enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Courtney Connolly, left, a junior, and Sovanaka Diep, a senior, are two Portland High School students who dropped out of school but are now back and doing well.

enlarge Staff Graphic/Michael Fisher

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James Morse

Maine high school graduation and dropout rates
Download a list of schools' dropout rates organized by county, or view a list of schools ranked by dropout and graduataion rates.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

TODAY: Portland's incoming superintendent James Morse plans to work on reducing the district's dropout rate, something that has been a personal issue for him as an educator since he dropped out of Portland High School when he was a junior.

TUESDAY: Portland's multilingual student population is growing, and it's one area where the incoming superintendent has little experience.

WEDNESDAY: A look at the administrative, financial and facilities challenges Portland's new schools chief faces when he takes the job in July.

MEET THE NEW GUY

THE PORTLAND SCHOOL Committee has scheduled several public gatherings to introduce James Morse to the community before he becomes superintendent in July. All are at 6 p.m.

APRIL 28: Moore Middle School, 171 Auburn St.

MAY 8: Presumpscot Elementary School, 69 Presumpscot St.

MAY 12: King Middle School, 92 Deering Ave.

MAY 21: Deering High School, 370 Stevens Ave.

 

First in a three-part series

PORTLAND — James Morse dropped out of Portland High School when he was a junior, so he knows better than most people why some students stop going to school and what hurdles they face without a diploma.

That's why dropout prevention has been a focus of his career in education so far, and why Morse plans to make a point of reducing Portland's relatively high dropout rate when he becomes superintendent of schools here in July.

Morse carries some clout in the matter. Messalonskee High School, in School Administrative District 47, where he has been superintendent since 1997, had a dropout rate of 2.5 percent in 2006-07.

That's less than half the statewide dropout rate of 5.2 percent, and significantly lower than the 4.9 percent combined dropout rate for Portland's three public high schools, according to the most recent data from the Maine Department of Education. The national dropout rate is about 4 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But Morse isn't crowing because Messalonskee, in Oakland, had the 16th best graduation rate among 133 public high schools in Maine. Twenty-two of Messalonskee's 891 students dropped out that year, and he took every one as a personal failure.

"That's 22 kids that I lost," Morse said. "For those 22 kids, we got an F."

In Portland, Morse said he plans to bolster dropout prevention efforts already happening and seek new ways to help students graduate. He believes it's a community concern as well as a district concern that must be addressed from kindergarten through high school.

"It's about changing a mind-set on what's acceptable," Morse said.

Portland school administrators and others say they're looking forward to the emphasis that Morse promises to bring to the issue.

They include Mike Johnson, principal of Portland High, which had a dropout rate of 6.5 percent in 2006-07. Sixty-nine of 1,061 students in grades nine through 12 dropped out that year. Like Morse, Johnson takes personal responsibility for each student lost and welcomes Morse's shared passion on the subject.

"This is a community issue, and it needs that kind of attention," Johnson said. "I'm not passing the buck, but that's a big part of it. I have people here who will go to kids' homes and knock on their doors and get them out of bed if they're not here in the morning. That's the type of stuff we're willing to do."

But the district needs to do more, Johnson said.

Portland High's alternative education program, which is dedicated to keeping at-risk students in school, consists of one full-time teacher, two part-time teachers, an educational technician and a social worker. Last year, the program enrolled 191 students in grades nine through 12; 109 stayed in school, 37 graduated and 25 were accepted to some form of higher education. Eighty-two dropped out.

"That's a lot of success, but that's a lot of failure, too," said Beth Arsenault, who is the program's director and full-time social studies and English teacher.

In addition to alternative education, Portland High has grant-funded dropout prevention programs such as Reconnecting Youth and Jobs for Maine's Graduates. So does Deering High School, where the dropout rate was 3.3 percent in 2006-07; 41 of its 1,237 students stopped attending school that year.

Casco Bay High School, which culminates the district's expeditionary learning program, reported a dropout rate of 4.8 percent in 2006-07, when eight of its 167 students stopped attending school.

All three high schools have organized their students and staffs into smaller groups that encourage personal interactions and instruction, said Ken Kunin, principal of Deering High. Ideally, if a student is in danger of dropping out, guidance counselors and social workers intervene and stay in contact if the student leaves.

"Usually, we know where they...