Summary:
The city of Searsport, Maine, is home to three public schools: Searsport Elementary School, Searsport District High School, and Searsport District Middle School, all of which are part of the Regional School Unit 20 district. The data analysis reveals that these schools are performing significantly below the state average on various metrics, including test scores, school rankings, and chronic absenteeism rates.
Searsport Elementary School is the highest-performing of the three, with 66.67% of students proficient or better in ELA and 40.86% proficient or better in Math, compared to the state averages of 65.43% and 47.21%, respectively. However, the school is still ranked 206 out of 288 Maine elementary schools, with a 1-star rating. The Searsport District High School and Searsport District Middle School both perform significantly worse, with only 25% and 48.51% of students proficient or better in ELA, respectively, and even lower Math and Science proficiency rates.
The high rates of free and reduced lunch recipients, ranging from 59.2% to 74.36% across the three schools, suggest that the schools serve a population with a higher proportion of students from low-income families, which may contribute to the lower academic performance. Additionally, all three schools have a chronic absenteeism rate of 23.4%, which is significantly higher than the state average. While the student-teacher ratios are relatively low, this does not seem to be translating into better academic outcomes for the students in Searsport.
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