The Maine DOE is continuing its work to ensure an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school.
In the coming months, the Department will engage stakeholders in conversations to inform the development of a four to seven year state plan to provide all students with effective educators. The State will examine data and work with stakeholders to understand any identified differences in access to effective educators across high/low poverty and high/low minority schools and must submit its plan to the U.S. Department of Education by June 1.
The Maine DOE has reviewed the data sets provided by the U.S. Department of Education. The Department will minimally consider the following data characteristics for 2013-14 Maine data sets:
- Percentage of inexperienced teachers
- Percentage of teachers without licensure
- HQT (2013-2014)
- Average teacher salary
The Maine DOE will examine each of the above in relation to highest and lowest poverty quartile schools and highest and lowest minority quartile schools.
In addition, the Department has the following data sets available and intends to do examinations of the four data sets above in relation to the six below to determine if there are any correlations.
- Free and reduced lunch data
- Special education percentages
- Rural/not rural
- Turnover rates (both teacher and principal)
- College bound
- Achievement in English language arts and mathematics (teaching year data)
Focus groups will be scheduled in late February, early March to examine the data sets and where there are gaps, assist in the determination of root cause.
Access to great teachers and leaders is a core priority of the Department’s Education Evolving strategic plan to put learners first, released in 2012.
More information about the development of plans related to access to effective educators can be found at the U.S. Department of Education website. For questions about Maine’s efforts, please contact Maine DOE Chief Academic Officer Rachelle Tome at rachelle.tome@maine.gov.
I am curious why you are not also looking at factors like the quality and type of teacher preparation program teachers accessed, their related prior experiences with students, and the extent of mentoring and professional development they are provided in their initial years of teaching. Haven’t these factors been demonstrated to increase teacher efficacy?
In terms of opportunity to learn, might you also include rural versus suburban/urban, and dollars expended for instructional materials and professional development? As district budgets continue to shrink, perhaps novice teachers are disproportionately disadvantaged by a lack of quality instructional materials and professional development in the context of their districts, compounding the impact of less intensive, contextual teacher education programs due to cuts in university funding and outreach.