Greene school shows its stuff to Ed Commissioner

Teachers say they are eager to use new academic standards and talk about their success in raising student achievement.

GREENE — The students at Greene Central School have made steady progress in reading ever since their school fell short of federal testing benchmarks four years ago.

Using federal school improvement money, staff members developed a plan that emphasized intensive training for teachers and using regular classroom tests to determine how to help students make progress, according to Principal Pamela Doyen.

Teachers and students showed off their school to Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen on Tuesday, the first stop of a listening tour that will take him across Maine in his first 100 days on the job.

Teachers, who joined Bowen for lunch, said they’re looking forward to transitioning to the Common Core, a set of national academic standards that have been adopted by more than 40 states. Gov. Paul LePage has voiced support for standards that set high expectations for students, and the Maine Legislature is in the final steps of adopting the standards for Maine.

“They’re very easy to understand,” said Susan Shaw, a Title I teacher at Greene. “They’re really good.”

But teachers are also anxious to see the testing that accompanies the new standards. Those exams — which are likely to be computer-based and customized to each student — are in the works at the national level and could be ready for schools by 2014.

“I don’t mind giving assessments if they help us to improve instruction,” Doyen said, who also voiced her support for the Common Core.

For the foreseeable future, Bowen said, the shift to the Common Core standards should be the final change in standards for Maine.

Maine schools have been required to adapt to three sets of standards in the past 15 years.

“We’ve got to stop lurching from thing to thing,” Bowen said.

Bowen’s visit offered a chance to learn more about the school and about other ongoing initiatives at the Greene school:

Student achievement in reading and math has grown at an above-average pace. Over the past two years, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding the standards in those two subjects combined has risen by 12.8 percentage points, compared to a statewide average of less than 3 percentage points.

A day treatment program that began less than five years ago is the central location for all RSU 52 students with severe learning disabilities. The program has allowed the district to cut down on the number of students that must be sent to expensive specialized private schools, Doyen said. It also allows the students to more easily re-enter regular programming at the school when they are ready.

The day treatment center has also served as a revenue generator, since neighboring districts pay RSU 52 to educate their students with disabilities. The program currently enrolls 10 students, according to Doyen. “We just want them here in our community,” she said.

Greene Central School teachers don’t simply drop off their students in the computer lab for computer class. The teachers stick around and work with a technology integrator on making technology a part of their teaching. “We didn’t think it should be separate from their real learning,” Doyen said.

Greene Central School’s improvement plan jump-started Professional Learning Communities at the school. The groups of staffers meet weekly to drill down on student performance data and decide what they can do to improve their teaching.

Bowen’s visit offered a chance to learn more about the school and about other ongoing initiatives at the Greene school:

  • Student achievement in reading and math has grown at an above-average pace. Over the past two years, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding the standards in those two subjects combined has risen by 12.8 percentage points, compared to a statewide average of less than 3 percentage points.
  • A day treatment program that began less than five years ago is the central location for all RSU 52 students with severe learning disabilities. The program has allowed the district to cut down on the number of students that must be sent to expensive specialized private schools, Doyen said. It also allows the students to more easily re-enter regular programming at the school when they are ready. The day treatment center has also served as a revenue generator, since neighboring districts pay RSU 52 to educate their students with disabilities. The program currently enrolls 10 students, according to Doyen. “We just want them here in our community,” she said.
  • Greene Central School teachers don’t simply drop off their students in the computer lab for computer class. The teachers stick around and work with a technology integrator on making technology a part of their teaching. “We didn’t think it should be separate from their real learning,” Doyen said.
  • Greene Central School’s improvement plan jump-started Professional Learning Communities at the school. The groups of staffers meet weekly to drill down on student performance data and decide what they can do to improve their teaching.

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