One of the building blocks of this plan is to boost the rate of students going on to college, and as part of that effort, Maine now offers the SAT free to all high school juniors. The Maine Department of Education recently released the statewide results of the first free SATs, taken by 15,300 high school juniors last spring. Maine is the first state to use the SAT as a measure of high school learning standards, and is using the test to replace the MEAs as the state's testing obligation under the Federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Students at both Gray-New Gloucester and Windham High Schools performed well on the test, which now measures math, critical reading, and writing. At Gray-New Gloucester, 150 juniors took the test, and scored an average of 426 in math, 427 in reading, and 416 for writing. The 220 Windham test-takers averaged similar results, with 444 in math, 436 in reading, and 436 for writing.

Over the past few years, even since my own kids took the test, there have been significant changes to the SAT, including the addition of a writing assessment. With less time than usual to prepare all students-not just those who planned to take the SAT-for a revised test, both schools still met or came close to the statewide average scores on each part of the exam.

More students now have the opportunity to get into college, since 4,000 more students took the test this year-an increase of nearly 25 percent over last year.

The large quantity of students taking the test, and doing so well, shows that young people in Maine want a degree, and that's backed up by the sharp upswing over the last few years in enrollment in the community college system. That's also why we now offer the Advantage U program, which allows successful community college students to transfer to schools in the university system as juniors, helping them earn a four-year degree at about half the cost.

Figuring out how to pay for the education is the next most important step, and I'll be providing more information to parents in our communities about that in the coming weeks. On January 28, the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) will be holding its annual College Goal Sunday program at 2 P.M. on USM's Portland campus. Officials from FAME, USM, and other colleges will be on hand to help families fill out their Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) forms to find out their eligibility for help paying for college. If you've never filled one out before and have a student heading off to college, I'd recommend attending, since it's always helpful to have some guidance.

Getting students to college-and helping them earn a degree-is critical to Maine's future. If I can help provide other resources on state higher education assistance programs, or assist you on any other state matter, please feel free to call me at home at 892-6591, or e-mail me at RepMarkBryant@yahoo.com.