Student demonstration of proficiency as outlined in the State standards in all eight content areas of the Maine Learning Results and the Guiding Principles has at its foundation an infrastructure built on providing opportunities for students to access knowledge and to develop understanding that fosters transferable learning.
Recognizing that individual students learn in different ways and at various paces, the law states students must be allowed to gain proficiency through multiple pathways and must be allowed to demonstrate proficiency through presenting multiple types of evidence, including but not limited to teacher-designed or student-designed assessments, portfolios, performance, exhibitions, projects and community service.
In the implementation of proficiency-based diplomas, a responsive system of support must be designed to expand beyond the reading, writing, math, and behavior interventions in the Response to Intervention systems currently in place in all Maine schools.
School leaders may find the Proficiency-Based Diplomas Readiness Inventory helpful in self-assessing the infrastructure for providing opportunity to learn and demonstrate proficiency in the standards of the content areas and each of the Guiding Principles.
For more information on proficiency-based education in Maine please contact the Department’s Proficiency-Based Education Specialist, Diana Doiron at diana.doiron@maine.gov or 207-624-6823.
That determination has yet to be made. As we announced when we released this year’s grades, we will not be able to release grades in the spring of 2015 because the assessments will still be underway. As a result, the earliest we’d be able to release 2014-15 school year grades is in the fall of 2015. We’ll be engaging stakeholders from the field and public to develop the next generation of the grading system in the coming months. As always, we’ll communicate updates on that process and its results here.
Will the other components of the Learning Results – beyond those assessed by Smarter Balanced (Common Core’s Math and ELA) – be included in school grades next year?