Today in MEA

Teacher Evaluation Update: Changes Coming Soon

On Wednesday, March 11, the Education Committee unanimously passed a set of changes to the teacher evaluation rules. The MEA and members who testified in Augusta worked directly with the Maine Department of Education to make sure the changes were beneficial to educators. Included in the changes that passed the House and Senate, and which have now been sent to the US DOE for approval:

To maintain Maine’s federal waiver which allows schools to disregard the mandates under No Child Left Behind which are punitive in nature, the US Department of Education required Maine’s evaluation law include a statewide assessment component. The change means the student growth measure must include student assessment results, the percentage of which is left up to the local district. The assessment is one factor of the multiple measures required for the student learning and growth component of the evaluation. The MEA was only supportive of this measure in order to maintain the federal waiver.

Pilot year has been extended—School districts will now have all of next school year

Tom Walsh (Falmouth EA) testifies in front of the Education Committee

To read more about the changes to the evaluation system, or to ask questions about the process, log on to

(2015-16) to pilot their programs.

www.maineea.com/teacherevaluations

The Maine Department of Education pushed to have new language included that would allow for an entire evaluation, 100%, be based on student test scores. The MEA pushed back and now new language is included in the law that says this can only happen at the teacher’s discretion.

Collective Measures are maintained in the new language. The Maine DOE originally proposed eliminating the use of collective measures but the MEA maintained keeping collective measures will help the continuity in the process for districts who have systems in place and provide an additional tool if teachers and districts want to use such measures.

Time to Get No Child Left Behind Right!

You’ve heard of NCLB. NCLB is more formally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or ESEA. Congress is debating changes to ESEA right now and they need to hear from educators. Members in the Bangor area met with Senator Susan Collins’ staff to share the key elements necessary to ensure the new ESEA is beneficial to students.

Those changes include: 1. A new accountability system with an “opportunity dashboard” 2. Less testing to give students more time to learn 3. Decoupling high-stakes testing and accountability 4. Ensuring qualified educators and empowering them to lead

There is still time to share your opinion with Maine’s congressional delegation. To learn how: http://educationvotes.nea.org/get-esea-right

Students from Gorham TA Scott Caulfield’s Comparative Government class testified in opposition to including standardized testing in teacher evaluation. GraceAnn Burns eloquently moved the committee testifying: “…it feels as if we’re headed to an unbalanced state, one in which testing is of greater importance than teaching…As I look back on my twelve years of schooling and assess what has had the greatest impact, I can assure you that it was not filling in bubbles on standardized tests. It was the educators and teachers who reached inside and inspired me, challenged me, and set me on the course I’m on today. I learned best and was most engaged when the environment was stress-free, supportive, encouraging, and nurturing.”