The Report Card

A last mark for The Report Card

Betty Adams — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:19:50 GMT

This blog has gone quiet in recent weeks as I wind down my duties as education reporter here at the Kennebec Journal.

I've accepted a new job working for the agency that's been the subject of many of my stories over the past three years: the Maine Department of Education. The department has hired me, using a federal grant, to write and manage content that will be used as part of a major reorganization of the Department of Education website.

Friday is my last day at the Kennebec Journal. I start with the department on Monday. I've recused myself from covering state education stories since the job opportunity arose.

The idea behind my job is that the Department of Education's website will become more useful and user-friendly for teachers, administrators, parents and the general public. Easy accessibility to the reams of data on the Department of Education's website should make the agency more transparent and accountable.

Those stores of data should grow as the Department of Education continues work on its state longitudinal data system -- a tool that promises to provide insight into whether educational resources are being deployed effectively.

I'll miss my position as a reporter covering public education in Maine, but I'm excited to put my education writing to use in a new capacity.

A clearer funding picture, and the Common Core's return

Betty Adams — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:30:42 GMT

The funding outlook for Maine schools is coming into focus with Gov. Paul LePage's proposal for the 2012-13 biennial budget in document form.

Over the two-year period, the governor's budget invests an additional $63 million over current levels into general purpose aid for local schools. He gets that money largely by holding back on increases to benefits for retired state employees and teachers.

The Maine School Management Association says school districts should receive their specific aid estimates from the Department of Education next week.

While the aggregate budget numbers are out there, it's unclear to what extent LePage's education budget will be used as a political tool (think Essential Programs and Services and school district consolidation). He offered few specific hints during his budget address Thursday, saying merely that his budget funds a magnet school involving Good Will-Hinckley and Kennebec Valley Community College and that education resources should "follow the student to make sure his or her unique needs are being met."

That said, there's plenty of education policy to be decided this year outside the realm of the budget.

One key policy debate will resurface Monday as Maine's provisional adoption of the Common Core state standards circles back for final legislative approval.

Legislators last spring passed a bill simply allowing the state to adopt the uniform standards in preparation for Maine's submission in the Race to the Top competition. (About 40 states have adopted the Common Core standards.) Maine's adoption wasn't a full adoption since the final draft of the standards hadn't yet been released.

The state Department of Education moved forward last summer with a provisional adoption of the standards, meaning the final adoption would have to come before the Legislature. Meanwhile, school officials across Maine have been under the assumption that the standards will become their reality in the next few years.

The public hearing in advance of provisional adoption attracted no members of the public. We'll see if Monday's hearing is any different.

Rewriting No Child Left Behind: What to expect

Betty Adams — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:59:27 GMT

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is intensifying his push to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act in time for the September start of a new school year, following a State of the Union address by President Barack Obama on Tuesday that carried a heavy focus on education.

Duncan convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers Wednesday on Capitol Hill to discuss the legislation and he reached out to rural America in a conference call with rural education reporters.

"No Child Left Behind doesn't work in every school in America, and particularly for schools in rural communities," the education secretary said during the call.

Joined by National Rural Education Association director John Hill, Duncan outlined a vision for a rewritten Elementary and Secondary Education Act that is, so far, short on specifics beyond the "Blueprint for Reform" the education department released last winter.

Duncan said he didn't want a "huge bill," and he envisioned transforming the Department of Education into "an engine of innovation, rather than a compliance-driven bureaucracy."

Flexibility is key, he said, especially when it comes to legislating for rural schools. "For the vast majority of schools, (the Obama administration's outline for a rewritten ESEA) moves away from No Child Left Behind's one-size-fits-all approach to reform," Duncan said.

Some examples:

• The rewritten ESEA, according to Duncan, will get rid of the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements imposed on schools. Under current law, all schools are expected to reach the 100 percent proficiency level by 2014.

"No one likes how No Child Left Behind labels schools as failures even when they're making gains," Duncan said.

In rural schools, Hill noted, the performance of one student can determine whether a school makes adequate yearly progress or not. That's because schools have to show each subset of their student population — learning disabled, English language learners, low-income etc. — is making progress in order to meet the federal benchmark.

• Under No Child Left Behind, schools that repeatedly don't make adequate yearly progress are required to offer parents the opportunity to send their children to other schools in the same district. The Obama administration is proposing an education law that removes the mandate that school districts offer that choice to parents.

"Public school choice might make sense in an urban community," Duncan said, "but if there's not another school for 30 miles, it doesn't make as much sense."

• The rewritten ESEA would remove No Child Left Behind's provisions surrounding "highly qualified" teachers. The current federal mandate requires that schools publicly report when they assign teachers to a subject that they're not certified to teach. Duncan said he wants to shift the law's focus to effectiveness, rather than certification.

"You have lots of amazing teachers in rural communities who, by law, by definition, are not labeled highly qualified," he said.

• Duncan acknowledged that a rewritten ESEA would emphasize competitive grants, a prospect that worries many in rural school districts who don't think they can win sufficient funding when they're required to compete against large, urban school systems.

"When it comes to competition for some of the grants and so forth, we encourage everyone to look at ways to level the playing field," Hill said. "Rural schools don't have the manpower. They don't have the capacity to fill out grant (applications)."

Asked how the playing field could be leveled, Duncan was light on specifics.

"We're not looking for fancy PowerPoint presentations," Duncan said. "We're looking for folks with real vision, with real courage.

Recurring themes, fresh outlook on education

Betty Adams — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:52:15 GMT

There's been plenty of talk in recent weeks about the outlook for education in Maine as a newly Republican Legislature and a new governor of the same party get to work in Augusta.

Brian Hubbell recently shared his prescient outlook on MainePolitics.net and John D-Anieri on Friday shared his thoughts on his InnovationMaine blog.

Here's what I can gather from the list of bill requests (not all of which will become full-fledged bills) lawmakers have filed: The education debate this session is bound to be full of themes that have been recurrent in the education debate in recent years. The difference now is, change in many of these areas is more likely to become reality.

Healthcare choice

Republicans in recent years have called for allowing school districts more flexibility on providing benefits to teachers and other employees. Typically, school districts offer their employees the standard health care plan, which is negotiated through the Maine Education Association's Benefits Trust.

Republicans in recent years have called for allowing school districts more flexibility on providing benefits. Rep. Ralph Sarty last year was denied the chance to get a bill through that would have made it easier for school districts to shop around by being able to access more information about the MEA Benefits Trust plan.

There are a few proposals pending in this Legislature to facilitate such shopping around. In a legislative body where the MEA's influence is limited, those proposals have a greater chance of success.

It appears Republican Sen. Richard Rosen, Democratic Rep. Mary Nelson and Sarty have filed bills aimed at making it easier for school districts to seek options other than the MEA Benefits Trust.

School choice

As I noted last week, there are at least two charter school proposals pending, though neither has yet made it to bill form.

Also on the school choice front, there's legislation in the hopper on homeschooling as well as two proposals on magnet schools. Newcomer Rep. Amy Volk of Scarborough, a Republican, has two school choice proposals that have yet to arrive in bill form along with a bill that would free up municipalities to pay private school tuition for, presumably, those students who want to attend schools other than their local public institutions.

Teacher tenure and evaluations

This will be a hot area of debate, with more change likely than what happened last spring. That's when L.D. 1799 simply struck down the legal barrier that barred using student achievement in teacher evaluations and set up the statewide evaluation-vetting panel.

This time around, teacher tenure and teacher evaluations will both be targets in the Legislature.

By my quick count, there are at least five separate proposals pending that would extend the probationary period for teachers, meaning they won't be able to secure tenure in a school system for, in most cases, three years.

On the evaluation front, there's legislation filed -- from Democratic Rep. Devin Beliveau -- to require annual teacher evaluations. Republican Rep. Meredith Strang-Burgess has added "An Act Concerning Models for Teacher and Principal Evaluations" to the hopper.

In addition, there's legislation to "amend the laws regarding teacher termination" from Republican Sen. Garrett Mason. And Democratic Rep. Andrew O'Brien has submitted legislation to spark a review of the teacher certification process.

Social Security number collection

The law that requires schools to collect student Social Security numbers for a statewide data system is in danger. It didn't take a power shift to make that a reality, though.

By my count, three Democrats and two Republicans have submitted repeal bills.

School district consolidation

As I reported on Sunday, the nearly four-year-old mandate is bound to change. The question is if the change will be substantial or piecemeal.

School funding formula

The complaints that the formula on which the Department of Education bases its subsidy calculations is weighted against rural school districts are familiar. Those complaints will get more of an airing this year.

Nearly 10 proposals for legislation target the formula.

At least two proposals, from Republican Sen. Douglas Thomas and Millinocket Democrat Rep. Herbert Clark, would do away with the labor market calculations that figure in higher labor costs, and more subsidy as a result, for the Portland area than, say, Aroostook County.

Another, from Republican Rep. Lance Harvell, removes all federal funding from the formula.

Other legislation calls for broader "improvements" to the funding formula.

National pressure on Maine to allow charters

Betty Adams — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:54:17 GMT

Lawmakers in Augusta are just settling into their roles in a new Legislature, and the momentum surrounding charter schools is heating up.

The list of lawmakers' requested bills for the session shows at least two proposals for allowing the independently run, public schools in Maine. Maine is one of 10 states that don't allow charter schools.

Republican senators Roger Katz of Augusta and Garrett Mason of Lisbon Falls have both put forward charter school legislation. Mason has proposed legislation that fits the mold of the model public charter school law pushed by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the Maine Association for Charter Schools.

There's also legislation forthcoming that would expand allow and expand magnet schools in Maine, establish a "network of innovative and autonomous public schools," and grant parents greater public school choice.

The National Alliance today decided to play into the Pine Tree State's momentum toward charter schools (buffetted by a pro-charter school governor and a Republican legislature more likely to favor the independent schools), issuing a press release that reminded readers of the fact that Maine is one of the 10 states without charter school laws. The release coincided with the group's release of its ranking of state charter school laws.

"It is time for Maine to heed the lessons learned from almost 20 years of public charter schooling and enact a strong public charter school law," Todd Ziebarth, the alliance's vice president for state advocacy, said in a statement.

Already this season, the Maine Association for Charter Schools hosted a forum about the legislation it's been working on (PDF warning), and Judith Jones of the charter schools association last week appeared with Maine Education Association President Chris Galgay on MPBN's Maine Watch to talk charters.

The debate on administration, and the latest on the top administrator

Betty Adams — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:38:18 GMT

The Maine School Management Association is going on the offensive this month as it looks ahead to a budget season dominated by calls for leaner school administrative operations and tighter school budgets.

The association — which represents Maine superintendents and school boards at the State House — put out an informational bulletin late last week laying out the facts about how Maine's public school spending in Maine breaks down.

The bulletin came just two days after Gov. Paul LePage said in his inaugural address that Maine schools' "standards need to be high" and "administration needs to be lean." LePage also made mention of a "bloated establishment" in Augusta.

The bulletin points out that 4 percent of public school expenditures, or $106 million, are targeted to central office administration of school districts. Five percent of those expenditures, or $125 million, are earmarked toward school-level administration, i.e., the principal's office and related operations.

The association also points out that the number of school superintendents has declined in recent years as a result of Maine's school district consolidation mandate. Nowadays, 122 superintendents (93 full-time and 29 part-time) are overseeing, officially, 179 school districts. That compares to 148 superintendents in 2006-07 (118 full-time and 30 part-time) overseeing 280 districts. (MSMA also haggles with the state's definition of "district," saying that there are 234 districts if the member units of alternative organizational structures were counted separately.)

"While there has been much discussion about putting money in the classroom, versus into administration," the bulletin reads, "at the K-12 level that already is happening in Maine."

Just as the number of superintendents has dropped since the 2006-07 school year, their aggregate compensation has dropped, to $11 million from $12.3 million, according to the Department of Education. At the same time, the remaining superintendents are making, on average $9,000 more annually than they were in 2006-07.

According to the Department of Education, the raw average of superintendent salaries was $81,946 in 2006-07 and is $90,994 this year. That's an 11 percent jump.

In the context of about $2 billion in education spending, there's not much in real savings to be gained by cutting superintendent salaries, or by eliminating their positions altogether. But it's an easy area to point out in making the case for leaner school administrative offices.

Speaking of administration, what's the official line on filling the tough-to-staff job of education commissioner?

Steve Bowen, LePage's senior policy adviser on education issues, told me yesterday that the governor is "prepared to take his time" in selecting the person who will oversee a department responsible for nearly half of state expenditures.

"He's set a pretty high bar for what he's looking for," Bowen said.

According to state law, the chairman of the state Board of Education — currently James A. Banks of Portland — has a hand in the pick. The governor is supposed to "include the chairman" in the "selection process" and give state board members the opportunity to interview candidates for the post.

The state board, according to the law, must give the governor its assessment of the candidates within 10 days of meeting them, and the governor should consider this assessment in making his pick.

What does that mean for when a pick will be announced?

The state board was scheduled to meet Thursday in Augusta. That meeting, however, has been postponed to next Wednesday, Jan. 19.

Private funding for "student-centered" learning

Betty Adams — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:57:28 GMT

The place of performance- or standards-based education in a LePage administration is uncertain, but the largest New England-focused education philanthropy, which touts the educational approach, announced $600,000 worth of awards today aimed at encouraging "student-centered learning."

The Nellie Mae Education Foundation today announced three awards for Maine school districts to bankroll planning for systems that encourage student-centered learning, which is supposed to cater to the individual learning styles of each student and allow for learning both inside and outside the classroom. (RSUs 2 and 18 of Hallowell and Oakland, respectively — two of the six districts piloting the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, or RISC, model — were among the applicants for this grant, and RSU 2 last week approved a vision statement focused on student-centered learning.)

In Portland, the award will involve Jobs for Maine's Graduates — a dropout prevention program that figured heavily in Maine's Race to the Top application and the gubernatorial campaign — in a collaboration with Portland's three public high schools and the non-profit LearningWorks. As a side note, JMG CEO Craig Larrabee was a member of the LePage team that screened applicants for administration jobs.

In North Berwick-based SAD 60, the award will fund planning for a system that's supposed to strengthen partnerships between the school district and area businesses and community organizations. That plan is aimed at real-life experiences and learning that takes place outside the classroom.

And in Sanford, the grant money will fund the school system's transition to a performance- or standards-based system using management software known as E-ducate, which is a key facet of the RISC model. The software allows teachers to track their students' progress toward meeting the specific standards and skills outlined in a standards-based system.

In Sanford, the private Nellie Mae money will fund some professional development that might otherwise have been available from the state Department of Education through its collaboration with RISC.

Each initiative is receiving $200,000. Those three awards are among seven that Nellie Mae gave out across New England today.

Landing on the staff, not in the cabinet

Betty Adams — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:57:35 GMT

Paul LePage's inauguration as governor today not only brought a series of remarks about education. It brought more news about how his administration would take shape as it gets to work.

Prior to LePage's inauguration, the place of Steve Bowen in the new administration was the source of a significant amount of speculation in the education world.

The director of the Center for Education Excellence at the Maine Heritage Policy Center made it on many a short list of candidates for the education commissioner's post.

As it turns out, Bowen won't be stepping into the commissioner's chair. Instead, he'll serve as a senior policy adviser to LePage on education matters, along with government reform, budgetary matters and marine resources policy.

Bowen was busy in his last weeks at the Maine Heritage Policy Center. Just yesterday, he issued a report concerning the place of digital learning in Maine education. Since the election, he's also authored five op eds in the Bangor Daily News concerning the new governor's top priorities, the challenges that await the next education commissioner, Wisconsin's welfare reform model, streamlining the state Legislature, and the Republicans' post-election charge.

Bowen, a former legislator and former teacher, has been a vocal commentator in recent years on education matters. He was critical of lawmakers for not pursuing bold-enough reforms in advance of Race to the Top, he exhaustively critiqued Maine's Race to the Top application in a series of blog entries and he's been active in every Maine debate concerning charter schools.

Education and the inauguration

Betty Adams — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:38:23 GMT

Newly sworn-in Gov. Paul LePage devoted, perhaps, more of his inaugural address today to education than to any other major policy area.

He described education as an area where partisan differences need to be set aside for the good of students, whom LePage described as the state's number one asset. He called on Maine schools to set the national standard for educational quality. He called for leaner school administration. And he called for higher academic standards in Maine schools.

What policy implications can we gather from those statements?

Tough to say, but if there is to be "leaner" administration in public education, does that mean there will be fewer mandates made on school districts that require administrative manpower?

If Maine schools are to teach to higher standards, are those higher standards the Common Core state standards that dozens of states have already adopted in response to a federal push for them, but that Maine has adopted only provisionally?

LePage also called for a renewed focus on vocational education and he renewed his push for a five-year high school program in Maine that allows students to earn both their diplomas and associate's degrees, thereby cutting the cost of higher education.

The governor also said a skilled, trained workforce is key to making Maine a state where it's desirable to do business. He mentioned the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, Maine's only magnet high school, as part of an anecdote, but didn't go with it where I thought he might: a call for more choices in public education.

What does all of this mean for Maine education? The answer will be forthcoming.

Baldacci-era reforms in a new age

Betty Adams — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:05:15 GMT

Standards-based education, an expansion of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative laptop program and school district consolidation top the list of reform initiatives promoted in recent years by the Maine Department of Education of former Commissioner Susan Gendron and Gov. John Baldacci.

What's the outlook for some of those initiatives when a new governor -- who prizes some form of further consolidation, charter schools, broadened school choice and an optional fifth year of high school -- takes office next month?

• Standards-based education isn't necessarily being ruled out. But it certainly won't rise to the top when it comes to policy initiatives to pursue.

The Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, the non-profit organization the state is relying on to spread the educational format to six pilot school districts won't see its state contract renewed when it expires in June. That doesn't mean the standards-based format dies an early death in Maine, just that the format won't be spread to new districts with the force and resources of the state behind it.

The six districts piloting the RISC model are in the early stages of implementing it; they're losing their state support for the RISC transition at a time when they're vulnerable to reverting to the traditional system, according to RISC co-founder Rick Shreiber.

By year three in the implementation process (the Maine districts are in years one and two), Schreiber said, RISC districts should be ready to serve as demonstration sites for the standards-based model.

The Maine districts could reach that stage, but their status as demonstration sites might not be enough of a spark for other districts that might have gone with the RISC approach with state support.

• The four-year state lease with Apple that secured MacBooks for more than half the state's high-school students and nearly all seventh- and eighth-grade students will come up for renewal while Gov.-elect Paul LePage is in office.

The Portland Press Herald last week reported that LePage is taking a look at the program, and wants to make sure it's used in classrooms effectively.

It'll be a few years before we have a clear idea about the fate of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative.

• In the same Press Herald article, LePage expressed an interest in continued school district consolidation.

He said he wouldn't pursue it, however, the same way the Baldacci administration has, though the LePage team has yet to put forth a proposal.

"I would like to see more consolidation and less superintendents," he told a group of Portland eighth graders.

That's exactly the idea that led Baldacci into school district consolidation, but local resistance largely impeded consolidation plans. How LePage would overcome that and find more consolidation success is unknown.

Just as the fate of Baldacci-era education reforms is thrown into question, two superintendents who have championed the reforms are stepping down.

Regional School Unit 1 in the Bath area consolidated even before consolidation became the law of land. Bill Shuttleworth, the superintendent who oversaw the merger and even stuck up for the consolidation law in TV ads last year when it was challenged at the ballot box, said this week he plans to step down at the close of the school year.

In Hallowell-based RSU 2, Superintendent Donald Siviski has been a vocal advocate for the RISC model (RSU 2 is a RISC pilot district), the one-to-one laptop initiative (Siviski's district had laptops at the high school before most others), and consolidation (RSU 2 consolidated early on in the process). He announced his retirement plans earlier this month.

That's two fewer school superintendents carrying the torch for those reforms.