School Has Lowered Its Chronic Absenteeism Rate
Aug 13, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
BAR HARBOR—The Conners Emerson School had some great news recently and it all came in the form of data.
The Bar Harbor school’s reading scores and math scores from grades 3-8 were higher than state average when it came to the percent of students reading and doing math at or above expectations.
“Our students achieved outstanding results on the NWEA test, demonstrating their hard work and commitment to learning. This success is a testament to our amazing and dedicated staff and school leaders who consistently go above and beyond to support every student,” said Director of Teaching and Learning Rhonda Fortin.
The state of Maine uses Maine Through Year Assessment, but it is through the NWEA company, Fortin explained. NWEA stands for Northwest Evaluation Association and is part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The company creates academic assessments that are used throughout the world.
The data is from the Maine Through Year Assessment (MTYA) for spring of 2025. This is the reading and math data related to the test that all students in Maine take when they are in grades 3-8.
“We are grateful, excited, and proud of the recent test score results. Our commitment to ‘every student, every day’ is evident in our daily efforts to meet and support each learner where they are,” said Conners Emerson Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster.
The state average for reading was 64%, CES scored at 85%. For math, the disparity between the state math average and the school was even wider. CES came in with 86% and the state average was 49%.
Other good news came by the way of student attendance data. Rhonda Fortin said that when it came to chronically absent students, Conners Emerson was doing better than the state and AOS average.
Chronic absence is defined by the Maine Department of Education as “being chronically absent if the student is enrolled a minimum of 10 days and absent 10% or more of the days enrolled. All absences (excused and unexcused) are used to make this determination.”
Conners Emerson was at 16.4% for 2023-2024 according to state data. However, both Fortin and Dr. Webster said the school system’s records show 15% and they were unsure what was creating the slight difference there.
“The 13.7% is for the 2024-2025 school year,” Fortin said, which is even more good news for the school and its work toward dropping those chronic absenteeism rates.
According to the state data, for the 2023-2024 school year, the AOS that the MDI region schools are in was at 23.56%, and the state average was 24.59%. The Pemetic School in Southwest Harbor was at 19.6%. Mount Desert Elementary was at 34%. Tremont was at 22.6%. Trenton was at 18.6%. Swan’s Island was at 21.7%. MDI High school was at 29.28%. Cranberry Isles was at 30%.
At school board meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Weir Webster has mentioned her focus on getting kids to school and wanting to be there.
Every day missed is a day that they will have to catch up on their learning.
“We are constantly trying to do our best for our students, but we can’t do that if they aren’t here,” Dr. Webster told her board in 2023 when the school had approximately one-third chronically absent.
Causes for chronic absenteeism can vary from illness to anxiety about school, to vacations or avoidance because of bullying. A New York Times article by Jacey Fortin from April 2023 also cites economic pressure, socio-economic inequities, and difficult home lives as being a factor for some chronic absenteeism.
A piece in the Connecticut Mirror says, “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, chronic absenteeism has doubled in Connecticut, from 12.2% in 2019-20 (until mid-March, when nationwide lockdowns began) to over 25% at the beginning of the current academic year, according to state data.”
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/10/13/23403250/chronic-absenteeism-pandemic-attendance-quarantines
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