AUGUSTA – For the second year in a row, the graduation rate in Maine has improved by a statistically significant amount. The percentage of students graduating within four year of entering high school for 2010-11 was 83.79 percent, up nearly a full percentage point compared to the previous year.
Category: Media Releases
Bowen meets with future teachers at University of Maine
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.
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Camden Hills teacher receives Presidential Award
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.
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Charter School Commission to hold first public hearings
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.
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Bridge Year education program highlighted in Hermon
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.
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Commissioner joins Governor to present Young Writer of Year awards
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.
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Governor presents Promising STEM Youth Awards at State House ceremony, with Robots
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.
Ed commissioner tours schools to showcase education plan
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.”
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1,000 students with laptops make music, learn
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.
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Bowen statement on passage of ed bills
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.
