Join Maine DOE for the 2019 Read to ME Campaign

For the past 3 years, Mainers have strongly engaged in the Maine Department of Education’s Read to ME Challenge.  We are pleased to announce that Read to ME will launch for its 4th year.  This simple but powerful campaign challenges adults to read to children for 15 minutes, to capture that reading episode via a photo and then post it on social media to challenge others to do the same.  Hundreds of Maine schools, community literacy teams and other literacy related organizations have partnered in the annual campaigns and the Maine DOE is hoping that even more organizations will partner in the 2019 campaign scheduled to kick off the first week of February.

Reading aloud to children is one of the most cost effective and highly beneficial methods of building children’s literate abilities. The simple act of reading aloud to a child 15 minutes a day for five years results in 27,375 minutes of language exposure which can put children on the path to high literacy achievement.  Reading aloud exposes children to the world around them, helps them see reading as an enjoyable and valuable activity and often strengthens bonds with trusted adults.

We invite your school or organization to join the challenge and to encourage community members to do the same. The collective voice of many key partners, leaders and those in respected positions will send a clear message about the vital importance reading to children plays in the social and economic well-being of Maine.   Maine DOE also encourages partners to be creative and to use this opportunity to enhance ongoing literacy education outreach efforts.

If your organization is willing and able to promote the Read to ME Challenge, please follow this link to provide us with your contact information: Read to ME Challenge Partner 2019. Read to ME Challenge resources, including a guidance document, public service announcements, fliers and a list of engaging ways to incorporate the challenge are available on the Read to ME webpage.

Thanks for your consideration of this opportunity, and don’t hesitate to contact danielle.m.saucier@maine.gov  (624-6702) with any questions.

New District Human Resource Role Available in Online Certification System

The Maine Department of Education is excited to announce the availability of a new district human resource role in the state’s online educator certification system. The new role in MEIS (Maine Educator Information System) can be requested for district human resource staff by the superintendent.

This new role will provide the user the ability to view the districts certification (violations) report as well as any district employees up for a credential. Prior to granting this role, the staff member will need to create an account for themselves (if they do not already have one) in MEIS.

Once a staff member has created an account and has been granted the district human resource role, instructions on navigating to the certification report will be sent to the user via email.

Contact the Maine DOE Helpdesk for additional help.

 

Materials from Presentation About ESSA & Report Cards

The Maine Department of Education held a presentation on Monday, December 10 about the details of Maine’s Model of School Support under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which includes the release of the new, user-friendly, public Report Cards in early January. Below is a link to the PowerPoint Presentation, in addition to all of the handouts from the presentation.

Further questions about Maine’s ESSA Plan, Maine’s Model of School Support, and the Report Cards should be directed to Acting Director of Learning Systems, Janette Kirk Janette.Kirk@maine.gov or ESEA Federal Programs & School Turnaround Director Chelsey Fortin-Trimble Chelsey.A.Fortin@maine.gov.

School Safety and Security Bulletin: Emergency Operations Planning

Throughout the 2018- 2019 school year, the Maine Department of Education, State Fire Marshal’s Office, Department of Health and Human Services, Maine State Police, Maine Sheriffs Association, Maine Chiefs of Police Association, and the Maine Emergency Management Agency will provide tips and resource information to Maine schools to help provide some guidance for identifying signs and preventing school violence.

School Safety and Security Bulletin  – December 2018

Further questions and inquiries can be send to Pat Hinckley, Maine DOE Transportation and Facilities Administrator at pat.hinckley@maine.gov.

Withdrawal of Proposed Changes to Chapter 101 MUSER

The Maine Department of Education’s Office of Special Services has reviewed comments made to the proposed changes to Chapter 101: Maine Unified Special Education Regulations (MUSER) Birth to Twenty and has decided to withdraw the proposed changes at this time.

Some proposed changes will need to be reconsidered based on comments from the field. Other proposed changes will be pursued, with some refinements, in the future.

Since time does not allow for additional changes, a public review and comment period, and provisional adoption and submittal to the Legislature by the second Friday in January, the Department has decided to withdraw the proposed changes to Chapter 101.

All of the comments submitted will be retained and the Department will continue to work on what we believe to be improvements to the rule, with the goal of beginning a new rulemaking process next summer.

The Maine DOE’s Office of Special Services would like to thank the individuals who attended the public hearing and/or submitted written comments on the proposed rule.

For further information please contact the Maine Department of Education’s Office of Special Services at 624-6676.

 

Maine DOE Update – December 6, 2018

From the Maine Department of Education

Reporting Items

Ensuring Local Data Systems are Configured Properly For State Reporting #WhyDataMatters

Schools and districts use a wide range of different data systems to report required data to the Maine Department of Education (DOE), in addition to meeting their own diverse data needs. Because of this, data systems are highly configurable. It is very important for schools and districts to understand how their own systems are set up to ensure that their data is reported correctly to Maine DOE. | More

Regional School Calendars Due May 3, 2019

School administrative units and private schools approved for tuition purposes are expected to establish regional school calendars, in coordination with their local secondary career and technical education school, by May 3, 2019. | More

| Visit the DC&R Reporting Calendar |

News & Updates

Maine Education Assessments Released Items Now Available

The Maine Department of Education is excited to announce the availability of released items from Maine’s 2017/18 state assessment. As educators begin to explore the released items for MEA spring 2018, we want to clarify a few inconsistencies within English Language Arts(ELA)/Literacy and Mathematics and provide some information about released items moving forward. | More

Maine DOE to Provide Complimentary 2018-19 Law Books to Superintendents

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) acquired enough copies of the Maine Education and School Statutes 2018-2019 Edition law book from the publisher, Swan Island Press, to distribute one, at no charge, to each superintendent of schools in Maine. | More

Learning Through Technology Survey

The Maine Department of Education is seeking input to inform the work of leveraging technology to improve student learning. The survey should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. Maine DOE leadership will be reviewing the results as it plans for continued support of technology integration in Maine schools.  The survey will remain open until December 21, 2018. | More

Guidance Regarding Storm-Kit Days (a.k.a. Blizzard Bags) for Students

The Department has had a number of inquiries about the use of Anytime-Anywhere school days and learning (a.k.a. e-learning, storm kits, blizzard bags, snow packs). This communication is to clarify the current status of requirements regarding makeup days for cancellations due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances as it relates to Anytime-Anywhere or home-based instructional days.  Please know that the Department is currently in conversations and exploring data and best practices around this topic, and anticipates further information and guidance to be forthcoming in the winter and spring of 2019.| More

Maine DOE Awarded $2.88M Grant to Support School Emergency Operations Plan Initiative

The Maine Department of Education has been awarded a 5-year grant from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education. The funding will go towards an initiative called Maine Grant for School Emergency Management aimed at helping Maine schools by providing training and technical assistance in the development and implementation of high-quality school emergency operations plans (EOPS). | More

MEA Alternate Science – PAAP Opens First Week of December

The PAAP Task Bank is now open. All teachers assessing students using the MEA Alternate assessment for science in grades 5, 8, and third year high school may now log in. | More

MEDIA ADVISORY: Maine DOE to Host Presentation About ESSA & School Report Cards

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) would like to invite the media to attend a presentation about the details of Maine’s Model of School Support under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which includes the release of the new, user-friendly, public Report Cards later this month. | More

Professional Development & Training Opportunities

Using Assessment to Strengthen Instruction in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science, K-8

As part of its 2018-19 Assessment Literacy series, the Maine Department of Education will present full-day workshops to continue supporting educators in examining eMPower ELA and math, and MEA science assessment data, connecting that data with locally generated assessment information, and identifying high impact instructional strategies that foster student engagement and achievement of learning standards. | More

Resources to Support the Observance of Alcohol Awareness Day

Alcohol is the most frequently used substance by adolescents in Maine. Almost one of every four Maine high school students used alcohol in the past 30 days, and more than one third of those students reported binge drinking (2017 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey). Alcohol consumption by students is impacted by factors such as low perception of harm, low perception of getting caught, and ease of access. | More

| Visit the Professional Development Calendar |

Latest DOE Career/Project Opportunities

Ensuring Local Data Systems are Configured Properly For State Reporting #WhyDataMatters

Schools and districts use a wide range of different data systems to report required data to the Maine Department of Education (DOE), in addition to meeting their own diverse data needs. Because of this, data systems are highly configurable. It is very important for schools and districts to understand how their own systems are set up to ensure that their data is reported correctly to Maine DOE.

The Department has become aware of instances where a school’s data was unintentionally not reported correctly for a number of reasons and ends up surfacing significant issues in an unexpected way. It is important to understand that because local school units have their own data systems, configuration issues will need to be investigated and found at the local level.

Here is an example of a configuration issue, brought to the Department’s attention recently, that was found and fixed by a local school unit: Incorrect coding of dismissal (even within 5 minutes of the end of the day, for example) led to students being counted as absent. Customizing the local system, in this case Powerschool, fixed the issue and decreased the district’s ADA% absent.

Scheduling and attendance configuration issues affecting attendance reporting have also been discovered by districts using Infinite Campus.

The Department encourages School Administrative Units to work with local vendors to ensure that the settings and configurations of your local system are aligned correctly for state reporting.

For further questions about reporting, please contact the Maine DOE Helpdesk at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Maine DOE to Host Presentation About ESSA & School Report Cards

The School Report Cards are scheduled to be released to the public at the end of December.

WHAT:
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) would like to invite the media to attend a presentation about the details of Maine’s Model of School Support under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which includes the release of the new, user-friendly, public Report Cards later this month.

WHEN:
Monday, December 10, 2018 from 9:00am – 12:00pm

WHERE:
Cross Office Building, 111 Sewell Street, Augusta, Maine, Room 500
Live Stream Link: https://zoom.us/j/867836618 (this will be recorded)

AGENDA:

  • Opening comments from Commissioner Robert G. Hasson Jr.
  • Overview of Maine’s Model of School Support (1 hour)
    • Overview of Indicators
    • Overview of School Support
    • Questions & Answer session
  • Overview of Maine’s Report Cards*  (1 hour)
    • New format for report card
    • Walk through of the Report Cards
    • Questions & Answer session

*For the 12/10/18 presentations, the Report Cards will be displayed with sample data. The public Report Cards, with school data for each public school in Maine, will not be released until the end of December.

For further information please contact Maine DOE Director of Communications, Rachel Paling at rachel.paling@maine.gov.

Regional School Calendars Due May 3, 2019

School administrative units and private schools approved for tuition purposes are expected to establish regional school calendars, in coordination with their local secondary career and technical education school, by May 3, 2019.

The Legislature enacted that requirement as part of Public Law 2011, Chapter 686, which expands access to career and technical education in Maine and ensures that students completing career and technical education (CTE) coursework have greater access to post-secondary opportunities. Specifically, the law addresses scheduling conflicts that pose barriers to students by requiring that those school districts and private schools approved for tuition purposes that share a CTE school adopt a regional school calendar with no more than five dissimilar days. Furthermore, implementation of the law is intended to promote collaboration among local school administrative units that may benefit other forms of inter-administrative unit collaboration beyond CTE.  The law became effective Aug. 30, 2012, and establishing the regional calendar is a condition for eligibility for state subsidy.

For school year 2019-20, both regional school calendars and individual calendars for each school administrative unit must be submitted by the director of the local CTE Center/Region to the Department of Education no later than May 3, 2019 for a decision on approval by June 7, 2019. Guidance and templates can be accessed electronically at www.maine.gov/doe/regionalcalendar/.

Given the coordination required for fulfillment of this law, the Maine DOE recommends that school districts initiate discussions as soon as possible, including representatives from all affected secondary schools and their associated career and technical education center or region.

For more information including guidance, instructions, templates, a waiver process, and a link to the complete law, please visit www.maine.gov/doe/regionalcalendar/.  Further questions should be directed to Doug Robertson doug.robertson@maine.gov / 624-6744 or Dwight Littlefield dwight.a.littlefield@maine.gov / 624-6721.

Maine Education Assessments Released Items Now Available

The Maine Department of Education is excited to announce the availability of released items from Maine’s 2017/18 state assessment. As educators begin to explore the released items for MEA spring 2018, we want to clarify a few inconsistencies within English Language Arts(ELA)/Literacy and Mathematics and provide some information about released items moving forward.

ELA/Literacy:

In grade 3 eMPowerME reading, the passage students read while completing the assessment is not available for reference. Unfortunately, the assessment vendor, Measured Progress, was unable to obtain the necessary permissions to release the passage for public use. Fortunately, the passage used is a commonly known text, Corduroy, (Freeman, D. (1987). Corduroy. Harmondsworth: Puffin Books.). Educators should pay close attention to the information contained within the released item to guide use of the materials. Moving forward, the Maine DOE has taken steps to ensure that all passages utilized in any future released items will have the necessary permissions obtained for both confidential and public release.

Additionally, when the released items first became available on 11/12/18, there was a misalignment in the numbering of the ELA/Literacy released items in the Confidential MAARS portal versus the Released Item Documents found in the Measured Progress’ WordPress site. In the MAARS released item chart, the Essay item, indicated by “Item Type” WP (writing prompt), was originally reported as Released Item #01 in all grades, followed by Reading, then Writing & Language released items.

This is an example of the way ELA/Literacy Grade 3 released items chart first appeared in the confidential MAARS portal:

releasedItems1

In the Educator Support Materials for the eMPowerME Released Item Documents (pdf), the last 2 pages are Math and ELA/Literacy released item information charts. In the ELA/Literacy chart (Grade 3 example below), the Essay is presented last, and the numbers for Reading and Writing & Language correspond to the item numbers in the released item booklets, but not to the released item numbering in the MAARS chart above.releaseditems2

The placement of the Essay score (Writing Prompt/WP) has been corrected in MAARS Confidential to appear as the last item in ELA, as shown below in the sample snapshot for Grade 3:

releaseditems3

The new, correct placement of the WP/Essay score for each grade is as follows: Grade 3=#14, Grade 4=#17, Grade 5=#14, Grades 6, 7, and 8=#16.

Mathematics:

When the released items became available on 11/12/18, there was a constructed response (CR) item in math omitted from the MAARS confidential reports in every grade 3-8. eMPowerME math released items include multiple choice items (MC), multi-select items (MS), and one (1) constructed response item (CR) per grade level. The math CR items have now been added to MAARS Confidential and are slotted in the tables according to the placement of the CR in the released items. The Math CRs are scored in 2 parts: Concepts & Procedures Standard (CPS) and Mathematical Process Standard (MPS) as shown below in the sample snapshot for Grade 3:

releaseditems4

NOTE: ELA/Literacy & Mathematics – The best way to align the released item numbering from the charts in MAARS to the released item PDFs is to follow the Tables on the last 2 pages of each grade level’s pdf titled “2018 Mathematics Released Item Information” and “2018 English Language Arts Released Item Information”.

Future eMPowerME Released Items:

The Maine DOE is committed to providing as many resources as possible to support instructional practice. One such support is the availability of released items. Unfortunately, the frequency in which the Maine DOE is able to release items is currently limited to 2017/2018 and 2019/2020. We will be unable to release items from the 2018/2019 test administration. There are many factors that have impacted this decision and the Maine DOE is exploring how to increase the frequency of releasing items while not increasing the amount of testing time for students. It should be noted that although released items will not be provided from the 2018/19 test administration, educators will still have access to the released items from the 2017/18 test administration in addition to the already available sample items.

Further questions can be directed to Lee Anne Larsen, Acting Deputy Director, Office of Learning Systems at 624-6628 or Leeann.Larsen@maine.gov