LEWISTON – For many children of blue-collar workers in the 1990s, college wasn’t in the cards – especially if they went to Lewiston High School.

That’s no longer the case in this former mill town. The percentage of high school graduates going on to college has increased significantly, as have college aspirations.

Many schools don’t track the number of graduates who actually attend college, but the Maine Department of Education provided numbers showing student intent, which is usually higher than actual attendance.

In 2000, 58 percent of Lewiston High School students intended to go to college. At Edward Little High School in Auburn, the number was 73 percent. In Poland, the number was 71 percent, and in Turner 65 percent.

By 2007, Lewiston had improved its intent rate to 87 percent. Actual attendance this past fall was 78 percent.

By comparison, the statewide rate of students in a post-secondary program this fall was 56 percent, with not all schools reporting, according to the Mitchell Institute, which was created by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell to help get more Mainers to college.

“Lewiston has done a tremendous job,” said Colleen Quint, executive director of the Mitchell Institute. “Lewiston has focused very deliberately on kids who face significant barriers to go to college.”

One of those barriers is having parents who did not attend college. In those families, college is not always the “automatic next step,” Quint said. Other challenges include poverty and families that are unstable and transient. Both factors can lower student achievement.

The number of poor or disadvantaged students in Lewiston, those who qualify for free and reduced lunch, is 57 percent. The county percentage is 44 percent, and the state is 57 percent, according to the Department of Education.

Despite the barriers, Lewiston faculty have reached students “and lit a fire academically,” Quint said.

Roger Philippon, dean of public affairs at Central Maine Community College, agreed.

“Lewiston High is No. 1 in the state. I don’t think any other school comes close, in terms of the number of (high school) students taking college courses,” Philippon said. “We have a lot of those students here, at USM, and so on.”

The high school is unique for having an aspirations lab, Philippon said. The impact of that lab “is clearly demonstrated by the number of students they have in college courses. Lewiston High has clearly distinguished itself.”

Aspirations too low

The school’s efforts to raise aspirations “are probably a little cut above other schools,” and for a reason, Principal Gus LeBlanc said.

“When you look back 15 years ago, the aspirations of our kids were low in Lewiston compared to other kids in the state.”

Back then the top 20 percent of students took challenging courses and went to some of the best colleges in the country, said Joan Macri, the school’s aspirations lab director. Others studied to be electricians, plumbers and carpenters through Lewiston Regional Vocational Center programs. But many others “just didn’t go on,” Macri said. They went to work.

“We still had mills,” guidance counselor Debra Cloutier-Baggs said. Some went to work at the mills, others worked at Bath Iron Works, doing the kind of jobs their parents did.

The school was heavily tracked with general course offerings that didn’t prepare students for college. Faculty assumed kids in those courses weren’t college material, “and the kids bought into that,” Cloutier-Baggs said.

Forces inside and outside the school began to drive changes around 2000. One was the economy.

“We knew kids weren’t able to get those jobs out of high school,” Cloutier-Baggs said.

Another force for change was the Maine Department of Education’s directive for schools to get all high school graduates ready for college.

And a big shift occurred when state lawmakers converted Maine’s technical colleges into community colleges, offering two-year academic programs that are more accessible and affordable than four-year colleges. Auburn’s Central Maine Community College is one reason Lewiston’s college-bound numbers are climbing, Guidance Director Steve Clark said.

From ‘if’ to ‘where’

When the school began to focus on preparing all kids for a post-secondary education, the culture changed from students wondering, “If I’m going to college,” to, “Where I’m going,” Macri said.

The first step was forming Devils’ Advocate groups (after the school’s athletic nickname, the Blue Devils), in which students were matched with mentors for four years. The program was created after a student told a principal, “‘I can get through my entire day without one adult ever talking to me,'” Cloutier-Baggs said. “It was a wake-up call for us that kids were just going through the day and no one was paying attention to them, getting to know them, helping them.”

Educators began scrutinizing the curriculum to better understand which courses all high school students need to take to prepare them for college.

The school’s curriculum was changed and faculty worked to eliminate the easier, more general courses. Today, students are encouraged to take more science and math, including Algebra I and II. “We’re trying to get all kids through a program that would allow them to at least go to a two-year program,” Clark said. Some don’t go, “but if they decide to go when they’re 26, they’re prepared.”

In 2003 Lewiston received a grant to open the aspirations lab, which today is funded by city taxpayers. The lab, run by Macri, is where students drop in for encouragement and help in applying for admission and financial aid. The aspirations lab has made a difference, Guidance Director Clark said, turning good ideas that no one had time for into real events.

The lab generated trips for sophomores to go with faculty to visit colleges. Seeing a campus “is critical for the first generation going to college,” Macri said. “All of a sudden, they see themselves there.”

Lewiston began to participate in Early College, a program that allows high-schoolers to take courses at Bates College, Central Maine Community College, Andover College and the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College. More than 100 of Lewiston’s 700-plus juniors and seniors are taking college classes.

Wendy Ault of MELMAC Education Foundation, which awards grants for college visits, said Lewiston is rich with higher education opportunities. The high school exposes students to those opportunities “in a way that is so impressive,” Ault said.

All students are encouraged to think about post-secondary education as underclassmen, while they still have time to improve grades. Freshmen are asked to think about careers. Sophomores attend career fairs where more than 80 businesspeople come and talk about what they do.

Upperclassmen are encouraged to get involved in Early College. They and their parents receive frequent reminders about college deadlines. This year the school held two “FAFSA nights” to help seniors and parents fill out Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms.

The Class of 2007 was among the first to get such help during all four years at Lewiston High. The recent numbers are proof that the school’s efforts are paying off, Cloutier-Baggs said.

Educators also credit high school parents, who have responded to the school’s efforts with a “let’s-do-it” attitude, Macri said.

And more students understand they need some kind of education after high school.

“Last week I heard seniors in the hallway saying, ‘Hey, I got my EFC (expected family contribution) numbers” for the FAFSA form. “I never heard that before,” Macri said. “There’s a college-going culture here. It’s become contagious.”