BREWER, Maine — No Child Left Behind is a broken set of regulations and standards, and Maine’s Department of Education is continuing its effort to patch it up, the head of the department said Thursday evening.
Commissioner Stephen Bowen visited Brewer Community School, where about 15 teachers, school administrators and residents heard an update on a draft proposal that seeks flexibility from the federal Department of Education in requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, better known as No Child Left Behind.
“The problem we’re trying to fix here is we’ve been living under No Child Left Behind for 10 years and it doesn’t work,” Bowen said during the public forum.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, in part, outlines a series of performance benchmarks schools are required to reach with the intention of bringing all students to 100 percent proficiency by 2014.
Maine and most other states are lagging behind the benchmarks and the gap is widening as the requirements become more stringent. The schools are making progress and improving their proficiency scores, but the current system doesn’t recognize those steps forward if the schools are still below the bar, Bowen said.
The state plans to submit a waiver application to the U.S. Department of Education on Sept. 6.
The federal Department of Education requires that the state demonstrate it will implement college- and career-ready standards that graduates must attain, hold schools accountable for growth and provide customized support and interventions, and initiate measures to promote effective teaching methods and better administrative guidance.
Bowen said the state would do this through its adoption of Common Core State Standards in english language arts and math and phasing out New England Common Assessment Program and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) standardized testing in favor of more modern tests.
Also among the changes in Maine’s proposal is the goal that schools increase proficiency rates by 50 percent over six years, rather than bringing all students to 100 percent proficiency by 2014. Goals also would be set on an individual basis based on a school’s past performance, meaning that schools that start with lower scores wouldn’t be expected to attain the same proficiency numbers in six years as a better performing school.
Bowen said schools would be recognized for their improvements, rather than chastised for not reaching an unrealistic goal.
Four workgroups made up of teachers, principals, superintendents and Maine Department of Education staff members have been working on the waiver request since May.
To date, 35 other states have had their waiver requests approved by the U.S. Department of Education, according to Bowen.
For information about Maine’s flexibility application or to provide feedback, visit www.maine.gov/doe/accountability.
Bangor Daily news writer Christopher Cousins contributed to this report.
Education has become such a political pawn. We just start to make some progress, then another President, Govenor and Commisinor comes along. Then it changes again. Not necessarily for the better. We all want kids to succeed and be productive adults. But holy man, we are hurting children by jumping around like this over and over. Leaders, get your research, data and facts together or you will have no teachers.
Well put, the big movements in education always becomes the biggest mistakes once the new leaders step in.
Nice job, Mr. Bush.
In a fair shake — Don’t forget Ted “The Liberal Lion” Kennedy stood side-by-side with President Bush when NCLB was signed.
yes this was very bipartisan legislation.
But ill advised under the circumstances. Absolute certainty of 100% achievement? That doesn’t even happen in Lake Wobegon.
“Also among the changes in Maine’s proposal is the goal that schools increase proficiency rates by 50 percent over six years, rather than bringing all students to 100 percent proficiency by 2014…schools that start with lower scores wouldn’t be expected to attain the same proficiency numbers in six years as a better performing school. ”
I’m wondering if Gov. LePage recognizes the irony of his own state’s plan to get out from under NCLB employing the same logic that was revealed in the Harvard study–the study he used as evidence that Maine schools are failing.
Baldacci/Gendron’s school consolidation – like NCLB, untested – is clearly the failure many of us in the rural areas of Maine thought it would be. Let’s remember Mr. Bowen’s own “proficiency-based” – untested – educational theories in a few years when they, too, turn out to be a mistake that wasted a lot of time and effort.
If and to the point, funding needs to re fixed, I believe a 1 percent sales tax should be put in place to fund schools. The towns sales tax would go to the RSU they are join to. That would be a year around funding, and the out of state visitors could help us pay for ed. This would take some pressure of the
property tax payers. The property taxes to support schools has reached it’s limit. Next, we need to do away with compulsory education after 8th grade. Once again make education a goal of the individual. In high school, make it three years and the 4th year offer college courses for those who want them or let students of on OJT assignments. We should give each teacher at least a $10,000 raise. Now, this would determine a powerful new course of direction for each individual student. I strongly feel that sports should be removed from school, and let it be a community affair.
So you think there would be enough sales tax revenue in small communities to make any kind of difference? Some towns barely have a handful of small businesses. The what about the larger cities that don’t even belong to an RSU? Which is where the lionshare of businesses reside anyways. Also, we have achieved a 30 percent obesity rate with children since gym class has been taken out of school. You weant to further de-emphasis physical education/activity? You really think communities will get together with it’s citizens and create a regularly scheduled activities program, and all the parents will bring their children to these activities after hours? If they have that ability, why do we need school bussing in the first place. The kids that need the exercise the most will be the ones that can’t get to the activities. If anything, more emphasis should be placed on physical activity, not less.
You have some good points. I do think some drastic changes are needed. I am not sure the 2 or 3 hours of gym will take care of the modern diet of fast food, instant food and so on. Funding, do you have any ideas? I look at the problem from remembering the 60’s when cell phones, ipads, fast food, laptops, and facebook did not exist, many did not take sports because they could not get back and forth. It is sure that the existing scheme of things is failing the students, the world they live in is so different when the systems we use was put into place, I think we have to modernize to a 21st century student and not be stuck in the 20th century model, just putting out ideas and glad to hear any.
Maine and most other states are lagging behind the benchmarks and the gap is widening as the requirements become more stringent.
The above sentence should be read and reread.
Good to see that Bowen is finally on board with opposition to Every Child Left Behind. However, I’m waiting with dread for the next shoe to drop since i don’t trust him to come up with any good solutions.