Commissioner’s Update – October 11, 2012

Commissioner’s Update – October 11, 2012
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Today the Department released its annual report on school progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, which showed that a majority of schools aren’t meeting federal targets—just as we anticipated.

We, along with most other states, don’t believe AYP accurately measures school success. Maine schools aren’t doing any worse than last year, but the current AYP system requires schools each year to meet higher testing targets than the previous year, and it doesn’t recognize any degree of improvement unless AYP is met. That’s not fair to our schools, and it’s not fair to our kids.

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Looking forward to better accountability system

Headshot of Commissioner Stephen BowenToday the Department released its annual report on school progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, which showed that a majority of schools aren’t meeting federal targets—just as we anticipated.

We, along with most other states, don’t believe AYP accurately measures school success. Continue reading “Looking forward to better accountability system” →

Smarter Balanced releases sample assessment items, performance tasks

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium recently released a set of sample assessment items and performance tasks in English language arts/literacy and mathematics to help teachers, administrators and policymakers better understand the Common Core State Standards and prepare for the implementation of the Smarter Balanced assessments.

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Sign up to attend customized learning workshop

UPDATE: This consortium is a four-day training split into two parts. The first part is Dec. 3-4; the second part is Feb. 6-7.

All Maine educators are invited to hear about the customized learning vision for Maine schools at one of the Maine Cohort for Customized Learning’s upcoming consortium: “Designing a Standards-Based, Customized Learning Community.”

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