The Governor devoted a good portion of his State of the State address on Tuesday evening to education, a reflection of the passion he has for the topic. As he said, he believes education saved his life.
He introduced three plans that have us here at the Maine DOE pretty excited—and working overtime. First is the Governor’s education conference, planned for March. We’ll share details in coming days as we lock down nationally-known speakers on topics important to our education agenda. Gov. LePage also unveiled his plan for a school performance grading system. This A-F grading will give parents and communities a quick overview of how their school is doing and hopefully generate discussion about how to progress. The grades will be based on publicly available data, multiple measures such as performance and growth, and grad rates for high schools. No, one grade doesn’t tell the whole story, but it’s important to have some transparency and to catalyze discussion about how to improve all of our schools – regardless of where they are on the scale.
— Stephen Bowen
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NEWS & VIEWS
Maine Charter Commission Approves Two New Charter Schools
AUGUSTA — The Maine Charter School Commission approved two new charter schools on Tuesday to open next fall: the Harpswell Coastal Academy and the Fiddlehead School of Arts and Sciences in Gray. | More
Maine NECAP test results released
AUGUSTA – Reading and math scores in grades 3 through 8 are flat, while writing scores increased slightly after a decline the previous year. The scores are from the latest New England Common Assessment Program tests, taken in October 2012. | More
Mt. Blue’s Doug Hodum named national teacher fellow
Doug Hodum, science teacher and science department head at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, was recently selected as one of 12 Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellows. | More
How does learner-centered education work?
Monmouth Academy, part of Kennebec Intra-District Schools (KIDS) RSU 2, recently released two videos about learner-centered projects at the high school. | More
Learn to support ELL students through technology
The University of Maine Project Reach program invites teachers of English language learners to attend a free one-day workshop to discover how a variety of readily available technology tools can be used to provide new educational opportunities for diverse learners, including young children learning English. | More
UMF announces graduate course series in K-12 math leadership
University of Maine at Farmington is offering a series of four graduate courses to prepare educators for the challenges of being a mathematics leader, whether they are a math coach, math interventionist, Response to Intervention coordinator, Title I: math teacher, or grade-level team leader. | More
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