What is the Portal? 

The Portal is the foundation of a multi-year effort to bring Mainers' voices to impact policy and practice in schools now and to influence planning for the  future of education in Maine. We held small group conversations with high school students, educators, and parents/community members over four years, mostly in-person in their schools, libraries, and community centers. Participants responded to our prompts, which were different from each of those three groups, by telling stories about their past, their present, and the futures they imagine. 

In the Portal you can search highlights from these stories by participant type, geography, prompt, and theme.  You can use the filters to find, for example, what Washington County teens said about challenges they face, or what Cumberland County educators said about how schools need to evolve, or what Kennebec County parents said are their visions for the ideal school. Each convesation ended with the same question: What message do you have for policymakers? Listen in and you'll hear a wide variety of messages—many leaning in the same direction. Have a listen! 

Note that the Portal is best explored on a table, laptop, or desktop. 

Why this matters

Education policy works best when it's grounded in the real lives of the people it touches. The Maine School Stories Portal makes those lives audible — across rural and urban communities, across age groups, across every county in Maine. Listening to the Portal will give you the opportunity to understand the why behind some people's preferences and future visions and also have a firmer grasp of the challenges Maine's students, schools, and communities are facing by hearing them in people's own voices.