As part of Education Evolving: Maine’s Plan for Putting Learners First, the Maine DOE has made it a priority to adopt State standards of professional practice for teachers and principals to be used in Performance Evaluation and Professional Growth (PE/PG) systems.
Based on the 2012 recommendation of the Maine Educator Effectiveness Council (MEEC), the Department identified the InTASC Model Core Teaching standards and the ISLLC 2008 Standards as the benchmarks for teacher and principal effectiveness, respectively. By establishing benchmarks, as opposed to prescribing a particular sets of professional practice standards, the Department supports flexibility among local districts in adopting the professional practice models that best suit their needs, provided the standards in those models align with the benchmark standards, and the models include other elements as described in Sections 5 and 6 of the provisionally-adopted rule.
To support school administrative units (SAUs) in continuing with work already underway when the rule was originally proposed in 2013 as well as SAUs who are just beginning to explore professional practice models, the Department has posted and will update as needed the Maine DOE Menu of Approved Professional Practice Models along with information about the requirements for a model on its Educator Effectiveness website. The Department encourages local evaluation system development teams to consult the menu and guidelines when selecting a professional practice model and in seeking Department approval of a model not currently listed on the menu.
For more information or technical assistance, contact Maine DOE Educator Effectiveness Coordinator Mary Paine at mary.paine@maine.gov or 207-624-6748.