Informal clubs are sprouting up across Maine to help young students get active.
Noel K. Gallagher
Noel Gallagher covers K-12 and higher education issues statewide. Her stories are a mix of breaking news and trend stories. In recent years, they’ve ranged from why college costs so much, the launch of the state’s first charter schools, how a school welcomed a transgender student and why Maine schools have a hard time finding teachers. She’s enough of a news nerd to enjoy sitting through legislative education committee meetings and hours-long school board meetings so you don’t have to.
The Maine Press Association has honored Noel’s work, but she says she writes for the readers, in the firm belief that an informed citizenry is key to a healthy democracy.
Noel is a California native who has worked at wire services, online websites and newspapers across the country. She was in Washington D.C. during the early Clinton years, covering AIDS activism in 1990s San Francisco, documenting the business of wine in Sonoma County and riding out the boom and bust cycle of the early Internet era in early 2000s Silicon Valley. She arrived in Maine at the beginning of the recession and wrote quite a bit about the downturn here.
In her free time, Noel writes the occasional cookbook review, spends an inordinate amount of time at the Portland Public Library and hangs out with her three fabulous kids and wonderful husband. She is not a former member of the band Oasis.
Eighth-graders from Maine near top in math, science rankings
Besides the high positions nationally, Mainers also compare very well against foreign students, a federal study finds.
Maine public universities face mandate to get numbers up
As enrollments plummet and competition spikes, recruiters search harder than ever for prospective students
SAT scores at Maine high schools show ‘good news, bad news’
Math and reading scores rise, but scores in writing and science drop, and not even half of the students are at grade level.
Portland School Board: Seats sought by 6 candidates
Two winners of the Nov. 5 election will fill at-large seats being vacated by current board chairman Jaimey Caron and past chairwoman Kate Snyder.
Five Maine colleges make Princeton Review top schools list
Students also give their own take – from ‘lots of beer’ at Bates to ‘best campus food’ at Bowdoin.
Deering High to offer Arabic class
The class is believed to be the first such class in Maine public schools.
Maine data on student restraint, seclusion to help guide policies
The state gets its first batch of data on physical control of students as it works to define best practices for safety and teacher training.
Maine leaders laud wisdom of Confucius Institute
Establishment of the language school at USM is seen as a useful way to increase ties to China and its export markets.
Meetings on USM ‘vision’ dominated by potential cuts
Students and faculty urge the administration to focus more on solving specific shortcomings, rather than a large vision.