The Maine Department of Education recently released the High School graduation rates for the state of Maine. Although the high school graduation rate is up within the state for the third year in a row, not all of the news was positive.

Of Maine’s 133 high schools, more than a third of the high schools in the state did not reach the 83 percent target set according to the federal accountability standards; more than 40 percent of Maine high schools did not improve their graduation rate from the year before, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Education.

Most alarming to Wiscasset residents is the fact Wiscasset has the lowest graduation rates in the state. It is also a concern of Wiscasset High School Principal Deb Taylor.

“Of course these rates concern me,” Taylor said. However, she pointed out the Department of Education calculate their graduation rates based on the number of students receiving diplomas in four years.What isn’t taking into account are students who begin school in Wiscasset and then move to another high school or students that enter Wiscasset from another school. Students are sometime required to take another semester or even another year to get their diploma.

“This doesn’t mean they are a drop-out,” Taylor said.“It means it took them longer to get their diplomas; they are still considered high school graduates.”  

Taylor cited economic factors contribute to students dropping out of school. Student mobility is higher than it has ever been with increasing number of students who transfer in and out of Wiscasset High School.

A weak employment market that has families moving around to find work, and a sharp rise in the state’s poverty level, also contributes to school dropouts, according to Taylor.

Preventing students from dropping out of high school even before they get there is what the 15-member Wiscasset High School Dropout Prevention Committee is working on for the 2013 school year. The committee is made up of community members, parents, a school board representative, the staff and facility at the school, and a student who had dropped out of school in the past.

The committee is focusing on improving communications with the elementary schools in Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 in an effort to identify students at risk of dropping out of school before they get to high school.

In an effort to increase the school graduation rate; the school has applied for a Melmac Grant of $10,000 per year for four years. According to Taylor, the grant would support college access programs at the school. Also programs designed to encourage students to stay in school giving them access to after-school programs as well.

These college access programs seek to increase the number of Maine high school graduates who aspire to enroll, and who actually enroll in, post-secondary study.

Hilary Holm, the chairman of the RSU 12 Board of Directors, said, “Of course it isn’t good to have the lowest rate of graduations in the state.”

However, with the increased transient population coming and going through Wiscasset High School now, and the fact that the graduation rates are based on four years of high school. “Wiscasset High School works with students. It doesn’t matter if it takes more than four years; that’s okay. That’s okay with the RSU as well,” she said. "They graduate, and that is what counts.”

Charlotte Boynton can be reached at 207-844-4632 or cboynton@wiscassetnewspaper..com.