The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is currently recruiting elementary and secondary educators in grades 3-8 and high school to participate in an upcoming educator committee opportunity for the State general assessment in Reading and Math, the Maine Through Year Assessment. Maine educators and the Maine DOE play a crucial role in the development of this assessment. Assessment development is an iterative process in which educator committees meet annually to review and improve elements of the Maine Through Year Assessment.
While no prior experience is required, panelists should be experts currently teaching the students who participate in the Maine Through Year Assessment and, also have a thorough understanding of the Common Core State Standards in their subject area(s) of expertise: Reading and Math.
Panelists will support the Embedded Standard Setting (ESS) and Alignment Study for Maine’s Reading and/or Math Assessments. Panelists will review the Common Core State Standards and provide ratings regarding the alignment of the Maine Through Year Assessment forms, items, and achievement level descriptors (ALDs) for each grade, 3 through 8 and grade 10. The educator panels will be grade and content-area specific for a total of 14 panels. Given the adaptive structure of the assessments in grades 3 through 8, panelists will review three test forms for each content area in each of these grades. One form will represent the items that a student earning a lower score would have experienced, one form the items that a student scoring in the mid-range of the score scale could have experienced, and one form the items that a student earning a higher score would have experienced. For grade 10, which is not yet adaptive, panelists will review a fixed form.
ESS analyses will be performed to identify achievement level cut scores that optimize the consistency between alignment study panelists’ item-ALD alignments and empirical data.
Current needs include:
| Subject | Date/Time* | Location | # of Educators | Stipend |
| Reading | July 18-20, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | Virtual | 5 educators per grade-level panel | $300 ($100 per day) |
| Math | July 25-27, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | Virtual | 5 educators per grade-level panel | $300 ($100 per day) |
*Participants must be able to attend all three days.
Please consider applying and sharing this upcoming opportunity with colleagues. The expertise and contributions of Maine educators are a critical element of the continued development cycle for the Maine Educational Assessments. Interested? Complete the panelist registration survey by Tuesday, June 20, 2023.