Summer/Fall 2011 - the University of Maine at Fort Kent

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feature story“School’s in” for Summerat UMFK’sPleasantStreetAcademyUniversity to IncubateEarly College HighSchool InitiativeTake a moment and think back to the halcyondays of summer preceding your junior yearin high school. Most of us will recall that lifewas good, times were relatively simple, andeleventh grade beckoned. Attending collegewas a distant thought.Not anymore, it isn’t, thanks to UMFK’sPleasant Street Academy Early College HighSchool project.With the start of the 2011-2012 academicyear, the Pleasant Street Academy is open forbusiness with a cohort of 20 juniors from FortKent’s Community High School (FKCHS). Thestudents will be part of the state of Maine’sfirst early college high school, with UMFK andFort Kent Community High School serving asits incubator.The first students will continue their pathtowards a high school diploma, while at thesame time earning college credit toward anassociate or baccalaureate degree at UMFK,or elsewhere. Students may earn upwards of16 college credits during their junior year, andmore during their senior year. As the programgrows and develops, future students will beable to achieve an associate’s degree.The Pleasant Street Academy EarlyCollege High School project will be pilotedin year one through a collaborationeffort between UMFK and Maine SchoolAdministrative District 27 to serve one cohortof 20 students. In year two, the project6 | The Bell Towerwill be expanded to other partner schoolsin the region. When fully implemented inyear three, upwards of 150 students will beenrolled.The Pleasant Street Academy truly isan equal partnership between UMFK (theUniversity of Maine System (UMS) is providingseed money for the project), andCommunity High School in Fort Kent, whichalso is allocating funds for the endeavor.Classes will be taught both at UMFK andFKCHS, by professors and teachers.The University sees the outcomes of theEarly College High School initiative as:• greatly improvedhigh school studentaccess to college• improved studentcompletion rates incollege programs• increased baccalaureatedegree attainmentby students• better prepared studentsfor the workforce• a new model of communityeducationdesigned for theneeds of Maine’sunder-served ruralstudent populationThe Pleasant StreetAcademy Early CollegeHigh School is the dreamcome-to-fruitionof ScottVoisine (’94), UMFK’s newly-appointed Deanof Community Education. Voisine had conceptualizedthe Pleasant Street Academy foryears; planning for the day, or year, that itcould realized. His wait ended just prior toChristmas last year.“On the day before Christmas Eve, whenI still was the Dean of Students, I took partin a telephone conference call betweenPresident Wilson Hess and UMS Chancellor,Richard Pattenaude. Previously, I had madea proposal to the System that outlined a planto start the first early college high schoolin Maine. I knew the time was right due toGovernor LePage’s emphasis on the developmentof such programs in Maine. By the endof that meeting, I had a new job and planningwas underway. “Early college high school is a bold conceptin education. It blends high school andcollege in a rigorous, yet supportive program,compressing the time it takes for a student tocomplete a high school diploma and their firsttwo years of college. But early college highschool is not a program simply for the academically-giftedstudent.It is designed to serve abroad range of students.“Early college highschool is not justa special programlimited to the bestand brightest; it’s ameans of real educationalreform andimprovement.”——Working togetherwith Dean Voisine toimplement the pilot projectthat will guide implementationelsewhere inthe state are: TimothyDoak, superintendentof schools for MaineSchool AdministrativeDistrict 27/AlternativeOrganizational Structure95; Dr. Mariella R.Squire, UMFK professorof Anthropology andSociology; Dr. PaulF. Buck, III, assistantprofessor of History &Education; Dr. RaymondT. Albert, UMFK professorof Computer Science; Valerie Plourde-Ouellet, FKCHS History teacher; Lorie Voisine,FKCHS English teacher; and, John Kaleta,FKCHS Life Sciences teacher.Learning from EarlyCollege High SchoolPioneersEarlier this year, five members of the jointUMFK/FKCHS team travelled to BuncombeCounty Early College in Asheville, North Carolina
to learn first-hand, about how an early collegehigh school works. They spoke with students,faculty, and staff at the five-year program, whichhas an enrollment of more than 200 students.The Buncombe County Early College program isone of the pioneering programs in the country.The western North Carolina program was establishedin 2004.According to Voisine, the trip to Ashevilleallowed the UMFK/FKCHS team to validatemany of their plans for The Pleasant StreetAcademy Early College High School. The tripalso provided the local organizers with a primerin best practices in developing an early collegehigh school, as well as warning them of potentialpitfalls that should be avoided.“The trip to North Carolina was, quite possibly,one of the best two days I have ever spentat another school as a student, teacher, oradministrator,” Voisine exclaims.“What we came away with was a sense thatearly college high school can make a real andremarkable impact in students. Early collegehigh school is not just a special program limitedto the best and brightest; it’s a means of realeducational reform and improvement,” Voisineadds.An Addition to theCollege CommunityProject EducationContinuumDuring the past seven years, UMFK and itsK-12 partners in the highly-successful CollegeCommunity Project have offered several collaborativebridging programs for students throughoutthe St. John Valley. The Pleasant StreetAcademy initiative calls for the expansion of theCollege Community Project partnership to createMaine’s incubator Early College High School.The model is based upon other successful earlycollege high school initiatives sponsored by theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the CarnegieCorporation of New York, the Dell Foundation,the Ford Foundation, the Lumina Foundation forEducation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, andthe Walton Family Foundation. The three-yeargoal of the initiative is to bring together a universitycampus (UMFK) and area high schoolsinto Maine’s first early college high school.Early college high schools are unlike dualenrollment programs, advanced placement, orother pre-college programs, both in their reachand coherence, and in their blended academicprograms.Early college high schools:• integrate students’ high school and collegeexperiences, both intellectually andsocially• blend the curriculum as a coherent unit,with high school and college-level workmelded into a single academic programthat meets the requirements for botha high school diploma and grants collegecredits through the postsecondarypartner institution, enabling students toaccumulate credits toward a degree fromthe postsecondary institution, or transferthem to another collegeTypically, early college high schools aresmall schools, designed so that students canearn both a high school diploma and credittoward a college degree. They have demonstratedgreat potential to improve high schoolgraduation rates, and better prepare studentsfor high-skilled careers. The central conceptinvolves engaging students in a rigorous,college-level curriculum, which compresses thenumber of years required to achieve a collegedegree.Early college high school students are betterprepared to succeed in college if they haveexperienced the rigors and stresses of collegelife and learning; been supported and guidedthrough all parts of their educational transition;and, been shown that barriers to college aresurmountable with the proper assistance, information,and guidance.The success of The Pleasant Street AcademyEarly College High School program in achievingits outcomes will, ultimately, provide insights“The Pleasant StreetAcademy is a perfectexample of how ruraleducation in Maine canbe transformed wheneducational partners atall levels come togetherto share expertise andresources for the benefitof learners.”——into the efficacy of similar programs on a broaderscale throughout rural Maine.“The Pleasant Street Academy is a perfectexample of how rural education in Maine canbe transformed when educational partners atall levels come together to share expertise andresources for the benefit of learners. I trulybelieve we will be an educational model forother rural communities in Maine. I am veryproud that educators from Fort Kent are thepioneers in this endeavor,” Voisine says.THE PLEASANT STREET ACADEMYEARLY HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMICTEAM (L to R) Dr. Paul F. Buck,III, UMFK assistant professorof History & Education; ValeriePlourde-Ouellet, FKCHS Historyand Socials Studies teacher; ScottVoisine, UMFK Dean of CommunityEducation; Lorie Voisine, FKCHSEnglish teacher; and Dr. MariellaR. Squire, UMFK professor ofAnthropology and Sociology.Missing from the photo are:John Kaleta, FKCHS Biologyteacher; and Timothy Doak,SAD 27 superintendent.The Bell Tower | 7
Page 5 and 6: Grant Saves Campus Money in Heating
Page 7: 129th Commencement CeremonyThe Bell
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Page 29 and 30: Lucy B. ElliottLawrence Fitzherbert
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Page 46 and 47: In Memory OfSTERLING LEBLANCA tree

Summer/Fall 2011 - the University of Maine at Fort Kent

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