A panel of district leaders who have experienced the challenges and the success of developing and implementing Performance Evaluation and Professional Growth (PEPG) systems shared their success strategies with more than 100 participants from across the state at a recent seminar hosted by legal firm Drummond Woodsum in partnership with the Maine School Management Association.
Continue reading “District leaders share educator evaluation system implementation strategies”
Note: This is a joint letter from Commissioner of Education Jim Rier and Guy Cousins, director of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Continue reading “Schools encouraged to prepare for Alcohol Awareness Day”
Last week I had the honor of announcing Jennifer Dorman as the 2015 Maine Teacher of the Year.
Mrs. Dorman, who dreamed of being a teacher since her very first day of Kindergarten, has been a special educator in Somerset County schools for two decades, most recently at Skowhegan Area Middle School (SAMS) where she is a seventh-and eighth-grade special education and reading intervention teacher.
Continue reading “Celebrating Maine’s 2015 Teacher of the Year”
The final deadline for districts looking for an extension in implementing a proficiency-based diploma requirement is next week.
Earlier this year, the Department released six extension request options to provide the time and support districts say they need to undertake the thoughtful, systemic change needed to ensure quality implementation of systems that support the awarding of proficiency-based diplomas starting in 2018.
Continue reading “Final deadline for proficiency-based diploma extension applications Oct. 18”
As Maine moves toward a proficiency-based education system that will ensure students graduate from our high schools having mastered State learning standards, I am often asked what this expectation means for our nearly 30,000 students with disabilities.
Continue reading “All students, all standards but different demonstrations of proficiency”
The Maine DOE’s World Languages in Maine: A Standards-Based Teaching and Assessment Initiative, now in its third year, will be again offering free regional workshops for world language teachers statewide during the 2014-15 school year.
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As part of the Maine DOE’s ongoing efforts to develop and support school leaders, the Department is hosting a second series of workshops to support principals as instructional leaders. The sessions this fall, scheduled throughout the state (see full schedule below), will focus on effective teaching and learning in mathematics.
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The Maine DOE is pleased to announce the Smarter Balanced Digital Library, a collection of vetted instructional, assessment and professional development resources, currently contains more than 2,000 resources, including each grade level, K-12, in the content areas of mathematics and English language arts.
Continue reading “Smarter Balanced Digital Library surpasses 2K item mark, workshops offered”
The Maine DOE has recently published guidance on what constitutes proficiency in a world language and recommendations for assessing proficiency for graduation reporting standards on the world languages section of its website.
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The Maine DOE has created a free webinar to help educators better understand where Maine students are when it comes to developing evidence-based arguments and how to support them in improving those skills. The webinar is the latest in a series of school improvement webinars developed by the Department to support Maine schools based on needs identified from statewide student performance data.
Continue reading “Maine DOE releases social studies webinar highlighting inquiry-based resources”
Maine DOE Newsroom 