What is MEA?
MEA is the statewide standardized test administered by Maine public schools.
What does "% At or Above State Expectations" mean?
It is the share of students at the school who performed at grade level or above on the test, summed across the top two of four performance levels. A higher number is better.
What does 72.2% mean for English Language Arts at Wells Junior High School?
It means about 72.2 percent of students tested at Wells Junior High School performed at grade level or above on the MEA English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Maine that year was 64.1%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Maine, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Maine Department of Education, Maine Educational Assessments (MEA — NWEA-based for ELA/Math, Maine Science Assessment for Science). School-level All Students subgroup from the ME DOE Tableau dashboard data download. Headline metric is the cumulative "At + Above State Expectations" rate (top 2 of 4 levels: Well Below / Below / At / Above).
How often is it updated?
MEA is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.