Alternate student data needed by Dec. 15th, 2017

Finalization of the 1% identification of students to participate in alternate assessments must be complete December 15^th. The Department will apply to the US Department of Education for a waiver on December 19^th.

Registration for the PAAP and MSAA can only be completed with identification of students from each district in Synergy.

Please make sure district data personal have an updated list of alternate students to complete this task by Friday, December 15^th.

Questions and/or comments may be directed to Charlene Tucker, Director of Assessment, at charlene.tucker@maine.gov.

ESEA/ESSA Title I Comparability Report FY18

Section 1118(c) of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires that school administrative units (SAUs) with multiple attendance areas maintain comparability of local/state resources between the Title I schools and the non-Title I schools; or if all the schools at a grade span are Title I schools, comparability of local resources must be maintained among the Title I schools. The list of SAUs required to submit a Comparability Report is noted at the end of this announcement. If your SAU is not listed below, you can disregard this notice.

The ESEA Title I FY18 Comparability Report is ready to be completed and submitted to the Maine Department of Education by January 22, 2018. The FY18 Title IA Comparability Report in both Word and Excel formats; additional resources including a PowerPoint presentation and completed sample reports can be located on the ESEA web site at http://www.maine.gov/doe/title-IA/forms/index.html. The NEO DC & R module has been updated for those SAUs required to complete the Comparability report.

Questions regarding ESEA Title I Comparability Report can be directed to Jackie Godbout, Title IA Consultant, at 624-6712, jackie.godbout@maine.gov or Janette Kirk, Title IA Director, at 624-6707, janette.kirk@maine.gov.

FY18 School Administrative Units Required To Complete a Comparability Report

Those SAUs with an asterisk (*) must attach their teacher count and student enrollment source documents used to complete the FY18 Title IA Comparability Report.

Auburn *

Augusta

Bangor *

Gorham *

Lewiston

Portland *

Sanford

Scarborough *

South Portland

Westbrook *

RSU 1

RSU 2 *

RSU 3/MSAD 3

RSU 4 *

RSU 5

RSU 6/MSAD 6 *

RSU 9

RSU 10 *

RSU 11/MSAD 11

RSU 12 *

RSU 13

RSU 14 *

RSU 15/MSAD 15

RSU 16 *

RSU 17/MSAD 17

RSU 18 *

RSU 19

RSU 21

RSU 22/MSAD 22 *

RSU 24 *

RSU 34

RSU 35/MSAD 35 *

RSU 37/MSAD 37

RSU 38 *

RSU 39

RSU 40/MSAD 40 *

RSU 41/MSAD 41

RSU 49/MSAD 49 *

RSU 50

RSU 52/MSAD 52 *

RSU 54/MSAD 54

RSU 57/MSAD 57

RSU 58/MSAD 58 *

RSU 60/MSAD 60 *

RSU 61/MSAD 61

RSU 72/MSAD 72 *

RSU 71 *

RSU 75/MSAD 75 *

RSU 79/MSAD 1

Department receives 23 Part I applications for Regional Service Centers

The Department received Part I Applications from 23 proposed regional service centers by the November 30 deadline. The proposals include 102 discrete school administrative units from across the state, with all but one with an operational date of July 1, 2018.

The Department will be reviewing applications through the month of December and further guidance will be forthcoming.

Department supported facilitators are still available for those working on a regionalization project with a later start date and can be requested through the EMBRACE Regionalization Information Center.

As a reminder, proposals for the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Educational Services (FEDES) grant are due by December 19. More information about the FEDES grant can be found on the State of Maine Request for Proposals (RFPs) webpage.

For more information about regionalization opportunities including Regional Service Centers visit the EMBRACE Regionalization Information Center or contact Jennifer Pooler at Jennifer.G.Pooler@maine.gov.

Graduation and Dropout Reporting dates further delayed

**This Dispatch was posted in a previous Priority Notice, found here: https://mainedoenews.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/prioirty-notice-two-important-updates-reporting-delay-and-urgent-title-v-eligibility-verification/

On November 20^th the Department issued a notice announcing that the due date for Graduation and Dropout Reporting was extended to December 21^st. The Department has just learned that the data needed prior to launching the updated Graduation and Dropout reporting module in NEO is not yet available. The NEO module went through an update to fulfill federal reporting regulations and the Department is not willing to launch the updated module before running test scenarios to ensure product quality.

The Department hopes to learn early next week when the data will be available. The Department has notified the federal government of this delay and will issue a new reporting timeline when information is confirmed.

The Department is aware of the angst that this second delay may cause. We assure you our teams are doing everything in our power to get efficient and accurate data systems operative and available for district reporting.

For further questions contact the Maine DOE Helpdesk. Further updates will be forthcoming through the Maine DOE Newsroom.

Urgent Title V eligibility verification

To align the Title V (Rural Education Achievement Program -REAP) Grant timeline to other Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Federal Programs, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) has revised data collection and submission dates with a more aggressive timeline. This revision will allow Title V (REAP) Federal funds to be awarded to states on July 1 of each program year.

Each individual school district must verify their data and contact Daniel Weeks (Daniel.R.Weeks@maine.gov), Title V Coordinator of any inaccurate data by December 6^th.

Several districts have yet to provide complete Average Daily Attendance (ADA) data. These gaps directly affect funding for ALL Title V grants (Small Rural Schools Achievement (SRSA) and the Rural Low-Income Schools (RLIS)). Please review your data carefully.

We realize that the turnaround time is very limited, and for that we apologize. Initial communication from the USDOE was received on November 21, 2017, which provided Maine DOE minimal time to collect and compile the necessary information into a single tangible spreadsheet. This spreadsheet must now be reviewed by school districts for accuracy. Each individual school district must verify their data and contact Daniel Weeks (Daniel.R.Weeks@maine.gov), Title V Coordinator of any inaccuracies by December 6^th.

The data to be reviewed can be located here: http://www.maine.gov/doe/rural/

Please verify the following data elements:

Column M (Average Daily Attendance)
Column Q (Alternate Poverty Data for districts with a population of less than 20,000)
Column S (FY17 Title II A Award)
Column T (FY17 Title IV A Award)

Please note:

Column M (ADA) directly affects funding for ALL Title V grants (SRSA and the RLIS).

Column Q (Alt. Poverty Data) directly affects eligibility and funding for the RLIS Grant.

Column S & T (Title IIA and IVA Awards) directly affect funding for the SRSA Grant.

For further questions or concerns please contact Daniel Weeks, Title V Coordinator at (207) 624-6749 or Daniel.R.Weeks@maine.gov.

Nominations Now Open for Maine History Teacher of the Year

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is seeking nominations for the Maine History Teacher of the Year.

State History Teachers of the Year receive $1,000, an archive of materials for their school’s library, and an invitation to attend a 2019 Gilder Lehrman Teacher Seminar.

The deadline for 2018 nominations is March 31, 2018.

Check out the informational flyer or the Gilder Lehrman website for more information.

Winter holidays in the classroom

The following information has been put together with the support of the Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4) to help educators who are planning to include seasonal holiday activities in their classrooms and at their schools.

Before planning, think about the following questions compiled from teachhub.com, educateiowa.gov, the First Amendment Center, and Teaching Tolerance:

Is this activity designed in any way to promote or inhibit religion?
How does this activity serve the academic goals of the course, or the educational mission of the school?
Will any student or parent be made to feel like an outsider, not a full member of your classroom community, by this activity?
If in December, are there plans to teach about religious holidays at other times of the year or do we only teach about holidays in December?
Are your planned activities centered around only one winter holiday?
Are you prepared to teach about the religious meaning and significance of this holiday in a way that enriches all of your students’ understanding about history and culture?
Is the activity you planned show tolerance for all religions or is it focusing on one main religion?
Is a celebration a Christmas party or a winter party? The latter is okay.
Are you displaying holiday decorations with a religious theme?

Additional resources for teaching about holidays:

For more information contact Joe Schmidt, Maine DOE Social Studies Specialist at (207) 624-6828 or joe.schmidt@maine.gov

School Meal Benefits

The School Lunch Program can help families that are struggling financially with their food costs. Households can apply anytime throughout the school year for meal benefits that are offered by school districts. A family may apply for any reason: a change in employment, household size, gaining guardianship of a child or simply applying for the first time.

In accordance with federal regulations, schools must provide hard copies of application materials to families, electronic availability can be offered as well. (7 CFR §245.6(a) General requirements-content of application and descriptive materials., 7 CFR §245.6(a)(3) Electronic availability)

USDA Federal regulations require that information obtained from families must be held in strict confidence. If the student’s eligibility status is released to staff, the district will receive penalties for breaking the family’s confidence.

Your Food Service Director with administrative support, may want to send information home regarding the program to encourage families to apply for meal benefits, which will in turn increase the district’s free and reduced percentages. Districts have realized some success in application returns by including a self-addressed envelope to the Food Service Director.

Students who are eligible for free or reduced price meals at the end of the school year will remain eligible for the first 30 operating days of the next school year (typically mid-October.)

For more information, please call Child Nutrition Director, Walter Beesley at 624-6875 or email walter.beesley@maine.gov.

Free Professional Development Webinar: Overview & Preparation Tips for the NextGen Accuplacer

Reach Higher Maine has developed this series of free webinars designed to help support school counselors in their work exposing students to career and college opportunities.

Each webinar is recorded and posted to our Google Classroom (join code 1bs991n) and available to counselors as an alternative professional development session for use during In Service Days at their school. The Google Classroom also hosts handouts from sessions, a discussion forum and a way to request a certificate of completion to use for continuing education credit. Note: You will need to be logged into a Google email (@gmail.com) account to get access to the Google Classroom.

December’s Webinar: Overview & Preparation Tips for the NextGen Accuplacer

When: December 15^th at 1:00 PM (recording will post to Google Classroom within 1 week after live session)

Description: The Accuplacer has long been a viable testing alternative for many Maine students. The College Board has revised its entire suite of assessments, and the NextGen test will be here in Maine soon. This webinar will be a practical and succinct overview of NextGen and a discussion of how school counselors can prepare for these changes. We will also address how the colleges plan to help schools who used to have their own Accuplacer licenses test students and how the community colleges’ admission and placement policies will be shifting towards a statewide multiple measures approach.

Presenter: Mercedes Pour, State Director, Early College for ME, Maine Community College System

Upcoming webinars include: Second Semester Seniors, Summer Options for Career & College, as well as Helping Career Bound Seniors

For more information please contact Reach Higher Maine at ReachHigherMaine@gmail.com

Regional school calendars due by May 4

School administrative units and private schools approved for tuition purposes are expected to establish regional school calendars, in coordination with their local secondary career and technical education school, by May 4, 2018.

The Legislature enacted that requirement as part of Public Law 2011, Chapter 686, which expands access to career and technical education in Maine and ensures that students completing career and technical education (CTE) coursework have greater access to post-secondary opportunities. Specifically, the law addresses scheduling conflicts that pose barriers to students by requiring that those school districts and private schools approved for tuition purposes that share a CTE school adopt a regional school calendar with no more than five dissimilar days. Implementation of the law is intended to promote collaboration among local school administrative units that may benefit other forms of inter-administrative unit collaboration beyond CTE. The law became effective Aug. 30, 2012, and establishing the regional calendar is a condition for eligibility for state subsidy.

For 2018-19, both regional school calendars and individual calendars for each school administrative unit must be submitted by the director of the local CTE Center/Region to the Department of Education no later than May 4 for a decision on approval by June 8. Guidance and templates can be accessed electronically at www.maine.gov/doe/regionalcalendar/.

Given the coordination required for fulfillment of this law, the Maine DOE recommends that school districts initiate discussions as soon as possible, including representatives from all affected secondary schools and their associated career and technical education center or region.

For more information including guidance, templates, a waiver process and a link to the complete law, please visit www.maine.gov/doe/regionalcalendar/ or contact Doug Robertson (doug.robertson@maine.gov) at 624-6744 or Margaret Harvey (margaret.harvey@maine.gov) at 624-6739.