From the Maine DOE

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 make noticeably more academic progress than those who are not.

Knowing this, Maine DOE is committed to supporting our state’s school administrative units to ensure there is an effective educator in every single classroom. Earlier this month we named longtime English teacher Mary Paine as our first-ever Educator Effectiveness Coordinator.

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From the Maine DOE

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.

Most notable was the nearly 2 percent increase in the number of tested students who achieved proficiency or above in critical reading, up from 47.2 percent in 2011-12 to 48.9 percent in 2012-13, with 8.6 percent of those students exceeding proficiency standards. The percentage of students who tested proficient or above in math also showed a positive uptick, from 47.2 percent in 2011-12 to 48.1 percent in 2012-13, with a record high 4.7 percent of those students exceeding proficiency expectations.

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From the Maine DOE

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.

Last week, the Department rolled out the resources we created to support schools in this transition to the proficiency-based diploma, most notably our comprehensive online resource center at www.maine.gov/doe/proficiency.

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From the Maine DOE

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.

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From the Maine DOE

Earlier today, the Maine DOE unveiled its newly redesigned homepage. We liked our old homepage, but we are constantly looking to improve the experience people have when they interact with our Department and for so many, our website makes that important first impression.

Throughout the redesign process, we had one thing in mind: you.

The new homepage features a navigational structure organized not by sometimes ambiguous content areas but instead around the different audiences who visit our site, starting with “Students” first and as our strategic plan does, building out from there to “Teachers,” “Administrators” and “Communities.”

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From the Maine DOE

This week, the Department was proud to announce that one of the Maine schools we had nominated had been selected as a National Blue Ribbon School.

The Williams-Cone School in Topsham was one of 236 public schools nationwide named by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan into this prestigious program that recognizes schools where students perform at very high levels or show significant improvements in closing achievement gaps.

The K-5 school, which serves just over 200 students under the leadership of Principal Randa Rineer, is definitely deserving of this honor with their hard work in recent years leading to great gains in student achievement.

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From the Maine DOE

With schools now settled into the new academic year, Maine DOE resumed our School Improvement Webinar Series this week. Perhaps not surprisingly for a session on increasing attendance, we had our best turnout yet, with more than 60 educators from the across the state participating.

Daily attendance is a key factor for determining school success. Emerging research shows that chronic absence can start as early as preschool and affect performance in later grades. When students aren’t in class, they have to work twice as hard to catch up with the material that they missed, and teachers lose valuable class time helping them do so.

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From the Commissioner

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.”

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From the Commissioner

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. Continue reading →

From the Commissioner

In the days since I announced I would be leaving Maine DOE to become the national Director of Innovation for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), I’ve received calls and notes of support from many in Maine’s learning community, for which I am very grateful. Thank you.

The decision to accept the opportunity offered by CCSSO was the most difficult of my career, and hearing from you was a reminder of why I’ve felt so honored this past two and a half years to be Maine’s Commissioner of Education.

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