This week we announced that 14 teachers from schools as far south as Sanford and as far east as Milbridge have been nominated to be Maine’s next Teacher of the Year by their colleagues, students and community members.

While we won’t know the outcome of this process until a surprise award ceremony in September, we do know that the 2013 recipient will join the esteemed ranks of previous Maine Teachers of the Year and will represent excellent teachers and teaching throughout the state.

Best of luck to all nominees as this rigorous process continues.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – February 14, 2013” →

The Governor devoted a good portion of his State of the State address on Tuesday evening to education, a reflection of the passion he has for the topic. As he said, he believes education saved his life.

He introduced three plans that have us here at the Maine DOE pretty excited—and working overtime. First is the Governor’s education conference, planned for March. We’ll share details in coming days as we lock down nationally-known speakers on topics important to our education agenda. Gov. LePage also unveiled his plan for a school performance grading system. This A-F grading will give parents and communities a quick overview of how their school is doing and hopefully generate discussion about how to progress. The grades will be based on publicly available data, multiple measures such as performance and growth, and grad rates for high schools. No, one grade doesn’t tell the whole story, but it’s important to have some transparency and to catalyze discussion about how to improve all of our schools – regardless of where they are on the scale.

Continue reading “Commissioner’s Update – February 7, 2013” →