The Maine Partnership aims to strengthen numeracy from early childhood to adult learning by supporting the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) to evaluate activities aligned with the state’s Numeracy Action Plan. Over the last decade, Maine’s average scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress moved from above the national average to below the national average. In 2024, approximately one-third of Maine’s fourth-grade students performed at or above the proficient level.1 In response to declining math and reading scores, MDOE launched the Back to Basics initiative and collaboratively developed Numeracy and Literacy Action Plans. The Numeracy Action Plan describes a comprehensive strategy to strengthen numeracy through professional learning, family engagement, and intentionally embedding numeracy across disciplines.
REL Northeast & Islands will support MDOE in measuring progress toward strengthening evidence-based instructional practices, increasing family engagement, and ultimately improving students’ numeracy outcomes. This work includes co-designing a system to evaluate the activities that are aligned with the Numeracy Action Plan, developing tools to measure implementation and progress toward the goal of strengthening numeracy, and supporting MDOE in analyzing data and sharing insights with stakeholders.
1 National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). 2024 Mathematics state snapshot report: Maine. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219ME4.pdf
Current Projects
Through Maine’s Back to Basics initiative, the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) offers professional learning from early childhood through high school aligned with its Numeracy Action Plan. REL Northeast & Islands will support MDOE in establishing a sustainable evaluation model to track implementation and outcomes. Through regular coaching, the partners will co-develop a logic model and evaluation plan, identify measures and data sources, and support initial implementation and analysis to inform continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making.
Completed Projects
No projects at this time.