From Patsy.Dunton at maine.gov Thu Jan 8 13:26:16 2009 From: Patsy.Dunton at maine.gov (Dunton, Patsy) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 13:26:16 -0500 Subject: [Englishlanguagearts] ELA Update 6 January 2009 Message-ID: <32E5C6B0B949584D9B6168C5F727916B047BC744@SOM-TEAQASMAIL1.som.w2k.state.me.us> Welcome to Maine Department of Education English Language Arts Listserv This service is an attempt to keep Maine educators informed about current issues, upcoming opportunities and resources in ELA. Please send any responses to: patsy.dunton at maine.gov or diana.dioron at maine.gov as this is not a discussion forum. Current Topics: Graduation Stakeholders' Committee MEA/SAT (MHSA) update NECAP NCTE National Day on Writing New England Secondary School Consortium MCELA Spring Conference Graduation: recommendations from the stakeholders' group The stakeholders completed their work and presented their recommendations for creating a system of graduation that is standards-based. The report is presented as a Powerpoint (only) and is available in its entirety at: http://www.state.me.us/education/diploma/finalreport.pdf. If you would like more information about the group's intentions or how it arrived at its conclusions, review the notes from each work session which can be found at: http://www.state.me.us/education/diploma/index.html. What's next? The legislature will hold a public hearing on this bill at a time yet to be determined. In January, the stakeholders group will hold information sessions around the state to discuss its recommendations. We'll keep you posted on details as they develop. MEA and SAT/MHSA The MEA will take place as usual in March and will include reading and mathematics in grades three through eight and science in grades five and eight. Writing will not be assessed on the MEA in March. The SAT will take place as usual in May and will include reading, writing and mathematics. The Maine High School Assessment also includes the "augment" or supplement to the SAT which includes more mathematics problems and a science test. The MEA and SAT/MHSA will continue to be our state assessment for high school into the foreseeable future. NECAP: New England Common Assessment Program Maine has joined New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island to develop and administer a state test in reading and mathematics in grades three through eight and writing in grades five and eight. Read the press release announcing the confirmation of this partnership at: http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=DOENews&id=65258&v=a rticle. Information about Maine's efforts to join NECAP will be forthcoming as details develop. However, we urge you to keep in mind that AYP for the 2008/2009 school year will be determined by the MEA and SAT/MHSA. Please pay due diligence to this effort first. Here are some current developments related to NECAP: Maine's standards will have to transform somewhat in order to align with the NECAP standards. We will do this in two stages. First, we have proposed replacing the mathematics and reading standards contained in Chapter 131: The Maine Federal, State, and Local Accountability Standards with the NECAP state assessment standards. This document can be found at: http://www.state.me.us/education/rulechanges/chapter131.pdf. We are currently working on aligning Chapter 131 with Chapter 132: Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction. If you have viewed the NECAP standards as they are posted in one of our partner states, please keep in mind that the state assessment standards are embedded in each state's standards documents which includes, like ours, the instructional standards assessed at the local level. If you would like to see released items from the NECAP test, go to these links: Overview: Test design: http://www.sau33.com/graphics/High%20School%202006%20NECAP%20ADMININISTR ATION.pdf. How to use release item information: http://www.ride.ri.gov/assessment/DOCS/NECAP/Test_Admin/8.08_UsingNECAPM aterials.pdf Reading: http://www.ride.ri.gov/assessment/necap_reading.aspx Writing: http://www.ride.ri.gov/assessment/necap_writing.aspx Ignore grade 11 and keep in mind that only a portion of the reading test is released each year while the entire writing test is released. A white paper call "A Rationale For Fall Testing": http://www.ccsso.org/content/PDFs/189_Handout.pdf. NCTE National Day On Writing Save the date: October 20, 2009 The National Council of Teachers of English is sponsoring an event to draw attention to the variety of writing we engage in, often without notice. For more information about this exciting event, visit the NCTE website at http://www.ncte.org/action/dayonwriting. If you have ideas about how Maine can join this celebration of writing, please let Patsy or Diana know. We would certainly like to jump on this bandwagon! New England Secondary School Consortium Another exciting new development recently announced is a collaborative effort by Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island to foster forward-thinking innovations in the design and delivery of secondary education across the New England region. This is entirely separate from the NECAP partnership and is funded by a million dollar grant. To see video of the announcement: http://www.state.me.us/education/highschool/index.html. Or to visit the consortium's home page: http://www.newenglandssc.org/ Maine Council of English Language Arts Spring Conference Save the date! March 20, 2009 The annual Spring conference will be held at the Bath campus of the Southern Maine Community College. Visit the MCELA website for more information: http://sites.google.com/site/mainecela/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.informe.org/pipermail/englishlanguagearts/attachments/20090108/5e98933e/attachment.html