AUGUSTA – Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen met with future teachers at the University of Maine Wednesday to talk about how they are preparing for the profession and about new approaches to education.
Continue reading “Bowen meets with future teachers at University of Maine”
AUGUSTA – Ken Vencile, an honors and advanced placement biology 
teacher at Camden Hills Regional High School, was named this week as one of 97 mathematics and science teachers nationwide to receive the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
Continue reading “Camden Hills teacher receives Presidential Award”
The following is a news release from the Maine Charter School Commission.
AUGUSTA—The Maine Charter School Commission will hold public hearings on June 15 and 18 regarding three applications it received from groups seeking to open charter schools. Members of the public are invited to attend and encouraged to offer testimony in favor or opposition, as well as to submit written comments.
Continue reading “Charter School Commission to hold first public hearings”
The following is a news release from the Office of Gov. Paul LePage.
HERMON – Governor Paul LePage helped kick-off a new program Monday evening that will allow students to attain both their high school diploma and an associate’s degree in five years.
Continue reading “Bridge Year education program highlighted in Hermon”
AUGUSTA – Three high school students have been chosen as the winners of the Maine Community College System’s “A Journey into Writing” contest and named 2012 Governor’s Young Writers of the Year. They are: Amanda Dickey and Brianna Housman, both juniors at Searsport District High School, and Gaelyn Lindauer, a junior at Bonny Eagle High School in Standish. The contest is open to all high school juniors and home-schooled students of the same age.
Continue reading “Commissioner joins Governor to present Young Writer of Year awards”
The following is a news release from the Office of Gov. Paul LePage.
AUGUSTA – Science, robots and the students who designed them took center stage Tuesday at the State House as Governor Paul LePage awarded the first ever Governor’s Promising STEM Youth Awards.
The recipients included three robotics teams that participated in a national competition, a student who will be representing Maine at the National Youth Science Camp and students from Falmouth who represented the state in a national science competition.
GRAY – Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen is on the road again. But this time, instead of gathering information to develop a strategic plan as he did last spring, he’s sharing the results of that work.
Bowen visited schools and programs Friday as a way to showcase the Maine Department of Education’s strategic plan, developed with the input of hundreds of teachers, administrators, parents, students, taxpayers and others he met with on a “listening tour” last year. Bowen unveiled the plan in January, but said he hadn’t been able to share it yet due to the work of the legislative session, which officially ended this week.
“What we’re talking about here is how do we get the best return on our investment in education,” Bowen said. “We spend more money on K-12 education in Maine than any other program – we’ve got a vision and a strategic plan built on the best thinking of many, many people, and we think it’s going to help our kids graduate better prepared for success in college and in the work place. That’s good for them and it’s good for Maine’s economy.”
Continue reading “Ed commissioner tours schools to showcase education plan”
ORONO – What do you get when you put 1,000 students with laptops in the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine in Orono? Music, literally.
At this year’s Maine Learning Technology Initiative Student Conference at the University of Maine on Thursday, students learned about innovative ways they can use their state-issued laptops.
Continue reading “1,000 students with laptops make music, learn”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this release contained the wrong LD number and linked to the wrong bill for the second item below, LD 1779. It has been corrected.
Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen issued the following statement Thursday following legislative approval on Wednesday of several key education bills, including: LD 1422, which requires that the state’s public schools transition to a proficiency-based diploma; LD 1779, which moves Maine career and technical education programs toward the full adoption of national industry standards; and LD 1865, which makes it easier for students to access career and technical education courses.
The following is a news release from the Maine Charter School Commission.
AUGUSTA – Nine groups informed the Maine Charter School Commission by Wednesday’s deadline that they plan to submit applications to open public charter schools. Seven of the groups hope to open a school this fall, one in fall 2013, and one is considering both options.
Continue reading “Commission receives notice of 9 charter school proposals”
Maine DOE Newsroom 