The Maine Superintendents’ Conference packed a lot of workshops and presentations into two days last week. Superintendents got to hear updates from Maine DOE staff about six projects affecting Maine’s education system.
- The next generation Smarter Balanced assessments for grades 3-8 and high school math and English Language Arts will focus on college and career readiness. Smarter Balanced testing will begin in the 2014-15 school year. Being a part of the consortium of states allows greater delivery of information to schools, a faster turnaround time and a significant reduction in assessment costs. | Contact: Dan Hupp, director of assessment
- Maine will apply for Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility by the September 6 deadline. The Department has been working with a large group of stakeholders in three working groups to develop a plan. Schools will be identified using the new accountability and recognition system in the 2013-14 school year. | Contact: Deb Friedman, director of policy and programs
- The Maine Educator Effectiveness Council has developed the basic elements of the guidelines for new teacher evaluation systems and has begun the longer-term work of developing the standards for local evaluation systems. Administrators will roll out their local evaluation systems during the 2013-14 school year. | Contact:
Deb Friedman, director of policy and programs - Implementation of the Common Core State Standards continues in full force, with complete implementation required by fall 2013, with changes to ELA and math curricula in place by then. The new standards heighten focus on specific needs, such as raising text complexity in ELA and focusing on fractions in math. | Contact: Lee Ann Larsen, literary specialist
- The Maine Learning Technology Initiative will issue its next call for a statewide education technology solution later this year, for deployment to Maine schools starting in June 2013. As has always been the case, the focus is on educational solutions, not the hardware, so we anticipate proposals that may include laptops, tablets or other technology. The public can help guide the next phase of the program at www.maine121.info. | Contact: Steve Garton, coordinator of educational technology
- Maine educators can now share best practices through the DOE’s Maine Learning Network. This online communities of practice platform was created as a way for administrators, teachers and others to share best practices, post resources and engage productively in a statewide discussion of education. | Contact: David Connerty-Marin, communications director