: Maine was one of eight states to consistently meet funding recommendations for tobacco control from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and one of three states to experience 45%-60% reductions in youth smoking rates since 1999. Purpose: The state's tobacco control coalition, Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine, sought…

The purpose of the Maine Assessment of Educational Progress (MAEP) in 1972 was to complete the first phase of a 10-year comprehensive needs assessment program involving students in public and non-public schools of the state. The total program is designed to provide specific information about knowledge, skills, understandings, and attitudes in 10…

Inmigration to Maine was found to have altered population distribution, increased the proportion of younger, highly educated persons, and provided a pool of professional/managerial persons for community involvement. Data gathered from 417 persons moving into Maine during the July through December period of either 1980 or 1983 showed inmigrants to…

Children are among the poorest of Maine's residents. Nearly 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, 19.3%, lived in families below the federal poverty line in the early 1990s. Most of these poor children lived in working families. The working poor are often missing from policy debates, but their numbers are likely to increase with welfare reform…

Nontraditional online adult graduate students ages 25 and older have unique challenges toward achieving their academic goals as compared to younger learners. These older graduate students usually already have families, careers, and other demands on their time. Deciding to pursue their advanced degrees is typically related to gaining a competitive…

For over 400 years, Wabankaki children of Maine and eastern Canada have been assimilated into schools established by European immigrants. Low high school graduation rates, poor achievement outcomes, and overrepresentation of students in special education reveal an "invisible crisis" that threatens the survival of the indigenous culture…

This state report card is derived from "Measuring Up 2004," the national report card for higher education. Its purpose is to provide the public and policymakers with information to assess and improve postsecondary education in each state. "Measuring Up 2004" is the third in a series of biennial report cards. The report card…

The Physics First movement--teaching a true physics course to ninth-grade students--is gaining popularity in high schools. There are several different rhetorical arguments for and against this movement, and it is quite controversial in physics education. However, there is no actual evidence to assess the success, or failure, of this substantial…

In this article, the author describes the successful laptop program employed at Mt. Abram High School in Strong, Maine. Through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, the school has issued laptops to all 36,000 teachers and students in grades 7-8. This program has helped level the playing field for a student population that is 50 percent to 55…

Northern New England, comprised of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, has the opportunity to plan carefully and intentionally so that the region is not plagued by problems of segregation and can instead benefit from the impending racial change and increased diversity to create and sustain diverse learning environments. There are no serious…

Since we were young, we have been raised to believe that "bigger is better" and that the big city is the place you have to go to live an exciting life and have a successful career. Far too many individuals believe that small and rural towns are not the places for opportunity but that they are places to live for those who have no…