The Commissioner’s visit is part of his Promising Practices Tour, which will take him to each of the state’s nine superintendent regions to see innovative practices schools are implementing that show promise and move forward the Department’s vision of an evolving education system that meets the needs of all learners by putting them first.

During Thursday’s visit, the Commissioner – himself a former social studies teacher – will sit-in on social studies, science and performing arts classes at the middle school before participating in circle conversations first with teachers and then with eighth graders.

Throughout the day, a film crew will be following the Commissioner as it produces two videos  showcasing success stories from Maine schools working toward learner-centered, proficiency-based education for the Department’s Center for Best Practice.

The Center is a resource to schools as they work with Maine DOE to implement improvement initiatives, including as a result of the findings of the new Maine School Performance Grading System rolled-out by Governor Paul R. LePage and Commissioner Bowen earlier this month.

Troy Howard Middle School earned a “C” in those recently released report cards. The school’s shift to using data, strong leadership – most notably at the principal level – and customized learning to engage students is already improving proficiency and progress.

The report card revealed that reading skills are on the rise with 77 percent proficiency and the growth of the bottom 25 percent of students is increasing in both reading and mathematics, with a near-perfect 99.7 percent participation in State assessments.

WHERE: Troy Howard Middle School, 173 Lincolnville Ave., Belfast

WHEN: 8 to 11 a.m., Thursday, May 23

-END-

AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Education will continue the conversation on using its new A-F grades to improve schools with an online teacher forum this Thursday.

“Empowering Educators With A-F: Where We Can Go From Here” is open to all Maine educators and will be hosted by Maine DOE Commissioner Stephen Bowen, Chief Academic Officer Rachelle Tome and Director of the Statewide Longitudinal Data System Bill Hurwich.

The forum will focus on how educators can understand and utilize their school’s report card and the data behind it to immediately begin improving their school. The Department will also talk to teachers about the available resources it has to better support schools and their students.

Teachers participating will have an opportunity to submit questions to the State education leaders as well as their feedback on how Maine DOE can help schools improve student achievement.

The forum will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 16. Teachers can register to participate at www1.gotomeeting.com/register/631576520.

“We’ve been excited by the outpouring of conversation in our communities about our schools in the two weeks since the letter grades were announced,” said Commissioner Bowen. “Now that there is an understanding of how the grades were developed, it is time for the substantive dialogue about how they can be used to improve student outcomes. Teachers will ultimately play the most critical role in implementing school improvement initiatives and we look forward to beginning that collaborative process with them starting with this week’s forum.”

The new Maine School Performance Grading System, which uses a familiar A-F scale to grade each school, was launched by Governor Paul R. LePage and Commissioner Bowen on May 1 after months of development by Department staff.

The report cards take long-collected reading and mathematics assessment data – and in the case of high schools, graduation rates – but presents it for the first time in an understandable, usable way that engages parents and communities in their local schools and encourages continuous improvement among them.

For those who want to dig deeper beyond the letter grades, Maine DOE also launched a comprehensive website that contains detailed multi-year information about all Maine schools.

Thursday’s teacher forum is being held online and after the school day ends in an effort to ensure as many educators as interested can participate. It will additionally be archived and available on the Department’s website at www.maine.gov/doe for those unable to attend.

The forum is just one of the many ways Maine DOE is following-up the release of the report cards to motivate conversation and change.

In a continuing effort to offer support to schools across Maine, Commissioner Bowen last week announced Department staff will be reaching out to every school that received a D or an F by the end of the academic year to identify and initiate high priority assistance and professional development opportunities. There will also be weekly webinars on school improvement strategies and the creation of advisory councils by both Governor LePage and Commissioner Bowen, the former with a focus on teacher feedback and the latter on expanding effective professional development.

For more information about the Maine School Performance Grading System, visit www.maine.gov/doe/schoolreportcards.

The 1,000 or so students will be on Maine’s largest college campus, along with their Apple MacBooks, and 200 educators as part of the 10^th Annual Maine Learning Technology Initiative Student Conference.

The event engages students as presenters or participants in a day of science, technology, engineering and mathematics focused workshops, and encourages high aspirations by facilitating what for many is their first visit to a post-secondary institution.

For more than a decade, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MTLI) has sought to provide professional development and technology to middle and high schools to support the attainment of the Maine Learning Results, including providing students with devices.

In addition to presentations from conference collaborators including the Maine Department of Education and MLTI, Apple, UMaine, New England School of Communications and educators from schools across the state, several Maine students will lead sessions, including Yuval Boss, a senior at Orono High School, Julia Bluhm, a freshman at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, Izzy Labbe, a freshman at Waterville High School, as well as a group from Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden.

Sessions will cover topics such as developing effective presentations with software like Apple’s Keynote; building a sustainable student technology team that meets the goals and needs of an individual school; using technology to explore space; and creating dynamic movies, websites and apps.

This is the final conference where students will have Apple technology exclusively in hand. Under a new MLTI contract currently being negotiated, the Microsoft Windows 7-based Hewlett Packard ProBook 4440 that students are more likely to see in the workplace will be the preferred technology and learning solution paid for by the State. The potential of that Microsoft software will be spotlighted in one of the day’s breakout sessions.

Schools will, however, have choice in selecting alternative solutions to that HP laptop, including an HP tablet, Apple’s iPad or MacBook Air, or a CTL Windows laptop with the State covering the cost of those alternatives up to the amount of the HP laptop proposal.

WHERE: Collins Center for the Arts, UMaine Campus, Orono

WHEN: 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m., Thursday, May 16

FMI: Visit the MLTI Student Conference website at www.maine.gov/mlti/studentconference/ for more details, including a complete event schedule

The Commissioner toured various PreK-8 classrooms at Indian Township School, one of Maine’s three tribal schools, on Thursday. Kindergarteners demonstrated to Commissioner Bowen how they use technology to learn numbers and letters through the school’s one-to-one iPad program for PreK-3 students.

“We’re always looking for ways to increase student engagement, and Indian Township achieves that through their iPad program,” said Commissioner Bowen. “The tablets have resulted in attendance rates improving because kids are able to move at their own pace—and quite frankly they can’t wait to get their hands on the technology.”

The Commissioner later saw students working on a song in the native language to be performed at an upcoming celebration ceremony. “The school seems to be the heart of the community and serves as a primary vehicle by which the native culture is passed on to the next generation,” Bowen said.

Indian Township also has worked regionally with other tribal schools on curriculum and professional development, which has contributed to cost savings and to better aligning the tribal schools’ instructional practices.

Bowen continued his tour at Caravel Middle School on Friday morning. As with several other school visits on the Commissioner’s tour, Caravel was designated as a school in need of improvement in 2008 and has since improved its academic program with the help of funding through Title I School Improvement and technical assistance from the Maine DOE and Title I School Improvement specialists.

Caravel used part of its funding to send school leaders and select teachers to formative assessment training in Portland, Ore. Attendees returned with new ideas about facilitating student success, which they shared with their colleagues and beyond. Principal Rhonda Sperrey and staff have provided technical assistance to other Title I CIPS schools across the state, modeling effective strategies and practices aimed at increasing student achievement.

Over the past few years, the school has implemented professional learning communities as well as proficiency-based grading and reporting practices, and Sperrey said she notices a difference in engagement as well as school culture. Within one year, Caravel has experienced a 65 percent reduction in discipline and suspensions.

“I heard somebody say that you’re either an improving school or a declining school…and if you’re staying stagnant, you’re declining,” said Sperrey. “Caravel will always be in a state of improvement because our kids are changing every year.”

This two-day leg of the Promising Practices Tour closely follows Governor Paul R. LePage’s and Commissioner Bowen’s release of Maine’s School Performance Grading System last week. Indian Township School did not receive a grade because it falls under the Maine Bureau of Indian Education, and Caravel Middle School earned a C.

The Commissioner witnessed the promising practices both schools have underway, which he expects will continue to improve their proficiency and performance.

Bowen’s Promising Practices Tour will take him to all nine superintendent regions in the state before the end of the school year. He plans to see the innovative practices schools are implementing that are showing promise and that are helping to forward the priorities in the Maine DOE strategic plan and the Governor’s ABC Plan for education.

Resources

• Promising Practices Tour
• Maine Indian Education
• Caravel Middle School

The improvement support plans have been the focus of the Maine School Performance Grading System, in which Bowen and Governor Paul R. LePage seek to propel community discussion about schools and how to help them improve. In the weeks and months ahead, the Maine Department of Education will be taking a series of action steps designed to better support schools as they work to meet the needs of all students.

Bowen said the Department will reach out before the end of the current academic year to every school that received a D or an F. Title I Improvement Team staff and regional representatives will analyze the schools’ data, review initiatives and programming, and help identify the most pressing technical assistance and professional development needs.

“Here at the Department, we’re going to keep track of the data we collect from our outreach to schools,” Bowen said. “We’re literally creating a room to serve as a strategic school improvement data and center, which will meet and discuss where schools are in their school improvement work and better coordinate outreach and support, much as school staff meet and discuss the individual needs of students and individualized improvement plans for those students.”

Bowen said his Department will compile data and feedback from low-performing schools to help guide improvement efforts. And by the end of May, the Maine DOE will establish a weekly webinar series focused on school improvement strategies for teachers and school leaders.

In an effort to learn more about what is currently working in Maine’s education system and what is not yielding results, Gov. LePage will seek input from educators from across the state. “Our teachers are the eyes and ears of our education system and it’s important we listen to them. They know what works and what doesn’t, so I’ll be creating a teacher advisory panel to provide direct feedback from our teachers on how the state can best support teaching and learning in the classroom.”

Over the summer, the Commissioner will create his own task force—comprised of teachers, schools leaders, curriculum specialists and content area experts—to focus on expanding high quality professional development.

The Department will work with schools during the 2013-14 academic year to develop individualized school improvement plans that will include action steps and measureable outcome goals. These improvement plans will help direct the school improvement work of both the schools themselves and the Maine DOE.

Resources

• Maine School Performance Grading System

AUGUSTA — The Maine Charter School Commission in a public meeting held Tuesday in Augusta discussed, voted and signed three public charter school contracts – culminating months of work on the part of the schools and the commission. The Maine Charter School Commission has the responsibility to approve up to 10 public charter schools in the State in 10 years. The three schools are the Baxter Academy for Technology and Sciences to be located in Portland; the Fiddlehead School of Arts and Science in Gray; and the Harpswell Coastal Academy in Harpswell. These three schools will open September 2013. They will join the Cornville Regional Charter School and the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, providing Maine with the choice of five different public charter schools.

Each application had been reviewed by the Commission for its education plan, a proposed organizational and operational plan, and its governance, business and financial information.

Baxter Academy’s program will be that of a rigorous, college preparatory high school promoting student ownership of learning through a curriculum focused specifically on STEM.

The Fiddlehead School of Arts and Sciences’ program will be based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy with place-based multiple intelligences, art integration and inquiry-based learning.

Harpswell Coastal Academy’s plan will incorporate a vast array of practical-life principles in their education plan and will utilize the ocean, wetlands and farmlands as a central aspect of the school’s resources.

Jana Lapoint, chair of the Commission, said, “The ultimate responsibility of the Commission is to ensure that a quality education is provided to all students attending a public charter school. Today’s approval of the contract for these schools is good news for the State of Maine as it provides additional choices for parents as they seek an education that best meets their child’s individual needs and learning style. These programs can serve as an alternative model of learning that other schools might consider and replicate. Our hope is that all public schools, non-charter and charter, working collaboratively together, will result in improved educational results for all of Maine’s students.”

The Maine Charter School law has been commended by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools as second in the nation for requiring best practices that support charter school success.

For more information about the Maine Charter School Commission, visit: www.maine.gov/csc or call 624-6729.

AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage has declared May 6-10, 2013, Teacher Appreciation Week—a time to thank Maine teachers for their dedication to our students.

“Effective teachers can open students’ minds to ideas, knowledge and dreams,” said Governor LePage. “Students in all our schools, whether they are public, private, magnet or charter schools, deserve great teachers who will engage them in debate and discussion in a safe environment. These teachers should know their kids appreciate all they do.”

The State of Maine has a lot of challenges ahead in building a public education system based on the needs of each learner—a system that recognizes that students learn best in different ways and at different speeds. The Department of Education cannot move toward this system without the help of Maine’s teachers.

“This week, let’s make sure we thank our teachers for all they’ve done and for the hard work they’re taking on each day to improve educational opportunities for our students,” said Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen. “When it comes to shaping our future here in Maine and nationwide, teachers need to know that their work is vitally important.”

Nationally, Teacher Appreciation Week is a time to celebrate the men and women in our lives who have dedicated themselves to sharing the excitement of learning with others. Throughout the United States, teachers are empowering students with literacy; helping more students graduate from high school prepared for the real world; and improving the lives of the children in their classrooms every single day.

“The lessons taught by these educators extend far beyond the classroom and follow our students throughout their lives,” said Governor LePage. “So take the time this week to show our teachers how much we appreciate the work they do every day for our children.”

Resources

• Discover ways to thank a teacher

Experience how HP helps educators empower Maine students for higher achievement and career readiness with the MLTI. Join HP and Maine DOE Director of Learning Technology Jeff Mao to learn more about the HP solution and how to continue the success of MLTI. Webinar topics include:

• Answers to why certain components were included in the solution
• Battery life
• How were specs chosen for this solution
• Flexibility of learning in the cloud
• Understanding transition plan to Windows
• Understanding the local support
• Career readiness
• Common Core digital testing

The Maine Department of Education recently announced HP as its preferred contractor in the Maine Learning Technology Initiative’s latest bid process. The HP ProBook 4440 running Windows 7 software is available as the primary technology and learning solution as part of the Initiative.

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative seeks to provide professional development and 21st Century tools to middle and high schools to support the attainment of the Maine state standards, the Maine Learning Results. As an integral part of the Department’s strategy, MLTI focuses on achieving the new Common Core State Standards, as well as implementing new proficiency-based learning systems.

Registration for webinars is required. To register for the webinar on May 7 at 9 a.m., visit bit.ly/15kExqS. To register for the webinar on May 9 at 7 p.m., visit bit.ly/13cOmUd.

Mountain Valley Middle School student Abby LaBrash explains her genetics project to Commissioner Bowen.

SOUTH PARIS – A day after releasing a new school grading system designed to focus on transparency and continuous improvement in schools, Maine’s Education Commissioner toured three Oxford County schools that are embracing new models for educational excellence.

The visit by Maine Department of Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen to Oxford Hills Middle School and Oxford Hills Technical School in RSU 17 and Mountain Valley Middle School in RSU 10 was the latest in his Promising Practices Tour.

Bowen began the tour on Thursday at the Roberts Farm Preserve in Norway, where he talked with Oxford Hills Middle School seventh and eighth graders about the life science and leadership skills they’re developing by participating in the farm’s experiential learning program.

Students from the same school then showed off a new race car they’re constructing at Crazy Horse Racing in South Paris with the help of a professional builder. As the vehicle is being built, so is their knowledge of math, science, engineering and teamwork.

Bowen says that hands-on learning like this helps some students pick up concepts they would have never connected with in the classroom.

“We need to move beyond the status quo, one-size-fits-all models of teaching and embrace student-centered models,” the Commissioner said. “Many Maine schools are doing that. The goal of both the A-F grades and these school visits is to spotlight success stories like this experiential learning program, knowing they can be applied elsewhere with meaningful outcomes for our students.”

Governor Paul R. LePage made reference to that Wednesday when he joined Bowen at the Maine State Library to unveil the new school report cards, which showed a majority of Maine’s elementary and high schools earned an A, B or C.

“You’ll have a student who is struggling with geometry in one classroom and then goes into a workshop at a CTE and is building furniture. Geometry is at the heart of woodworking because of the angles measured and cut,” the Governor, himself a furniture maker, said. “There are great things happening in Maine schools, and we all know every child learns differently so we need to recognize a variety of teaching methods and connect the dots. The grading system allows these schools to be rewarded and have their good work be seen by parents and the community while letting us know about the schools that are struggling so we can help.”

The Governor and Commissioner agree expert educators are able to find the individual hook that gets each child excited about learning. Bowen said he saw that happening in the Oxford County schools he visited and that students there are the better for it.

“One challenge we’re facing in education is balancing rigorous standards with encouraging kids to take ownership of their work,” Bowen said. “If you give students real-world responsibility, challenges become real-world problems that they take an interest in and will learn from.”

Two of the schools on Thursday’s tour were ranked as C schools, and one received an F. With the promising practices they have underway, the Commissioner said he expects their proficiency, progress and ultimately their letter grade will improve. He also hopes other schools take notice of what he saw.

At Oxford Hills Middle School, the administrators and faculty designed a staff room “Data Wall” to keep track of students’ progress. “Teachers are giving up their plan time to formulate intervention plans for individual students, and you can literally see yearly progress as kids’ cards climb up the wall,” Bowen said. “Oxford Hills has crafted a great model that it seems many districts could benefit from.”

Bowen’s Promising Practices Tour will take him to all nine superintendent regions in the state before the end of the school year. For more information, visit www.maine.gov/doe/tour/.

For more information about the Maine School Performance Grading System, visit www.maine.gov/doe/schoolreportcards.

AUGUSTA – With the release today of report cards for each of the state’s schools, the Department of Education has provided Mainers with a better understanding of where their schools stand, and how they can improve.

Speaking today at the Maine State Library, Governor Paul R. LePage and Education Commissioner Stephen L. Bowen unveiled new benchmarking that uses existing data and a familiar A-F scale to grade each school.

With the launch of the Maine School Performance Grading System, the state joins 13 others and New York City in empowering parents and community members with easy-to-understand information about their local school.

The Governor and Commissioner said the A-F grading system reflects a commitment to transparency, parent engagement and putting the state’s students first.

“Maine’s economic future depends on how well our schools prepare our students for success in college, careers and civic life,” said Governor LePage, who has made education reform the focus of his Administration. “These report cards show the majority of Maine’s schools are average, but I believe Maine’s students deserve an above-average education. With this accessible accountability system, students, parents and educators can work together to raise their grades and create better outcomes for Maine kids.”

Based on data already collected by the Department, the majority of both Maine’s elementary and high schools are average or above; 81 percent of the 422 elementary schools graded and 69 percent of the 124 high schools earned an A, B or C.

Meanwhile, 11 percent of elementary schools and 23 percent of high schools received a D and 8 percent of both elementary and high schools received an F.

The overall state grade was a C at both the elementary and high school levels.

Commissioner Bowen stressed the Department of Education is a resource to all schools no matter their grade and will be increasing its support to struggling schools while doing more to promote promising practices already in place. Additionally, the LePage Administration’s budget proposal includes $3 million to be allocated for improvement initiatives.

State education officials have been thoughtfully developing the grading system – which the Governor announced in his 2013 State of the State Address – since late 2012.

In an effort to ensure the report cards are clear and concise yet comprehensive enough to be constructive, the grades are based on proficiency and progress.

At the elementary school level, math and reading proficiency as measured by standardized assessments and progress are weighted equally in determining a school’s grade. Progress includes both the growth of all students and the gains made specifically by the bottom 25 percent of students.

At the high school level, math and reading proficiency and progress each account for 40 percent of a school’s grade, and four-year and five-year graduation rates account for the remaining 20 percent.

“The release of the report cards today is an opportunity for a constructive conversation on school performance in which we are all speaking the same language,” said Education Commissioner Bowen. “Just as parents lean in when their child receives an F and encourage the good work to continue when they earn an A, we hope they do the same when it comes to responding to the grade their school receives.

“We understand a letter grade does not tell the whole story of a student, nor does it tell the whole story of a school,” Bowen added. “Rather, this is a good-faith effort to condense the reams of data the Department already collects into an accessible snapshot of where our schools are today, showing areas where we are doing well and those where we need to improve. Now that we have this benchmark, the Department looks forward to helping educators expand existing examples of excellence to make Maine’s schools better for all students.”

In addition to the report cards, Bowen also announced the public availability of a new comprehensive website for those who wish to dig deeper beyond the letter grades. That resource, which the Department created in 2012, contains detailed multi-year information about all Maine schools and allows users to look at individual schools and districts or compare schools across the state.

The next round of report cards for Maine high schools will be released this fall using data from the May Maine High School Assessment for third-year students. Elementary school report cards will be sent out in the spring of 2014.

For more information about the Maine School Performance Grading System, visit www.maine.gov/doe/schoolreportcards.