The Department’s School Improvement Team is continuing to provide support and technical assistance to help raise student achievement at the state’s schools, including those recently identified as priority, focus and monitor under Maine’s federally required accountability system.
The latest list of Maine schools by designation can now be found in the Department’s public education Data Warehouse (select “Data Tables” and then “ESEA Reports”).
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Education approved Maine’s application for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA or No Child Left Behind). This flexibility allows Maine to implement its own statewide plan to improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps and increase the quality of instruction, with a statewide goal of reducing the percentage of non-proficient students by half at each school within six years.
Under Maine’s plan, Title I schools are placed in one of five categories: priority, focus, monitor, progressing and meeting. These tiers allow the State to most intensively target its support to the schools that past performance shows need it the most, though improvement resources will be available to all public schools. For example, priority and focus schools receive additional federal school improvement funds to develop school improvement plans. All identified schools receive further supports in the form of face-to-face technical assistance and guidance provided by school improvement specialists. A complete list of interventions and supports by accountability designation is available here.
For more information about Maine’s ESEA waiver and accountability and improvement system, visit www.maine.gov/doe/accountability or contact Maine DOE Title I Program Director Janette Kirk at janette.kirk@maine.gov.