It’s been a busy week in the Maine Legislature.

On Tuesday, the Legislature’s Education Committee heard the first of four pieces of education-related legislation proposed this winter by Gov. LePage: LD 1865, An Act to Enhance Career and Technical Education.

On Wednesday, the hearings continued when LD 1858, An Act to Ensure Effective Teaching and School Leadership, came before the Committee.

The last two hearings take place this afternoon, when LD 1854, An Act to Expand Educational Opportunities for Maine Students, and LD 1866, An Act to Remove Inequity in Student Access to Certain Schools, are up before the Committee.

Thanks to those of you who have turned out for these hearings to let the Education Committee know what you think about the bills and how you think they can be improved.

We’ve been doing our best to keep everybody informed as these bills have been printed and public hearings have been scheduled. We’ve made the bill text, public hearing schedule and Department testimony available on our website at www.maine.gov/doe/first/.

Speaking of our website, we launched a major overhaul of it yesterday afternoon, at maine.gov/doe/. The new website is not complete – in some cases you’ll find links from the new website to content that resides on the Maine DOE’s old website. But that will change gradually as the overhaul continues. Stay tuned, and let us know what you think by taking the survey at www.maine.gov/doe/about.html.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – March 15, 2012” →

Four pieces of education-related legislation proposed by Gov. LePage this winter are now available in bill form for the public to review.

Yesterday, the proposals arrived back from the Legislature’s Revisor of Statutes. While the legislation for most of the bills is still not available on the Legislature’s website, we’ve posted the final — but not official — bill language to the Department’s website.

Read the four bills on the Maine DOE website.

The bill language on that web page is already the result of substantial feedback we’ve received from the education community and others. Still, it can only benefit from additional public input.

I encourage you to take a look at the bills and participate in the legislative process as it unfolds. Public hearings are scheduled for next week.

If you’re unable to attend a public hearing in Augusta, feel free to contact legislators on the Education Committee to let them know what you think.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – March 8, 2012” →

Our work is all about supporting students so they can be successful in their learning and once they complete high school.

Sometimes that support comes in the most basic form: nutritious meals.

After all, a student who comes to school hungry is less likely to enter the classroom ready to learn and is more likely to spend time in the school nurse’s office. A student without access to nutritious food is less likely to be able to maintain a healthy weight, potentially causing lifelong problems related to obesity.

That’s why next week’s celebration of National School Breakfast Week is so important, and so aligned with our work of preparing all of our students for success in college, careers and civic life.

Every day in Maine, our schools serve breakfast to about 41,000 students who need it. As a result, those students can more easily focus on their school work, discover their passions and take charge of their learning so it’s relevant and engaging.

School Breakfast Week will bring attention to our schools that are giving students an extra nutritious boost in the morning, and help students learn about the importance and the advantages of a healthy breakfast.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – March 1, 2012” →

Our announcement earlier this week  that we plan to take our time to craft an accountability and improvement system that works for our students, teachers and schools is good news.

Yes, it means the unfair and unrealistic system we have under No Child Left Behind will stick around for another year. But the constantly moving test proficiency targets will at least stand still.

More importantly, after that one remaining year, Maine will remove itself entirely from the paradigm of the No Child Left Behind Act that we’ve struggled with for a decade. This is an opportunity to take stock of the priorities we share to move to an education system that’s designed around and responsive to student needs, and to craft an accountability and improvement system accordingly. We want a system that’s fair and constructive, that supports — rather than stigmatizes — schools when they’re in need of improvement.

We’re not going to get there, however, without you. The success of Maine’s new accountability and improvement system depends on involvement from teachers and administrators, school board members, students, parents, community members and others. What we heard loud and clear in December at community forums, during dinners with students, in online discussions, and from more than 1,500 survey responses was that you don’t want us simply to tinker or propose patchwork fixes to a broken system. So please lend your voice to this important process. Visit the Maine DOE’s accountability and improvement web page to find out how you can get involved.

In Maine, we’ll take the time we need to devise an accountability and improvement system that is flexible and that works for our schools.

Please note: There will be no Commissioner’s Update on Feb. 23. The next Update will be published on March 1. Have a pleasant vacation!

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Feb. 16, 2012” →

Curious about the legislative proposals unveiled by Gov. LePage on Wednesday?

If passed by the Legislature, they would:

• make it easier for students to get credit for career and technical education classes at their “sending” high schools and in the Maine Community College System;
• create a “Schools of Choice” program that allows public schools to open their doors to students interested in attending from other districts;
• makes private, religious schools that meet rigorous educational standards eligible to enroll publicly funded students;
• establish an inclusive process for creating standards that define effective teaching, and a timeline for local districts to implement locally developed teacher and principal evaluation systems; and
• allocate $5 million in competitive funds that groups of school districts can use to provide services regionally and implement innovative educational programs.

The Maine DOE’s website has more details on these proposals. It’s all part of the work outlined in our strategic plan: crafting an education system around the need for students to learn in ways that work best for them.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Feb. 9, 2012” →

Later today, the Department will release its estimates for the distribution of General Purpose Aid to local school districts for the 2012-13 school year.

It’s critical information for local districts as they plan their budgets for the coming school year. It’s important to note, however, that these figures are estimates and should not be entered into budgets as definitive figures.

First, the numbers are still subject to legislative action. Second, the aid estimates we’ll provide are based on a number of factors that are impossible to know at this point, such as student enrollment and the size of districts’ special education populations. For those reasons, subsidy amounts to be released later could still change.

A dispatch in the Maine DOE Newsroom has more details and a link to the web page where the estimates will be posted this afternoon.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Feb. 2, 2012” →

It’s been a busy and exciting month for us as we advance our efforts to move Maine to an education system that is centered around students.

Feedback has started to come in about our newly released strategic plan, “Education Evolving: Maine’s Plan for Putting Learners First.” We appreciate the constructive suggestions and comments from those who have taken time to read the document, and we actively encourage more feedback.

Check out the plan and join the discussion on our website.

As the feedback trickles in, some of the initiatives outlined in the document are already moving ahead.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Jan. 26, 2012” →

What a week!

Tuesday’s release of our strategic plan for education in Maine proved an energizing success.

Five talented, confident and ambitious students joined me at Capital Area Technical Center in Augusta to unveil our plan, called “Education Evolving: Maine’s Plan for Putting Learners First.” The students were the the key to making Tuesday’s release event the success that it was.

Maggie Stokes, Gareth Robinson, Brooklyn Pinkham, Morgan Horn and Kaytie Scully, after all, are already living the vision articulated in our 35-page plan. They are taking control of their learning, discovering their passions and excelling in their academics as a result. Their teachers, principals, and district leaders are leading the state in the move to an education system that puts students at the center and builds the system around their needs. It’s my hope that, by implementing the action steps detailed in our plan, all of Maine’s students will have the opportunities that the five students we saw on Tuesday have had in their education.

As I’ve noted previously, the strategic plan is a working document that could change in the coming months. I encourage you all to read it and join the discussion about it.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Jan. 19, 2012” →

We’re putting the final touches this week on the first release of our long-awaited strategic plan to create a learner-centered education system in Maine. The plan is the result of feedback I’ve received over the past nine months in conversations with students, parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members, Maine DOE staff and others.

On Tuesday, we will release the plan to the public. At that point, it becomes a working, fluid document.

Over the next few months, the Department of Education will invite students, educators, parents and others to review the plan and share what they think. We’ll invite feedback online and in person, and incorporate that input as we prepare a final version of the plan.

I look forward to starting a conversation with this plan about the best ways to serve our learners, and prepare them to succeed in college, careers and civic life.

Stay tuned.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Jan. 12, 2012” →

Happy new year from all of us at Maine DOE!

Here in Augusta, the dawn of the new year means things are getting really busy.

Our Senators and Representatives are back in town, and they have numerous education issues on their plate, from online learning to sports-related head injuries to long-term planning.

At the DOE, we continue to work hard on a strategic plan. The members of the Legislature’s Education Committee saw a preview yesterday, and we’ll be sharing the full document with everyone later this month. The plan is a work in progress, and once we release a copy, we’ll seek feedback from the public that we hope will strengthen it.

Meanwhile, we’re also making progress on using all of your feedback to craft a request for Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility to submit to the federal government.

As if that weren’t enough, our most important work — the teaching and learning that happens each day in our schools — doesn’t stop.

Here’s to a fulfilling 2012.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – Jan. 5, 2012” →