In 2015, Maine revised its mandated reporting law, requiring state-approved training for certain professions every four years. Specifically, it includes school personnel described as the following: teachers, guidance counselors, school officials, school bus drivers and school bus attendants.
Maine’s Network of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Councils is working to ensure that local school districts are aware of the changes and have the necessary resources to maintain compliance with Maine Statute. The local councils are able to provide in-person training at no-cost to the school districts.
As schools know, child abuse and neglect are serious issues, and school personnel often witness the challenges faced by Maine’s children. In fact, according to the Office of Child and Family Services’ recent child welfare data, school personnel were responsible for over 20% of the total reported cases of suspected child abuse and neglect. This demonstrates the importance of providing school personnel the most current, state-approved information for recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect. It is important that school personnel feel comfortable, confident, and fully understand their role as a mandated reporter. For information on how to access this free training, contact your local Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Council or visit the Maine Children’s Trust website. Click here to read the full law. If you have any additional questions please email Denise Trafton at the Maine Children’s Trust, deniset@mechildrenstrust.org.
Representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston along with educators from Taiwan visited Maine recently stopping at the Maine Department of Education during the trip to meet with Deputy Commissioner Dan Chuhta.
The educators, from various institutions in Taiwan including National University of Tainan, came to Maine to talk about teaching and learning with Maine’s education officials which included discussions about different models for individualized and experiential learning.
During their visit, the group also visited Loranger Memorial School in Old Orchard and King Middle School in Portland to talk with local educators and explore international collaborative learning opportunities.
The MLTI Student Conference has included live musical performances over the past several years, and this year, we would like to feature students from our PK-12 schools or local universities. There are several potential opportunities which could be filled by students from one school or from a two schools. A tentative schedule is below.
8am – 9:40am – Musical performances as schools arrive, National Anthem, and performances as schools depart for sessions.
12:45pm – 3:00pm – Musical performances as schools return from lunch, at some point during the UBER session, and as schools depart.
We are looking for musical performances that fit this year’s conference theme: “Celebrating 200 Years in Maine” or “Maine’s Bicentennial” and will judge applications based on how well the musical selections fit the theme, as well as how creative ideas are for the performance itself.
Selection Process: February 24th – March 13th, 2020
Please note that we only have limited funding available to help reduce the cost of attendance or of travel. Because of this, invitations to perform will happen over the course of three weeks. Thank you for understanding!
Additionally, the school is responsible for ensuring students and families are okay with the students performing at an event where they will be recorded (video and photograph). These videos and photos may be shared on the local news and on social media. Families will also be asked to sign a media release form for the Department of Education and to understand that we are unable to prevent their student from being photographed or video recorded during the event if they are performing on stage.
The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) is hosting a T-shirt Design Competition again this year. The theme for the T-shirt design is “Celebrating 200 Years in Maine” or “Maine’s Bicentennial”.
A panel of judges will narrow the submissions down to three designs, and then we will ask Maine students and educators to vote for their top choice as they register for the MLTI Student Conference. The winning T-shirt will be printed for the 1000+ attendees of the 17th Annual MLTI Student Conference, which will be held on Thursday, May 21st, 2020 at the University of Maine in Orono. The three students whose designs become the finalists will be given a free registration to the conference.
Eligibility:
Any student who attends an elementary, middle, or high school in Maine during the 2019-2020 school year is eligible to enter the competition may enter the competition.
Any student or teacher/chaperone who is registering for the MLTI Student Conference may vote on the final design.
Submission Guidelines:
Submissions must only have ONE ink color and ONE background color. The inclusion of shading or gradients of colors will lead to disqualification.
All submissions must be an original artwork. Any use of any photo, drawing, images or elements created by any other person (other than the MLTI logo) is strictly prohibited and will result in disqualification.
Please adhere to the guidelines for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards regarding copyright and plagiarism: Even if you have permission to use a work or if the work is in the public domain, the work that you submit to this competition must represent a new, original work. Additionally, changing the medium of an original work is not considered transformative. For example, a painting or drawing of a photograph taken from the Internet or a magazine is not considered original and should not be submitted.
Each student may only submit one entry AND the entry must be created by ONE student only.
The artwork should be sized to 81/2” x 11”.
Students may hand-draw or digitally design their artwork.
Digitally designed artwork should be 300 dpi, RGB color, and the fonts must be embedded.
Submitted artwork must incorporate the phrase “MLTI Student Conference” and the year “2020” or “’20”.
The design should reflect this year’s conference theme and should include some reference to “Celebrating 200 Years in Maine” or “Maine’s Bicentennial”.
Students are asked to submit an artist statement (less than 200 words) with their design to help bring clarity to their adherence to the theme.
Acceptable file types: PDF or JPEG high resolution.
Color: T-shirts are one solid color with one color ink, and the student can suggest the color for each.
The t-shirt design must fit on the front of the t-shirt.
Guidelines: Work clearly adheres to the submission guidelines (color, size, file type, etc.)
Theme: “Celebrating 200 Years in Maine” or “Maine’s Bicentennial”.
Principles of Design:Work incorporated the following elements of art: balance, emphasis, movement, pattern, repetition, proportion, rhythm, variety, and unity.
Important Dates
Monday, November 4th, 2019 – Competition begins
Monday, February 24th, 2020 – T-shirt designs due
Monday, March 2nd, 2020 – T-shirt voting begins (with registration)
Friday, April 10th, 2020 – T-shirt winner announced
The MLTI Student Conference Planning Committee is issuing the call for student and educator team proposals for the 17th Annual MLTI Student Conference, to be held on Thursday, May 21, 2020 at the University of Maine in Orono.
Two important notes:
Proposals are due much earlier this year! This will allow us to have a session list finalized by the time conference registration opens.
Ideally, all proposals will have some form of student leadership incorporated. This could mean students will lead the whole session (with some adult support), students will serve as guides/coaches during the activity portion, or something in between. Students can co-present with teachers or other educators (including from community or business organizations).
Sessions will be one-hour long, must involve some form of creating, making, and doing, and should leave participants excited about what they learned and eager to share their experiences with others.
You can view examples of sessions from the 2019 MLTI Student Conference here.
Here’s the information you need to submit a proposal:
Possible Topics: Proposals are not limited to the conference theme, and might include topics such as music, spoken word recording, coding, video production, graphic design, or writing and publishing your collection of short stories.
Device Requirements: The student conference supports all MLTI devices, regardless of platform and encourages “platform-agnostic” sessions.
A Proposal Submission must include:
The name of your school
The title of your session
List of all presenters
Important notes:
The $18 registration cost will be waived for up to two presenters. If you choose to have more presenters, you will need to pay the registration fee. Note that the Department has made every effort over the years to keep the cost of the conference low, however, as costs continue to rise, we have increased the registration fee by $3 this year and will raise it by $4 next year.
If your proposal is accepted, we ask that you register all presenters in a timely manner. The presenters do not count toward the school limit of 40 students during the registration process.
A description of your session:
What skill will participants learn? How will you teach this?
What activity will participants engage in – what will they create?
What can participants expect to walk away knowing and being able to do?
Materials to share in the conference registration form:
Short video advertisement of the session (less than a minute) Please submit Media Release forms for any student in the video.
Short description of the session (less than 200 words)
Student leadership information:
How will student leaders be incorporated into the session?
How will they be empowered to succeed during preparation and during the day of the conference?
Session requirements:
Level of expertise needed to participate fully (beginner, intermediate, expert)
The maximum number of participants you can accommodate (room sizes vary from 30-200)
Space set up requests (auditorium, tables/chairs, projector, speakers, etc.)
Technology requirements:
A list of which platforms can be used in the session: (MacBook, iPad, ProBook, ElitePad, Chromebook, other)
Software and materials participants must have to participate (be specific)
The name of the educator to be contacted about this proposal, and their email and phone number
Submit Proposals by 5 pm, Monday, January 27th, 2020 to this online form or copy and paste this URL into your browser http://bit.ly/MLTI-2020-session-entry. It is recommended that you type your answers in a separate document and then copy them into the form, so you can be sure to save your work.
Important Dates
Monday, November 4th, 2019 – Call for Proposals open and theme announced
Monday, January 27th, 2020 – Proposals due
Monday, February 10th, 2020 – Sessions selected
Friday, February 28th, 2020 – Sessions confirmed by presenters
Monday, March 2nd, 2020 – Sessions posted on DOE website
March 2nd, 2020: Registration open
Spread the word – if you know of someone doing fantastic work involving technology with making, doing, or storytelling please encourage them to submit a proposal or send an email with suggestions to MLTI.Project@maine.gov!
The Washington County Consortium, a non-profit collaborative organization formed by school districts in Washington County to provide regional professional development opportunities, recently held its annual “Harvest of Ideas,” a day-long conference featuring workshops focused on high impact practices, academic and behavioral interventions, relevant resources, and research-based practices.
Held at the University of Maine at Machias, the event drew over 600 educators from the Washington County region and offered a wide range of learning opportunities, some of which will be followed up with two additional half-day workshops held throughout the school year, led by conference presenters. Uniquely this year, the conference allowed for 150-minute sessions called learning communities, providing practitioners time and space to think about what the ideas look like in their schools and classrooms, and how and where to start.
Sarah Woog introducing Commissioner Makin who participated via web conferencing to address educators.
Sarah Woog, Executive Director for the Washington County Consortium and the coordinator of conference opened both morning and afternoon auditorium sessions by thanking the many people involved in pulling off such a comprehensive learning opportunity. “Thank you to all who helped put this day together, to the Washington County Leadership Team, the Washington County Consortium Board of Directors, everyone at UMM, from IT to facilities, to the instructors who are sharing in sessions today.” She also gave an important shout out to Culinary Arts Instructor Emily Fitzsimmons from Coastal Washington County Institute of Technology and her students from Machias Memorial High School who provided lunch and snacks that day, in addition to students from Washington Academy, who served as ambassadors for the day.
Representatives from the Maine Department of Education were present, including Emily Gribben who assisted with coordination, Lavinia Rogers who offered a collaborative work session for World Language teachers, and Shari Templeton with an interactive session for science teachers. Maine DOE Coach Darlene Bassett was also present working with Maine educators to host a workshop on Guided Reading. With the help of Woog and Maine DOE representative Mary Herman, Commissioner Makin also joined the conference virtually in two different larger sessions to offer educators her thoughts on teacher voice and its impact on spreading a positive message about education in Maine.
Also featured was a long session about integrating Maine Native American studies into classroom instruction. Geo Neptune, a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe from Indian Township, hosted the presentation. As an educator, Passamaquoddy activist, and master basket maker, Neptune was able to provide conference participants with valuable and unique first-hand perspective, advice, and tools to aid them in finding resources to teach Native American studies in ways that are contemporary and relevant, while also honoring the long history and culture of Maine’s Native American tribes. As an Educator, Geo has worked not only within Wabanaki communities toward cultural preservation, but statewide within Maine schools to help provide content.
Geo Neptune presenting to conference participants.
Presenter Geo Neptune answering questions after his presentation.
Other sessions focused on a wide variety of pertinent topics including leadership, literacy assessment, engaging students with technology, guided reading, school counseling, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Neurodiversity, and selfcare and mindfulness to name a few. Presenters included several experts in the field including representatives from Maine Principals Association, CAN (Child Abuse and Neglect) Prevention Council of Washington County, University of Maine at Machias, Maine Parent Federation, and TREE (Transforming Rural Experience in Education), in addition to Maine educators from the region speaking to their peers as leading experts in their innovative work in education.
The day was a success on all counts providing educators from the Washington County Region with information and tools to refresh their classroom practices and help with the difficult task of ensuring students in some of the most rural areas of Maine have access to cutting edge curriculum, programming, and resources to help them achieve in today’s world.
“Every year, I just hope to do something that is more meaningful and has a greater impact than the year before,” said Woog. “I am grateful for the numerous people who work with me each year to realize this goal.”
We are thrilled to share that 74% of our SAUs made the October 31 deadline, and have their student data submitted! This helps all of us, as it impacts the accuracy and timeliness of the ED 279.
We appreciate that SAUs have been working diligently to ensure the accuracy of their staff data prior to submitting; we are still waiting to receive about 50% of SAU staffing data currently. Please be sure to check that your staff information is updated in NEO, and call us if we can help!
Also, the truancy, attendance and behavior data for Quarter 1 is due, and the bullying reporting window is now open through November 30th. As we are looking at model policies and identifying what supports and resources we can provide for schools as they work to ensure a safe school climate, this data is helpful for the conversation.
THANK YOU to all of our SAU staff who have worked so hard to ensure the data is submitted.
And remember, if we can help please, contact our helpdesk at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov
or call 207 624-6896.
The Maine Department of Education is accepting applications to receive subsidy for new school buses purchased through the School Bus Purchase Program. The application period is November 1 through November 25, 2019.
The Department will be able to approve about $9 million in school bus allocations that combines new bus requests and the prior year bus term commitment. Round one applications will be accepted. This program provides subsidy to school administrative units (SAUs) in order to offset partial cost of new school buses that are used to transport students to and from home and school and school events. This program is a resource to help SAUs purchase new school buses, retire end of life school buses, and respond to emergency and special bus needs. Eligible vehicles must meet Code of Maine Regulations Chapter 85 minimum qualifications, with the exception of Section 3.1.
The School Bus Purchase Program instructions and application information are available on the Maine DOE’s NEO website dashboard. For more information or technical assistance, please contact Pat Hinckley at 624-6886 or email pat.hinckley@maine.gov .
Online Registration Portal for 2019 MAARS Workshop, including an overview of key changes to Maine’s Model of School Support (Accountability) is now available.
FocalPoint K12, in conjunction with the Maine Department of Education Assessment Team, will be holding a workshop for the Maine Assessment and Accountability Reporting System (MAARS). Topics during the session include an overview of the MAARS system, information on User Account management, revised Individual Student Reports (ISRs) formats, New Features, and a Q & A session. Members from Maine’s ESEA Federal Programs team will provide an overview of key changes to Maine’s Model of School Support, as a result of the approval of the amendment submitted to Maine’s ESSA State Plan in December 2018. Each day long session is scheduled from 9 am to 3:30 pm. Lunch will be provided.
Venue and Registration Information
November 19, 2019 Abromson Community Education Center 88 Bedford St
Portland, ME 04101
Additionally, the assessment team and our reporting vendor FocalPointK12 will also be providing a MAARS webinar on November 13, 2019, 2:30 in preparation for the November 19 and 20 training sessions. MAARS Webinar . The audience for this session is returning and new District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) and Career and Technical Education (CTE) Directors. The updated roles within MAARS will be a critical element to prepare for the upcoming November 19 & 20 MAARS Workshops.
The content of the webinar will include:
Role of DACs
MAARS Confidential Reports Overview
How to add/delete/change MAARS roles and permissions (‘districtadmin’, ‘districtuser’ ‘schooluser’ ‘rosteruser’)
The U.S. Department of Education requires state educational agencies, when seeking waivers from statutory or regulatory requirements, solicit public comment on the application, respond to public comments, and provide evidence of the available comment period. A copy of the letter seeking waiver from §8401(b) of the ESEA as amended by ESSA can be downloaded with key elements of the request included below:
Federal program affected by the requested waiver
Section 1111(h) of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, requires State and LEA report cards to include information on student achievement on the academic assessments in reading/language arts, mathematics, and science described in section 1111(b)(2) at each level of achievement (as determined by the State under section 1111(b)(1)) for all students.
Maine’s 2020-2021 ESEA Data Dashboard (Report card) will continue to publicly report general state assessment results for mathematics, English language arts, and science and will publicly report alternate assessment results for mathematics and English language arts. Maine is seeking a waiver from public reporting for the alternate science assessment only. Maine will continue to report the alternate science assessment results to parents through individualized student reports (ISRs).
Maine will continue to meet all other reporting requirements. Maine specifically requests a waiver from the public reporting of alternate science assessment performance only.
Sections impacted include:
Section 1111(b)(2)(B)(iv)
Section 1111(b)(2)(B)(xi) (disaggregation of alt. science data by subgroup)
Section 1111(h)(1)(A)
Section 1111(h)(2)(iii)
Impact to Student Achievement
There will be no impact to assessing student achievement as all eligible students will continue to participate in the alternate science assessment where applicable. The waiver will permit Maine to not publicly release student alternate science assessment achievement scores. The Maine Department of Education will only report participation rates related to the administration of the alternate assessment in grades 5, 8, and the third-year high school during the 2020 spring administration. Maine is committed to moving towards increased compliance with the assessment peer review for an alternate assessment. During the 2021 spring assessment administration, Maine will participate in the MSAA on-line Operational alternate assessment. Standard setting and post equating in the summer of 2021 would allow for reportable student achievement levels and scores that fall.
Monitoring
The Department will actively monitor the delivery of the paper-based assessment through an established monitoring process. Test administration will follow all test administration policies and protocols. Schools will be provided ISRs available for bulk download in order to share student performance with parents/guardians or caretakers.
Continuity of Services to Students
The vendor for MSAA will provide Expanded Performance Expectations (EPEs) based on the Next Generation Science Standards for grades 5, 8, and third-year high school. Teachers will have an opportunity to begin implementing the EPEs during the 2019-2020 school year, in preparation for the on-line Operational Field Test in 2021.
Public Comment
Maine has solicited public comment regarding a request for a waiver from public reporting. This public comment was announced through the Departments Newsroom, social media accounts and through relevant Listservs. Public comment was solicited between October 31st and November 29th, 2019 for a period of 30 days. A summary of comments and the Department’s response is attached with the waiver request. All comments, in support of or against the waiver request should be submitted to Janette Kirk at Janette.Kirk@maine.gov.
Maine DOE Newsroom 