Commissioner’s Update – May 19, 2011

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We’re almost there!

The Legislature’s Education Committee is winding down its work this week, with final discussions on charter schools and other legislation set for Friday. The House and Senate will be working late for the next few weeks to pass a two-year budget and take final action on legislation. And next week I will make my next-to-last listening tour visit – this time to Washington County.

Things are racing to a crescendo here in Augusta, not to mention in your schools, where students, teachers and administrators are focused on a successful finish to the school year.

Soon we’ll have time to step back and focus. I’m looking forward to using the summer to review what we’ve heard from the field, from legislators, and from the public, then building consensus around a strategic plan to improve Maine education and the Department of Education.

For now, we take a deep breath and plunge in for the final lap.

— Stephen Bowen

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Telling Room called ‘Imagination Intensive’

The following is a press release from the Maine Alliance for Arts Education.

The Maine Alliance for Arts Education, the Maine Department of Education, and the Maine Arts Commission are pleased to announce that the Telling Room in Portland has been named Maine’s 2011 Imagination Intensive Community.

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Maine schools win Nellie Mae awards

An infusion of grant funds will allow Maine schools in Portland and Gray to move ahead with plans to allow students more choice in how they learn and more control over the speed at which they advance through school.

The Nellie Mae Education Foundation has awarded Gray-based School Administrative District 15 and Portland’s Casco Bay High School $185,000 and $130,000 respectively to bankroll expansions of the proficiency-based systems they already have in place.

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Program pairs math and trades

AUGUSTA — Nearly 20 teachers of precision machining, welding, building construction and other trades have spent 10 days over the past school year paired up with middle- and high-school math teachers.

They’ve spent their time together working to more closely integrate math concepts into lessons offered by instructors at Maine’s career and technical schools.

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Toward a literacy of learning

Author icon: Head shot of Commissioner Stephen BowenThere’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.

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DOE testimony supports charter schools

The Maine Legislature’s Education Committee held a public hearing May 12 on legislation that would establish a public charter school program in Maine.

Maine is one of 10 states that don’t allow charter schools.

Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen delivered the following testimony supporting L.D. 1553, An Act To Create a Public Charter School Program in Maine. Continue reading “DOE testimony supports charter schools” →

Commissioner’s Update – May 12, 2011

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It’s my hope that much of the mystery and fear about charter schools can be set aside during today’s public hearing on LD 1553, An Act To Create a Public Charter School Program in Maine. Charter schools are not private schools; they are not elitist or exclusive; they are not religious. In fact, charter schools today serve a more diverse population nationally than conventional public schools.

The vast majority of Maine students will continue to attend the public schools we have today. But I believe it’s time for Maine to provide parents and students the options that are available in almost every other state: school choice that includes charter schools. They are not a silver bullet that will solve all our education problems. But they are a promising reform that will give educators a model of schooling to work with that may allow them to be more innovative, and that may improve student outcomes for the students that attend them.

You can listen online to the hearing, which will begin shortly after 1 p.m. (The committee will first hold a hearing on LD 1540, An Act to Encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education, which I am also supporting.)

— Stephen Bowen

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Local Entitlement application training

The Office of Special Services at the Maine Department of Education will provide training on the electronic application process for 2011-12 Local Entitlement funds.  There will be a choice of webinar sessions – May 26 at 9 a.m. or 1 p.m.  The webinar is anticipated to last approximately 1.5 hours.

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RSU 18 transitions to standards-based model

Article image: Shelly Moody leads her class in a discussion about ecosystems.
Shelly Moody gets her students started on a project about ecosystems.

OAKLAND – The students in Shelly Moody’s classroom at Williams Elementary School can explain everything about the lesson they’re working on, how it fits into the broader unit of study, and why it’s important.

The knowledge comes from the classroom’s transition in recent years to a standards-based model of education in which Moody lays out the expectations for her students, makes sure they understand them and allows them to choose how they’re going to meet them.

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