SOMESVILLE, Sept. 17, 2020 – It’s anyone’s guess what this year will hold as the pandemic wreaks havoc with standardized testing in schools.
The Covid-19 risk, coupled with ongoing uncertainties about what schools will look like next year, is prompting states to consider another year without testing and may lead the federal government to delay the main National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and math for the first time ever, Education Week reported.
Which leaves us with only historical data to assess the performance of our schools. On MDI, That’s a blessing, as the island’s schools continue their extraordinary above-average report cards.
Based on test results for 2019 – the last year results were universally accepted – MDI high school and its K-8 schools ranked among the top schools in Maine, with one glaring exception, Tremont Consolidated School, which received some warning signs.
The school ranking site Niche.com has Mount Desert Elementary School as the No. 8 school in Maine, following by Connors-Emerson (Bar Harbor) at No. 11 and Pemetic in Southwest Harbor at No. 13. That went against prevailing belief that Connors-Emerson is the best elementary school on MDI.
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-public-elementary-schools/s/maine/?gradeMax=-1,8
Tremont Consolidated School was ranked No. 36.
But another site has very different rankings. Schooldigger.com ranks Connor-Emerson in Bar Harbor as No. 19 in the state, and Mount Desert Elementary School as No. 37. Pemetic School in Southwest Harbor was ranked 41. You may search for your school here https://www.schooldigger.com/go/ME/schoolrank.aspx
“I wouldn’t want to be blind for four years from 2019 to 2023, in one of the most critical and volatile periods in American educational history,” said Andrew Ho, Harvard University education economist.
| Year | Avg Standard Score | Statewide Rank | Total # Ranked Elementary Schools | ME State Percentile | SchoolDigger Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 54.74 | 75th | 192 | 60.9% | |
| 2007 | 63.98 | 54th | 198 | 72.7% | |
| 2008 | 69.37 | 42nd | 195 | 78.5% | |
| 2009 | 73.80 | 16th | 209 | 92.3% | |
| 2010 | 43.07 | 119th | 193 | 38.3% | |
| 2011 | 57.49 | 71st | 186 | 61.8% | |
| 2012 | 43.88 | 159th | 258 | 38.4% | |
| 2013 | 53.29 | 119th | 261 | 54.4% | |
| 2015 | 78.41 | 68th | 284 | 76.1% | |
| 2016 | 61.14 | 86th | 255 | 66.3% | |
| 2017 | 51.90 | 113th | 256 | 55.9% | |
| 2018 | 37.82 | 175th | 254 | 31.1% |
What is happening in Tremont where schooldigger.com is reporting that “Tremont Consolidated School is not ranked due to insufficient test score?” According to schooldigger.com, Tremont was ranked 175th in the state in 2018, the last year data was available, the lowest it’s ever been ranked.
But there is plenty of good news. Mount Desert High School ranks No. 10 among the 114 high schools in Maine, according to schooldigger.com. The following chart shows how MDI HS compares with other Maine high schools. MDI boasts a student/teacher ratio of 10.5 among its 545 students. In 2019 the calculated Average Standard Score was at 93.18 percentile compared to the rest of the state.
