Teachers invited to participate in webinar
Last week, the Maine Department of Education rolled out A-F report cards for each school in the state as part of our new Maine School Performance Grading System.
Continue reading “Empowering Educators with A-F: A Conversation on Where We Can Go From Here”
It’s been over a week since Governor LePage and I released Maine’s School Performance Grading System. I continue to tour schools that are exemplifying promising practices, including several that have received grades on the lower end of the spectrum. Based on what I’ve seen, these schools are doing many of the right things to get their students invested in learning. It’s important that the Department be engaged with these schools to let them know they have support. That is why we’ll be hosting a webinar next Thursday to start a series of informative sessions for Maine educators. Continue reading “Maine schools have Department support”
I had the chance visit three Oxford County schools yesterday as part of my Promising Practices Tour, just a day after releasing the new A-F school grading system designed to improve transparency. As a state, we need to move beyond the one-size-fits-all models of teaching and embrace student-centered models like the ones many Maine schools, like the ones I visited in Oxford County, are doing. Governor LePage and I made reference to that Wednesday when we unveiled the new school report cards, which showed a majority of Maine’s elementary and high schools earned an A, B or C.
Continue reading “Hands-on learning a success in Oxford County”
It’s been a busy week at Maine DOE as we released the first A-F report cards for each of the state’s schools as part of the new Maine School Performance Grading System. Now that we have a usable and understandable benchmark of where schools are, the real work begins!
Over the next few days you will start to receive information about the A-F school grading system, which will be released soon. I will be sharing some of the data with you, and more explanation of how the grading system works. We’ll also be scheduling webinars with superintendents to explain the system and how we plan to unveil it.
When I visited East End Community School and Riverton Elementary in Portland last week as part of my Promising Practices Tour, I was blown away by the measures they’re taking to ensure all students are engaged in learning—not an easy feat in such a multilingual district.
East End and Riverton were both identified as underperforming—one in 2009-10 and one in 2010-11—and applied for and received School Improvement Grants. With the help of those grants and technical assistance from the Department, the schools have initiated a number of promising practices. Last week, these schools showed me they’re doing what it takes to get things done.
Continue reading “Portland schools establish promising practices for all students”
During his State of the State address in February, Governor LePage announced that Maine will introduce a school performance grading system to simplify for parents, taxpayers and others how their schools are doing. Many of you have expressed interest in and concern about how we will generate the grades, and what we will do to support schools that receive low grades.
By all accounts last Friday’s Governor’s Conference on Education: Putting Students First was a great success. Not because everyone agreed with every idea that was presented, but because we were able to hear about innovations and reforms in Florida and elsewhere that have had some real impact on student achievement, and continue our conversation about which make sense for Maine to consider and put into action.
Continue reading “Governor’s Conference on Ed shares practices, prompts discussion”
I had the chance last week to talk with five students at Lewiston High School who are taking advantage of an early college opportunity that will save them money, expose them to the college experience, and could lead them to future careers. I picked LHS for the second stop on my Promising Practices tour because the kids I talked to are among 68 juniors and seniors who are taking college classes for credit at institutions like the University of Southern Maine and Central Maine Community College. It’s encouraging to see students taking initiative when it comes to their futures, and it’s great to meet teachers and administrators who are making that happen.
Continue reading “Lewiston a model for early college program”
Tablets or laptops? For at least two years now we’ve been getting that question, similar to the way in which the focus once was: Mac or PC? As with the last time, Jeff Mao, our Director of Learning Technology, and I try to remind people that we don’t choose a device – we choose a learning solution that will enhance learning in the ways we demand in our request for proposals. It’s up to vendors to show us how their solution will do that, whether it’s a laptop, tablet, smartphone or something else.
