From the Maine DOE

Earlier today, the Maine DOE unveiled its newly redesigned homepage. We liked our old homepage, but we are constantly looking to improve the experience people have when they interact with our Department and for so many, our website makes that important first impression.

Throughout the redesign process, we had one thing in mind: you.

The new homepage features a navigational structure organized not by sometimes ambiguous content areas but instead around the different audiences who visit our site, starting with “Students” first and as our strategic plan does, building out from there to “Teachers,” “Administrators” and “Communities.”

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From the Maine DOE

This week, the Department was proud to announce that one of the Maine schools we had nominated had been selected as a National Blue Ribbon School.

The Williams-Cone School in Topsham was one of 236 public schools nationwide named by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan into this prestigious program that recognizes schools where students perform at very high levels or show significant improvements in closing achievement gaps.

The K-5 school, which serves just over 200 students under the leadership of Principal Randa Rineer, is definitely deserving of this honor with their hard work in recent years leading to great gains in student achievement.

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From the Maine DOE

With schools now settled into the new academic year, Maine DOE resumed our School Improvement Webinar Series this week. Perhaps not surprisingly for a session on increasing attendance, we had our best turnout yet, with more than 60 educators from the across the state participating.

Daily attendance is a key factor for determining school success. Emerging research shows that chronic absence can start as early as preschool and affect performance in later grades. When students aren’t in class, they have to work twice as hard to catch up with the material that they missed, and teachers lose valuable class time helping them do so.

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From the Commissioner

This week, I had the honor of presenting the 2014 Maine Teacher of the Year to Karen MacDonald of King Middle School in Portland.

The sixth-and seventh-grade English language arts teacher is described by students as a “gift,” by colleagues as a teacher leader who is “the most consistently innovative,” and by her principal as “relentlessly committed to the success of all of her students.”

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From the Commissioner

As you may have seen in the press, some concerns and questions have been raised recently about the Common Core standards in math and ELA, which the State incorporated into its Learning Results standards in 2011. Many of those concerns seem to stem from suspicions that the Common Core is an attempt by the federal government to influence education policy in the states and, as a consequence, that the adoption of these standards will diminish Maine’s longstanding tradition of local control. Continue reading →

From the Commissioner

In the days since I announced I would be leaving Maine DOE to become the national Director of Innovation for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), I’ve received calls and notes of support from many in Maine’s learning community, for which I am very grateful. Thank you.

The decision to accept the opportunity offered by CCSSO was the most difficult of my career, and hearing from you was a reminder of why I’ve felt so honored this past two and a half years to be Maine’s Commissioner of Education.

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From the Commissioner

For students, August means back-to-school shopping for new backpacks, binders and clothes. But for administrators and educators, it can feel frantic finalizing lesson plans, getting classrooms ready and coordinating instruction with new colleagues. At the same time, the start of the school year also brings new or updated federal and State expectations. We are committed to doing whatever we can to support you so those regulatory changes don’t get in the way of what schools are all about – teaching and learning.

From Common Core implementation to new federal sub-recipient monitoring, this issue of the Commissioner’s Update highlights several of the changes you need to know as you get ready to welcome students back. We hope you find these updates helpful, and we encourage you to continue visiting our newsroom for the latest Department news and guidance and exploring our A-Z index to connect to our wealth of online information.  

As school begins, please remember Maine DOE is a resource to serve you as you serve students. Whether you have a question about facilities, finance or science standards, our team is always just a phone call, email or school visit away to support you. You can find complete Department contact information here, or if you aren’t sure where to begin, send an email to communications.doe@maine.gov or call 207-624-6600 to have your inquiry directed to the person who can be of most help to you.

We look forward to hearing from you.

From the Commissioner

Following the launch of the Maine School Performance Grading System, we’ve spent our time reaching out to underperforming and at-risk schools to learn more about their challenges and the supports they’d like Maine DOE to provide.

What we continue to hear is that schools want to learn from other Maine schools that are like them. In the words of one school leader, “Tell us what’s working in other places with similar populations and budget concerns.” That’s the thinking behind our Center for Best Practice, which provides success stories (and videos) from schools in our state implementing learner-centered instructional practices.

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From the Commissioner

Last week I had the privilege of attending the 21^st Annual Model Schools Conference down in Washington, D.C. Put on by the International Center for Leadership in Education, this year’s conference provided teachers and educational leaders, including many from Maine, with practical ideas for increasing student achievement and ensuring college and career readiness in an age of declining resources and higher standards.

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From the Commissioner

Congratulations on completing another successful school year.

I was honored to spend much of the past week connecting with many of Maine’s education leaders at the 102^nd Annual Superintendent’s Conference in Northport. For those who attended, I hope the transformational leadership development combined with the transitional support to help your schools move to a proficiency-based diploma energized you as much as it did me. Just as our potential to graduate every student prepared is great, so are the stakes – as was made quite evident by the CEOs who spoke during Sunday’s session about the core competencies the opportunities of Maine’s future will demand.

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