Commissioner’s Update – September 27, 2012

Next Friday is packed with events for Maine educators, and I’m excited to be right in the thick of it.

While I’m presenting Maine’s Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year award at our annual CTE conference in Lewiston, educators gathered in nearby Gardiner will be linking Next Generation Science Standards to the Common Core at the Maine Science Teachers Association’s fall conference.

Registration for both conferences is still available at the links above. I’m looking forward to seeing many of Maine’s teachers and administrators Friday, October 5. Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – September 27, 2012” →

Commissioner’s Update – September 20, 2012

This week I took part in the first meeting of the school choice work group.

As a state, we’ve moved past discussing whether or not students in Maine should have public school choice. Our legislatively created work group is responsible for finding a model that can work for enabling students to enroll in public schools in districts other than the one in which they live. A model that addresses funding, transportation and, most importantly, equitable education opportunities for all students, including special populations.

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Commissioner’s Update – September 13, 2012

This week we’ve been going non-stop at the Maine DOE.

In the past seven days, we have submitted our request for ESEA flexibility, named one all-star educator Maine’s 2013 Teacher of the Year, and launched our new statewide literacy plan.

It was incredible to surprise special education teacher Shannon Shanning with the Teacher of the Year award Monday at her school in Poland. While many people praised Shannon at the ceremony, perhaps one of her students described her best: “Mrs. Shanning is confident that we can do anything, which makes us confident that we can do anything. We think she is the best teacher in the world.” Having the “best teacher in the world” right here in Maine makes me feel good about the work our educators are doing every day.

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Commissioner’s Update – September 6, 2012

Today is a big day for education in Maine.

Today the Department will formally submit a request for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – and it’s been a long time coming.

Maine’s been working for a year to craft this new accountability and improvement system, which aims to help struggling schools improve and to consider multiple valid measures when evaluating performance.
We’re extremely proud of the waiver request we’re submitting today – and we couldn’t have completed it without the combined efforts of educators, stakeholders and the general public.

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Commissioner’s Update – August 30, 2012

It’s time for a new school year, and here at the Maine DOE we’re continuing the work of our strategic plan.In a few weeks, the Department will launch its birth-to-adult literacy initiative, Literacy for ME, and we’re hoping to get the whole state involved.

In late September, the Department will be offering six one-day regional meetings to explain how to implement and develop comprehensive literacy plans in local communities, and we hope that you will consider helping to create a local team to participate in one of these sessions and set your community on the road to a local plan for action. Well-represented planning teams made up of members that span the birth to adult continuum are encouraged to sign-up. To view the full meeting schedule and register your team by the September 17 deadline, please visit the project’s website.

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Commissioner’s Update – August 23, 2012

In a few weeks, the Department will be offering a series of one-day meetings to explain Maine’s new state literacy plan, Literacy for ME, which we’ll be unveiling in early September. Educators, literacy specialists, parents, stakeholders—anyone with an interest in literacy is invited to form a well-represented group locally and sign-up to attend a meeting. Helping all Maine residents develop strong literacy skills is an essential part of the Maine DOE’s mission, and we need the involvement of everyone in our communities.

Tonight we will host the last of three public forums to discuss the Department’s draft for ESEA flexibility. If you missed the forums online and in Westbrook earlier this week, you can review a summary of attendees’ feedback below. I encourage you to join us tonight in Brewer at 6 p.m for a final chance to discuss the waiver before we submit to the feds on Sept. 6.

With this issue, the Commissioner’s Update resumes its regular weekly schedule for the 2012-13 school year.

— Stephen Bowen Continue reading →

Commissioner’s Update – August 9, 2012

At the Department this summer we’ve been implementing elements of the five core priorities in our strategic plan.

Our Center for Best Practices web pages went live this week, providing a platform for sharing best practices for learner-centered instruction from three districts and some of the lessons they learned along the way. We invite other schools in Maine to review these case studies, videos, and resources and explore innovative ideas they may wish to adopt and adapt. And we’ll be adding more case studies in the future.

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Commissioner’s Update – July 26, 2012

Governor Paul LePage and I held a press conference this week to discuss the results of a recent Harvard University education study, which found that Maine’s NAEP test scores have barely moved over the past two decades.While Maine still ranks 12th in the nation (down from third in 1992), Maine had the second lowest gains of the 41 states in the study.

It’s like a student gets a D-plus in a class of D’s and F’s. He may be at the top, but we should not say he’s doing OK.

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Commissioner’s Update – July 12, 2012

The Maine Charter School Commission recently approved the state’s first public charter school: the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences. This authorization is a milestone for the state, and will support 40 at-risk students to achieve their potential as they enter the school this fall.

In March, the Legislature’s Education Committee voted unanimously to create a group to develop models for school choice—part of a larger effort to create an education environment with more pathways to engagement and success for students. Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – July 12, 2012” →

Commissioner’s Update – June 28, 2012

Educators from across the state gathered in Augusta for the 101st annual Maine Superintendents’ Conference earlier this week.

The 145 people in attendance listened to perspectives on student-centered learning, and participated in five of nine possible workshop sessions, ranging in topic from expanded learning opportunities to proficiency-based data management.

In the end, these two days were well spent. Most importantly, we had a chance to discuss the best ways for the Department of Education to collaborate with superintendents on our shared goal: preparing every Maine student for success.

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