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It’s been a busy and important month here in the education world.

It kicked off with Teacher Appreciation Week, a special time to say thank you to our hard-working teachers. It continued with more work on our efforts to craft a new accountability and improvement system for our schools that replaces what we have under the decade-old No Child Left Behind law. And a few late legislative victories have topped it off.

Read about those topics and more in this month’s edition.

FROM THE COMMISSIONER

Accountability and improvement work in high gear

Our efforts to create an accountability and improvement system that works for our students, teachers and schools are picking up speed. As we take on this work, the feedback more than 1,500 of you offered last fall is serving as a guide. By Stephen Bowen | More

Appreciating our teachers

Teachers deserve our thanks all year long, but Teacher Appreciation Week is a special opportunity to recognize their invaluable contributions. By Stephen Bowen | More

• More From the Commissioner

DISPATCHES

The Math Gates: Team teaching art and math

We (a math coordinator and an art teacher) are interested in having students discover how integral math is for an artist and how a mathematician benefits from creative thinking abilities. That’s why we’ve team-taught the two subjects at Mount Vernon Elementary School this year. By Dona Seegers and Sarah Caban | More

The respect, prestige teachers deserve

I was surrounded by 53 innovative, inspirational and articulate educators from all over this nation last month during Recognition Week for all State Teachers of the Year. Our sponsors treated us like rock stars, complete with gift bags and a personalized chartered bus to take us all over Washington, D.C. By Alana Margeson  | More

The scoop at Yarmouth: Students step up to real-world challenge

When a company like Friendly’s struggles to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, desperate times often call for desperate measures. Can students at Yarmouth High School help? | More

Project Citizen students participate in public policy

Dozens of students from across the state took public policy proposals to Maine’s capitol on May 11, where they presented them in legislative committee rooms and discussed them in the halls of the State House. | More

• First draft of science standards released; feedback welcomed
• Summer professional development opportunities from Maine DOE
• State Museum offers educator preview of new exhibit
• Video: Google features Wells-Ogunquit in ‘Search Story’
• Falmouth, Cape students compete in national science challenges
• More Dispatches

PRESS RELEASES

Bowen issues statement on passage of education bills

Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen issued a statement lauding the Legislature’s passage of several key education bills, including legislation that requires a proficiency-based diploma for Maine students, expands access to career and technical education programs and moves those programs toward full adoption of national industry standards. | More

Commission receives notice of 9 charter school proposals

AUGUSTA – Nine groups have informed the Maine Charter School Commission that they plan to submit applications to open public charter schools. | More

• Maine science performance among top in nation
• More Press Releases

Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen issued the following statement Thursday following legislative approval on Wednesday of several key education bills, including: LD 1422, which requires that the state’s public schools transition to a proficiency-based diploma; LD 1779, which moves Maine career and technical education programs toward the full adoption of national industry standards; and LD 1865, which makes it easier for students to access career and technical education courses.

“Our vision for education in Maine is a system in which everything is built around the student. How do we engage students and make school relevant and challenging? How can we give students and families choices in finding the right learning environment and developing an education plan that works for them?

“With the passage of these bills, the Legislature has given students more options and access to career and technical education courses, and have endorsed the concept that students should graduate when they’ve mastered the skills they need to be successful after high school. We have more work to do, especially in the area of giving students and families more options, but this is a great start.”

David Connerty-Marin | Maine Department of Education | 207-624-6880

AUGUSTA – Nine groups informed the Maine Charter School Commission by Wednesday’s deadline that they plan to submit applications to open public charter schools. Seven of the groups hope to open a school this fall, one in fall 2013, and one is considering both options.

The nine include four that were widely anticipated – Baxter Academy of Technology and Science, Portland; Cornville Regional Charter School; Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, based at the Good Will-Hinckley School in Fairfield; and Maine Virtual Academy, an online charter school – plus five others.

One of the five, Monson Academy, submitted its notice Monday. The four others, which were filed with the Commission on Wednesday, are: Fiddlehead – Art & Science School, Gray; John Jenkins Leadership Academy, a virtual school; Maine Connections Academy, a virtual school; and Rural Aspirations Project, Monroe.

The notices of intent are available on the Commission website, at http://www.maine.gov/csc/.

“This is an auspicious start to the process,” said James Banks, Sr., the Charter School Commission chairman. “It shows strong interest in the role that charter schools can play in Maine’s educational future. Commission members and I look forward to reviewing these applications thoroughly, but also as quickly as possible so that those that are qualified and ready can open this fall.”

The Maine Charter School Commission is considered an “authorizer” under Maine’s public charter school law. Local school boards can authorize additional public charter schools.

The Commission, a seven-member body that can authorize up to 10 public charter schools statewide over the next decade, published a request for charter school proposals and an application that potential charter school operators must complete in order to open a school for the 2012-13 school year. The applications are due by June 29, but the Commission plans to review some completed applications before then and could announce decisions starting as soon as mid-June.

Charter schools are public schools of choice that have more flexibility than traditional public schools over decisions concerning curriculum and instruction, scheduling, staffing and finance. However, they are accountable to the terms of the contracts, or charters, that authorize their existence and the academic standards to which all other public schools are accountable.

The Commission expects to issue a second request in late August for charter school proposals for schools to open in September 2013.

Maine Charter School Commission | mcsc@maine.gov

Click the image to view the fully formatted Commissioner’s Update.

The steering committee in charge of crafting our request for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act held its first meeting last week. Three separate working groups will also start meeting in the near future.

As these groups of stakeholders begin their work, they’re using the feedback more than 1,500 of you offered last fall as their guide.

Continue reading →

— Stephen Bowen

ACTION ITEMS

Administrative Letters

• No administrative letters this week.

More Administrative Letters

Notices

• No new notices this week.

More Notices

Reporting

Please note: We generally provide notice of requirements only once. Please check the Reporting Calendar (link below) regularly for a list of ALL upcoming items.

• Educator Quality And Effectiveness Survey, June 15

Reporting Calendar

NEWS & VIEWS

First draft of science standards released; feedback welcomed

Educators and others have a chance between now and June 1 to review the first public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards and offer feedback and suggestions through an online survey. | More

Maine science performance among top in nation

AUGUSTA — Eighth graders in Maine scored higher than much of the nation in the most recent national science test, the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the state was one of only 16 to show improvement since 2009. | More

The Math Gates: Team teaching math and art

We (a math coordinator and an art teacher) are interested in having students discover how integral math is for an artist and how a mathematician benefits from creative thinking abilities. That’s why we’ve team-taught the two subjects at Mount Vernon Elementary School this year. By Dona Seegers and Sarah Caban | More

Project Citizen students participate in public policy

Dozens of students from across the state took public policy proposals to Maine’s capitol on May 11, where they presented them in legislative committee rooms and discussed them in the halls of the State House. | More

Upcoming professional development

• Institute offers ‘kaleidoscope’ into school nurse practice
• State Museum offers educator preview of new exhibit
• Adult Ed conference focuses on ‘changing lives’
• Conferences let teachers learn from peers on Common Core
• Updated: Summer professional development from the Maine DOE

More

Dispatches
Press Releases
From the Commissioner

The steering committee in charge of crafting our request for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act held its first meeting last week. Three separate working groups will also start meeting in the near future.

As these groups of stakeholders begin their work, they’re using the feedback more than 1,500 of you offered last fall as their guide.

When we hit the road in December to hear what the public had to say about the system we use to hold our schools accountable, we heard that students, educators and families want a system that’s thoughtful, fair and constructive. We heard that people are tired of the system we have in place that determines whether a school has made “adequate yearly progress” entirely on the basis of results from a standardized test given once a year that compares the performance of this year’s fourth graders to last year’s. And we heard that there’s a strong desire to move beyond a system that stamps unfair and unproductive labels on schools.

The three working groups will focus their attention on the following three areas:

• Annual Measurable Objectives – examining how we currently measure the progress of students and schools and how we should do it in the future;
• Support and Interventions – reviewing the ways in which we can and should support schools in making improvements; and
• Educator Effectiveness – established in law by the current Legislature, this group will develop guidelines for creating teacher evaluation systems.

This work will be transparent, and everyone who wants it will have a chance to weigh in.

Watch in the coming days for meeting agendas and notes posted on our website, as well as background and reference materials. Also, we’ll continue to provide opportunities for discussion in the Maine DOE Newsroom and invite more private feedback.

I’m looking forward to this important work.

Team teaching art and math works!

We are motivated by the excitement of new ideas for presenting our subjects to the students, are eager to experiment and have infectious enthusiasm.

We are interested in having the students discover how integral math is for an artist and how a mathematician benefits from creative thinking abilities with 2D and 3D design vocabulary and concepts.

Math and art share many core features focused on thinking and problem-solving. Students become better at math through visual investigations.

Students and teachers alike benefit with two instructors in the room. We (Dona and Sarah) are better able to address the needs of students at all levels and increase their participation. It personalizes the learning experience and students witness us learning from each other.

Students experience the myriad of connections between the art and math disciplines while doing creative movement, making Venn Diagrams, using math manipulatives and participating in art projects.

The Math Gates installation at Mount Vernon Elementary School.

Algebra and Art were the focus for our three-week interactive hallway installation, called The Math Gates.

Sarah had been reading about the importance of introducing algebraic thinking in the early grades, inspired by Robert Moses, who started The Algebra Project. Dona was inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 art installation of The Gates in New York City’s Central Park.

When we combined our ideas, students learned to temporarily transform an environment through art installation.

With the help of the janitor, Craig Dunn, and the district volunteer coordinator, Nancy Mormon, the front hall became a learning lab for algebraic equations K-5. Cloth flags with dots (K), whole numbers (1-4) and fractions (5) were hung four across to demonstrate a variety of equations of increasing difficulty.

The book “Object Lessons: Teaching Math Through the Visual Arts K-5″ by math educator Caren Holtzman and art teacher Lynn Susholtz has been a fantastic resource this year and the source for all of our collaborations.

Next year, we plan to do a project based on the Fibonacci sequence, which will include a field trip to an art show on this theme at The Emery Community Arts Center in Farmington.

A sampling of student comments about The Math Gates:

• “You are able to do both tasks at the same time. Math and Art are my favorite subjects, so it is double the fun.”
• “ Sometimes you do art and sometimes you do math, so it evens out in the end.”
• “Installation is a lot different because you have never heard of it; you need to know both subjects because they come in useful.”
• “We don’t have other subjects combined.”

Resources and more information

• Sarah Caban, District Math Coach
  Regional School Unit 38
  207-685-3128 ext. 1107
  sarah_caban@maranacook.org
• Argy Nestor, Visual and Performing Arts Specialist
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6825
  argy.nestor@maine.gov
• Art, math combine in project, Kennebec Journal, April 8, 2012
• Visual & Performing Arts at the Maine DOE
• Mathematics Education at the Maine DOE

Educators and others now have a chance to review the draft standards. They can offer their feedback through an online survey until June 1.

Anita Bernhardt, the Maine Department of Education’s science and technology specialist, has additional details about reviewing the standards and offering feedback on her blog.

• Read about the release of the draft standards

Maine is one of 26 states taking the lead in developing the Next Generation Science Standards, a new set of shared academic standards that will define the science concepts and content students will need to learn to be successful in the workforce, economy and society of the coming decades.

Resources and more information

• Anita Bernhardt, Science and Technology Specialist
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6835
  anita.bernhardt@maine.gov
  On Twitter: @mdoeSTEM
• Next Generation Science Standards at Maine DOE
• Anita Bernhardt’s SciTech Framework Blog

Pemetic Elementary School student Devin Parlatore discusses his group’s public policy project at the Project Citizen Showcase. Devin and his classmates proposed a set of amendments to their school’s wellness policy focused on ending the practice of withholding recess and physical activity time from students as a punishment.

Seventeen student teams from Blue Hill, Sabattus, Calais, Mount Desert Island, Portland and Windham participated in Project Citizen, an event sponsored by the non-profit KIDS Consortium that emphasizes service-learning.

The student teams researched locally relevant issues — obesity among classmates, animal hoarding and clean energy — and devised solutions. Many are now trying to get local government bodies to support them.

“It was really fun,” Maddie Dodge, a Blue Hill Consolidated School eighth grader, said of her service-learning experience.

Maddie and three classmates decided they would focus on preventing obesity at their school. They spent two months researching the issue and devising solutions. Next month, the students will attend a school board meeting and recommend that Blue Hill students spend more time in physical education classes.

The students said they learned a lot from choosing an issue of their own, digging into it and figuring out how best to work with classmates.

They also enjoyed the departure from the typical lesson-learning and test-taking.

“We’d learn it, then we didn’t have to take a test on it,” said Allyson Snow.

Project Citizen participants also heard from Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen. The political process, he said, is all about identifying a problem, researching it, arriving at a solution and building support for it.

“That’s exactly what goes on in this building,” he said. “You as a legislator do precisely what all of you just did.”

Resources and more information

• Fran Rudoff, Executive Director
  KIDS Consortium
  207-620-8272
  frudoff@kidsconsortium.org
• KIDS Consortium
• Information about Project Citizen
• Commission releases service-learning guide for Maine schools, April 25, 2012
• STEM service-learning guide released, May 8, 2012
• Photos from Project Citizen

The 2012 School Nurse Summer Institute: A Kaleidoscope of School Nurse Practice takes place at Bates College in Lewiston from July 24-26.

Among numerous other offerings, the institute will provide critical computer-based trainings and allow school nurses a chance to familiarize themselves with the online social networking tools commonly used by students. The institute will feature keynote addresses by breast cancer survivor Mary Ann Nilon and Maine State Epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears.

The institute is sponsored by the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Association of School Nurses.

The institute agenda and registration are available online.

For more information, contact Nancy Dube by email at Nancy.Dube@maine.gov or by phone at 207-624-6688.

• reasoning and higher-order thinking skills;
• helping students to improve their writing;
• improving their own writing; and
• effective math instruction based on the Common Core State Standards.

The conferences, called “Making Strides on the Common Core in Thinking, Writing and Math,” are organized by the Portland non-profit organization Navigating the Real World and co-sponsored by the University of Southern Maine.

All conferences take place at the Augusta Civic Center. Teachers can sign up for one session or multiple sessions.

More information about the conferences and online registration are available on the Navigating the Real World website.

For additional information, contact Tom Tracy by email at ttracy@ntrw.org or by phone at 207-415-8412.

Note: The Maine DOE shares this information as a courtesy. Unless otherwise noted, inclusion in the Maine DOE Newsroom does not constitute an endorsement or sponsorship by the Maine Department of Education.