In order to determine supports for Maine schools, student level participation and student group demographics must be collected. The snapshot date for the data collection this year was May 4, 2018.
The NEO Accountability Report allows districts to validate student enrollment and demographic data. The Accountability Report lists students by student groups which will directly inform student group reporting as part of school support determinations and ESEA Report Cards. The report also identifies which assessments the students should have taken, full academic year enrollment for all students, and whether or not a student will be included for accountability measures or only for assessment reporting.
The Accountability Certification will need to be submitted by each Superintendent. Once validated, the data will be used for ESEA Report Cards and other assessment and accountability reporting.
NEO Accountability Report and Certification Webinar
Purpose: Review the report, certification requirements, and ask any questions you may have regarding the report. Date: Thursday, June 21, 2018 Time: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. This webinar will be recorded and available to view afterward.
FEDES grant funds are intended to assist in financing the cost of local and regional initiatives that are both innovative and sustainable, will improve educational opportunities and access for students, increase student achievement through a more efficient delivery of educational programs, and economize on and maximize educational services.
Further communications and updates about this opportunity will be explained in the EMBRACE Regionalization Information Center, which can be found on the Maine Department of Education website, and in the Maine DOE Newsroom in the coming weeks.
The Maine Department of Education has released the long-awaited educator portal for the new online credentialing system, Maine Educator Information System (MEIS). Educators can now log-in to the new online certification system and renew their certifications completely online.
The phased rollout of the new online certification system began with the launch of the district portal which has been open to district administrators since the beginning of May to allow district staff time to become familiar with functions and complete recommendations for educators in their district, prior to the release of the educator portal.
The Department has processed over 10,000 applications internally using the new online certification system since mid-November of 2017 with a record decrease in processing times.
While the Department is currently still accepting paper applications for initial applications, all renewals must be processed through the online system. After the bulk of renewal applications have been submitted, educators will also be able to submit initial applications through the online system.
Instructions for Educators and Administrators Who Need to Renew:
Once your account is created, you may log-in and complete the steps necessary to renew your credential. Please download the step by step instructions on How to Submit a Renewal Application.
If you are prepared with any PDF documents that are required, the entire renewal process should take less than 15 minutes.
If you are currently working in a Maine public school district and have not been recommended by your certification committee, please confer with your certification chair and/or superintendent.
If you run into any difficulty, after reviewing the step by step instructions, call or email the Department’s certification office.
Once the educator portal has been fully released, the Department will release the public portal, which will allow members of the public to search for educators by name and see their current certification credentials.
The Department would like to thank the education field for their patience and time throughout the process of launching the online certification system. Rolling out a new system is a tremendously challenging, frustrating, rewarding, and exhilarating process. We are confident that the transition from an outdated paper filing system to a completely online certification system will serve and benefit the thousands of educators in Maine by making the credentialing process a much more efficient and cost effective experience for educators seeking and managing certification in our State.
The scoring process for the Major Capital School Construction Program is complete for the 74 schools visited during the Fall of 2017. The proposed priority list was presented to the State Board of Education at its June 13, 2018 meeting and accepted. This initiates a 30 day period in which schools on the list have the chance to appeal the scoring process.
To view the Major Capital School Construction Program priority list visit the Maine DOE’s Facilities website.
Integrated, Consolidated 9-16 Education Facility Pilot Project
The re-scoring process for the Integrated, Consolidated 9-16 Education Facility Pilot Project is complete for the three applicants selected to move forward to complete part 2 of the application process. As part of the Department’s EMBRACE Regionalization initiative, the applicants consist of partnerships between school districts and their CTE, higher education, and business partners.
The priority list for the Integrated, Consolidated 9-16 Education Facility Pilot Project was presented to the State Board of Education at its June 13, 2018 meeting and accepted. This initiates a 30 day period in which the three part 2 applicants on the list have the chance to appeal the scoring process.
This training is provided through the US DOE, Office for Civil Rights.
Those who should attend: principals, assistant principals, Title IX coordinators, school counselors, and other school staff who are invested in fostering safe and welcoming schools in Maine. 5.5 contact hours given.
Date: June 26, 2018
Time: 8:00am – 2:30pm Location: Bangor High School, Peakes Auditorium
Cost: FREE
The training will include 3 sessions:
Beyond Bullying As schools work to successfully prevent and intervene in acts of bullying, they are often challenged by bullying behaviors that cross the line into civil, civil rights, or criminal law violations. Guidance from the US DOE and US DOJ will be viewed and discussed. Participants will examine federal statutes that prohibit bullying and harassment based on protected classes, and receive information relative to possible criminal law implications when bullying behaviors cause mental or physical injury to targeted students. This session will examine the legal ramifications of “deliberate indifference” with regard to failure to address bullying in their schools.
Advancing as Culturally Responsive Educators Culture plays a role in everything we do – it is an essential part of how we learn. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving information but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals. Culturally responsive teaching acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures and offers full, equitable access to education for students from all cultures. As culturally responsive educators, we recognize the importance of including students’ cultural identities in all aspects of learning, thereby enriching classroom experiences and keeping students engaged. Participants will be provided with opportunities to examine culture – their own culture and the cultures of the students they serve.
How to Speak Up at School Have you ever found yourself in the uncomfortable circumstance where someone, such as a student, parent or colleague, uses biased language or stereotypes in school? Based on Teaching Tolerance’s publication, How to Speak Up at School, this session is designed for educators who want to develop the skills to speak up themselves and who want to help their students find the courage to speak up, too. When someone makes a biased statement, we must act quickly! Using video scenarios, participants will learn to use four techniques (interrupt, question, educate, and echo) to respond to biased language in the moment, from any source, in any situation.
Agenda
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Beyond Bullying
10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Advancing as Culturally Responsive Educators
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Lunch – on your own
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Advancing as Culturally Responsive Educators (continued from morning session)
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. How to Speak Up at School
The International Bullying Prevention Association (IBPA) is partnering with the Maine Department of Education to provide a one-day summit to address bullying prevention through social and emotional learning and kindness.
Location: Cony High School Date: August 17, 2018 Time: 8:00am – 3:45pm.
Cost: $50 (includes breakfast, lunch, a signed certificate of attendance for contact hours)
The summit will have 5 keynote presentations and participants from Maine, and potentially across the U.S., will hear national presenters and be able to network with local professionals.
Topics of the day will cover bullying prevention best practices, including building healthy and positive relationships amongst school staff, talking with youth to address specific bullying behavior, and addressing bias-based interactions. Participants will walk away with tools and strategies that will be useful and meaningful when implementing bullying prevention efforts for the new school year.
During the Summit, Maine middle and high schools are invited to participate in the inspirED Youth Leadership Conference facilitated by Facebook and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, beginning at 10:00am and ending at 2:30pm with a presentation to the Summit attendees. This opportunity is being offered at no cost to schools and is for a team of 4 students along with 1 or 2 adult allies. Transportation would need to be provided by the district. The inspirED program provides social and emotional (SEL) resources, tools, inspiration and support to empower students and educators to work together to create positive change in their schools and communities.
Please click here for more information and to register for the Youth Leadership Conference. Based on capacity, only 15 schools will be able to participate in the Youth Leadership Conference. Register soon!
In addition to the Summit, there will also be showing of The Fat Boy Chronicles with the author Michael Buchanan on Thursday night, August 16 at 7:00pm in the Viles Auditorium at Cony High School. This event is free and open to the public.
For additional information and questions on the IBPA Summit, the inspirED Youth Leadership Conference or the showing of The Fat Boy Chronicles, contact Sarah Ricker, Maine DOE Student Assistance Coordinator at sarah.ricker@maine.gov
The Maine Department of Education is performing a review of the Maine Learning Results for Science & Technology and is looking for participants to serve as part of the writing team. The purpose of the writing team is to revise the current standards based on guidance provided from a steering committee. For more information about the standards review process, check the new Maine DOE standards revision website.
The team will serve as a representative sample of Maine K-12 science educators covering pK-12 grade levels, geographic locations, and content area strengths across all four of the science strands: life science, physical science (chemistry and physics), earth and space science, and engineering. While specific dates are still to be determined, a majority of the work will take place in July and August and will include at least one face to face meeting in Augusta.
All interested educators are encouraged to participate and are highly encouraged to apply. We will strive to ensure that the geographic diversity of our state is represented. We especially seek applicants from Aroostook, Franklin, Piscataquis and Sagadahoc counties.
Participants will receive contact hours for time worked, be reimbursed for travel costs, and lunch will be provided for face to face meetings.
If you are interested in participating, please complete this short survey by 4:00pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 to be considered. The Department will reach out to interested participants with more information in the coming weeks.
For further questions, contact Maine DOE Science & Technology Specialist Shari Templeton at (207) 624-6880 or shari.templeton@maine.gov
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the Clean Diesel Tribal Grant Competition, a grant competition for tribal applicants with projects that reduce diesel emissions in high-impact areas. Each applicant may request up to $800,000 in federal funding, with $2.0 million available for the grant competition overall.
Key Points
The grant competition will give priority to projects based on significant reduction in diesel emissions and exposure in areas with poor air quality, as well as areas that are exposed to a disproportionately high amount of air pollution from diesel fleets.
Eligible applicants for a Clean Diesel Tribal Grant are intertribal consortiums, tribal governments, and Alaskan native villages.
Funding may be used for projects involving eligible diesel vehicles, engines and equipment, which may include:
School buses
Class 5-Class 8 heavy-duty highway vehicles
Locomotive engines
Marine engines
Nonroad engines, equipment, or vehicles used in construction, cargo handling including at airports and ports, agriculture, mining, or energy production including stationary generators and pumps.
Webinars
Webinars will be available for applicants to learn more about this grant opportunity. Information regarding webinar time/date, access, links to the webinars, and webinar topics is included below.
Augusta, Maine – The Maine Department of Education (DOE) announced today the 9 student interns who will be working for the summer at the Maine DOE headquarters in Augusta.
Adam Barre
Barre is a sophomore at Loyola University, Maryland. He has lived in Maine his whole life and has a love for politics, business, and the state of Maine itself. Barre has volunteered in Baltimore and worked with local politicians and motivated citizens, which has been a tremendous inspiration to him. He takes great pride in being able to not only accomplish his own goals, but ensuring he can help others do the same in the process. Barre will be working with the Department of Education’s data team, focusing on geo-mapping and working to catalogue all the major data collections for the Department.
Trevor Burns
Burns is a recent graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington with a major in Actuarial Science and Applied Mathematics. Burns will be assisting with the end-of-year collection process for 2017/18 student data and trying to find anomalies in that data before school ends for the summer. He will then work on a student data standards document which the DOE plans to make available to the public before school begins again next year.
Matt Bourque
Originally from South China, Maine, Bourque is an upcoming senior at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He is double majoring in Political Science and Education. Outside of his academic life, Bourque is training for a marathon and loves the outdoors. During his internship with the DOE, Bourque will be acting as a support content specialist to prepare for summer professional development programs.
Lauren Porter
Porter is a third-year Social Work and Political Science student at the University of Southern Maine, where she is highly involved in her philanthropic sorority, the Service-Learning and Volunteering department, and Model United Nations. Her interests and career goals include social justice policy efforts – particularly advocacy for access to affordable healthcare. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, juggling, volunteering, and writing. During her internship with the DOE, Porter will also be acting as a support content specialist to prepare for summer professional development programs.
Adam Bovie
Bovie is a senior at the University of New Hampshire, but has lived in Vassalboro, Maine, his whole life. He is dual majoring in Communication and International Affairs at UNH, and spent the first semester of his junior year studying abroad at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland. Bovie enjoys all aspects of the Communication field, but has recently been developing his skills in media production. He’ll be putting these skills to use in his role as the intern for the Commissioner of Education’s office, where he’ll be assisting in the creation of a new website for the Department as well as other multimedia communication projects.
Tyler Rollins
Rollins is a senior at the University of Maine at Orono in the New Media program. He currently lives in his home town of China, Maine, and in his spare time he enjoys playing the guitar and recording local bands. Rollins will be creating content to make Maine’s school funding formula more understandable for the legislature and general public.
Erica Hathaway
Hathaway is a senior at the University of Maine at Orono and will be graduating in December. She is studying Economics with minors in Mathematics and Business. Hathaway is originally from Vermont, but is planning to stay in Maine after graduating, at which point she would like to attend graduate school for Economics. Hathaway is working on Maine’s contribution to a Kansas-led project that looks at school funding in all 50 states, including a state-by-state historical survey of school funding. She will also be assisting the DOE in reviewing the new Career & Technical Education funding model.
Morgan Rush
One of the Learning Through Technology interns, Rush is a senior at the University of Maine at Farmington. She studies Business Psychology with a minor in Community Health. Rush grew up in Farmingdale, Maine, and is excited to learn more about the use of technology in education. Rush will be assisting with website design, event planning, and the development of resources related to MLTI and Learning Through Technology professional learning opportunities.
Renée Roundy
Another Learning Through Technology intern, Roundy grew up in Lewiston, Maine, and is entering her senior year at Colgate University with a major in Educational Studies and a minor in LGBTQ Studies. This summer she is excited to learn more about various software and how technology can be utilized by teachers, especially in Special Education. Rush will be assisting with website design, event planning, and the development of resources related to MLTI and Learning Through Technology professional learning opportunities.
Maine DOE Newsroom 