FAYETTE — The Fayette Central School recently had the distinction of being honored as a high-performing school by the Maine Department of Education. It was one of 21 Maine schools to receive recognition.

“I was so excited that the school and staff have finally received outside recognition for all the hard work they have been doing,” said Principal Ann Pike. “The students know and feel that they have a whole community supporting them.”

Fayette Central School, Pre-K through Grade 5, has a student population of

76 with four classroom teachers, one Title 1 staff member, two educational technicians who serve various roles, a part-time special education teacher, allied arts personnel, a principal and a part-time superintendent.

Pike has been working with staff since 2000 as a consultant focusing in the areas of curriculum development, assessment, and professional development. This year she is the Principal.

Pike noted that in 2005, the school began looking for ways to raise student learning and test scores. It had only 50 percent of its students proficient in reading and only 33 percent proficient in math. The No Child Left Behind Law had recently passed and it’s projected targets were 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

“We knew we had to do better and staff rose to the challenge by taking the yearly target scores seriously,” she said. “We started looking at the data from the MEA tests and then NECAP. We analyzed released items noticing the language and rigor of the items.”

“The scores really opened my eyes to the need for improvement. It is important to look at data and then follow through with the so what now question. I am excited about the professional development (we are planning),” reflected one staff member.

For the past five years, said Pike, the school has been specifically working with the Common Core standards aligning classroom content and teaching practices. In addition to workshop and early releases days, Fayette staff made a commitment to meet every other week for an hour after school.

“It paid off,” Pike concluded. “Fayette Central School staff felt as ready as they could be for the new Smarter Balance Assessments knowing the results will provide more new avenues for learning for both staff and students.”

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