Casco Bay High School is a small and rigorous public high school that reflects the increasing diversity of Portland, Maine. Founded in 2005, CBHS is a school of choice for about 275 students. At Casco Bay, we challenge and support our students to become college-ready through our 3Rs: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. 100% of the graduates in our first two senior classes were accepted to college. Our aim is for each student to ” Get Smart to Do Good.”

CBHS is intentionally small so that we can get to know each student deeply, and so we can better personalize instruction that will help students become their best selves. Our instruction is driven by Learning Expeditions that result in quality work about genuine problems for a real audience. Learning Expeditions are long-term, in-depth studies of a single topic that explore compelling social-justice questions, incorporate vital standards, involve fieldwork, and culminate in an authentic project, product or performance.

Casco Bay High School is part of a national cohort of high-achieving, progressive and urban high schools in the Expeditionary Learning network (www.elschools.org). This year we are proud to once again serve as one of  Expeditionary Learning’s “Mentor Schools” in their national network. This past spring (2012), we were named one of Maine’s top high schools by US News and World Report. In 2010, we were cited as a  “model school” by the International Center for Leadership in Education (2010). You can learn more about out student and teachers great work at Edutopia (www.edutopia.org) where we were featured as part of their  ”Schools that Work” series. This year, our work is being supported by Portland taxpayers, the state of Maine, our Parent Advisory Group and the following foundations: the Nellie Mae Foundation, the Stupksi Foundation, FAME,  the White Pine Foundation, the Quimby Family Foundation and LL Bean Charitable Giving.

In their “Comprehensive Program Review” in spring 2011, the Great Schools Partnership concluded, “the school has demonstrated consistently high levels of accomplishment in every dimension with exemplary performance… in many areas.  In our view, such scores would be rare if other high schools were measured by the same standards.”

CBHS School Profile, 2012 – 13

Expeditionary Learning Parent Flyer