It’s become increasingly apparent in recent months that we can’t count on the U.S. Congress to get its act together anytime soon and pass an education law that replaces the nearly decade-old No Child Left Behind Act.
Continue reading “A short-term fix before a long-term solution”
Tony Wagner came to Maine this week with a message to which we in education should pay attention.
What we need to do isn’t get better at teaching within the system we have now. We need to retool our education system to teach the skills that take precedence in our 21st-century, knowledge-driven economy.
The school administrators who attended our 100th annual Maine School Superintendents’ Conference this week had a tall order.
Transformation is difficult work.
But with the right reasons driving it, examples to follow, proven strategies to adhere to, and support to count on when you need it, it can become a reality.
The U.S. Department of Education released news last week that might be construed as promising, but it’s not quite a reason to celebrate.
Continue reading “Movement in Washington, but not the kind we want”
I had the opportunity last week to drop in at the eighth annual Maine Learning Technology Initiative Student Conference on the University of Maine campus. What I saw made the experience well worth the trip.
May 23, 2011
Dear Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents of Schools:
I’m pleased to invite you to the 100th Annual School Superintendents’ and Assistant Superintendents’ Conference on June 27-28, 2011 at the Senator Inn in Augusta, Maine.
Continue reading “Commissioner Invitation to Superintendents’ Conference”
There’s broad consensus that we expect something fundamentally different of our schools today than we expected even a decade ago, when the federal No Child Left Behind Act became law.
Never before have we asked our teachers and administrators to see to it that every child who walks through the door master a set of rigorous standards designed with college and 21st-century careers in mind.
There’s something that stands out to me about the schools I’ve visited since becoming Commissioner that have taken major steps toward implementing a standards-based model of education.
It’s not just that students at these schools are making choices about how they’ll learn and how they’ll demonstrate to their teachers that they’ve met the expectations set out for them.
You could feel some excitement in the air on Friday in the not-always-exciting hearing room of the Maine Legislature’s Education Committee.
That’s when a slate of bills addressing what we expect our students to be able to do once they graduate came up for hearings before the committee.
Continue reading “Setting high standards, and sticking to them”
