There has recently been widespread national media coverage about the rush for test-takers to complete their GED before a new version of the high school equivalency exam is released in January and their previous scores are deleted.
That news has made some Mainers nervous, but they shouldn’t be.
Continue reading “GED completion by year’s end encouraged, but not necessary”
In August, the Department announced that we’d secured federal flexibility for Maine schools in the form of a two-year waiver from some provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
At the heart of Maine’s approved plan is a system of differentiated recognition, accountability and support for Maine’s 380 Title I-served schools. Schools are placed, based on student proficiency and progress, in one of five categories: priority, focus, monitor, progressing and meeting.
Improving educator effectiveness is the single most important action we can take for our students. Study after study shows that students who are assigned to effective teachers and school leaders make noticeably more academic progress than those who are not.
Continue reading “Ensuring an effective educator in every Maine classroom”
Last week, we released the statewide results from the 2012-13 Maine High School Assessment (MHSA).
The good news? Proficiency in math and reading is on the rise again in our high schools, suggesting students are better prepared for success in college and their careers.
Continue reading “Math and reading proficiency rates rise, work continues”
In the spring of 2018, the students now in eighth grade will become the state’s first class to graduate having demonstrated their mastery of all State standards in the eight content areas of the Maine Learning Results.
Continue reading “Successful transition to proficiency-based diploma starts now”
In 2012, the Maine Legislature passed into law LD 1422, An Act to Prepare Maine People for the Future Economy (Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 4722-A). The cornerstone of this law was the requirement that Maine transition to a proficiency-based system in which graduation from a Maine high school after Jan. 1, 2018 would be based on students demonstrating proficiency in meeting Maine’s learning standards in all eight content areas and their guiding principles. Maine DOE was charged with assisting school administrative units (SAUs) with this transition by developing standards-based system tools and by providing technical assistance and targeted funding. Continue reading “Resources available for transition to proficiency-based diploma”
Earlier this week, Governor Paul R. LePage appointed me as Acting Education Commissioner. It is an honor to be called upon to serve the people of Maine in this new role, especially our students and educators. While the Department’s Commissioner has changed, our commitments have not.
I look forward to working with the Governor and the talented team at Maine DOE to continue the work begun under former Commissioner Bowen to transform our education system so that it truly serves all Maine students and prepares them for success after they leave our schools. Central to that is the Department focusing on supporting schools in their improvement efforts, and I will be in touch later this month with more specifics on what Maine DOE’s system of supports will look like and how it will help you.
Continue reading “New Commissioner, same commitment to supporting schools”
Dear Superintendents,
Last fall, former Commissioner Stephen Bowen sent you a letter on the topic of superintendents’ agreements. In that letter, he explained why he has tended to overturn the superintendent transfer decisions that are appealed to him by Maine families more often than not, in the hope that it would make his thinking on the issue clearer to you.
Since then, the issue of superintendents’ agreements has emerged again, and two bills were passed during this last legislative session that amend the current law in important ways, effective Oct. 9. Continue reading “Message to administrators on superintendents’ agreements”
This week, I had the honor of presenting the 2014 Maine Teacher of the Year to Karen MacDonald of King Middle School in Portland.
The sixth-and seventh-grade English language arts teacher is described by students as a “gift,” by colleagues as a teacher leader who is “the most consistently innovative,” and by her principal as “relentlessly committed to the success of all of her students.”
As you may have seen in the press, some concerns and questions have been raised recently about the Common Core standards in math and ELA, which the State incorporated into its Learning Results standards in 2011. Many of those concerns seem to stem from suspicions that the Common Core is an attempt by the federal government to influence education policy in the states and, as a consequence, that the adoption of these standards will diminish Maine’s longstanding tradition of local control as it regards things like curricula and instructional approaches. Continue reading “Affirming Maine’s commitment to high standards, implemented locally”
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