> TO:  ALL SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS
>
> The following message is being sent at the request of the Commissioner.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> ***** Please forward to Principals and Assessment Team Leaders *****
>
> Note:  The Administrative and Informational Letters are available also on
> our website at the following address:
> http://www.maine.gov/education/edletrs/homepage.htm
> <http://www.maine.gov/education/edletrs/homepage.htm>
>
> INFORMATIONAL LETTER NO.  76
> POLICY CODE:  ILBA
>
>
> To:   Superintendents and Curriculum Coordinators
>
> From: Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner of Education
>
> Date: May 14, 2003
>
> Re:   Additional Clarification on "Proposed Criteria and Guidelines for
> Adoption of Local Assessment Systems in Compliance with Chapter 127"
>
>
> On May 3rd I forwarded to you Informational Letter #66, which was intended
> to communicate important preliminary steps the Department is engaged in to
> complete work on the most recent set of technical guidelines submitted to
> me by our local assessment system contractors.  In that letter I stated,
> "In order to make every effort to ensure that the document is clear and
> helpful, DOE staff have begun a series of critical review sessions...Then
> on May 9th a joint meeting of the Policy Advisory Committee, the Technical
> Advisory Committee, and our local assessment contractors will synthesize
> the feedback and prepare the final draft of the report for review and
> approval by me."
>
> Now that the document, titled "Proposed Criteria and Guidelines for
> Adoption of Local Assessment Systems in Compliance with Chapter 127," has
> been under discussion as stated in the previous informational letter-and
> no doubt discussed more broadly at the local level-it is becoming clear
> from the feedback the Department is receiving that many local educators
> believe that the draft version of the report is in fact a completed
> document.  We knew that the benefits of these additional opportunities for
> review and comment by practitioners-which have been extremely
> helpful-might be offset by the risk of such confusion.   I reiterate that
> the current version of the document is a draft.  After our first round of
> feedback from a small group of curriculum coordinators, many substantive
> as well as formatting changes were made.  We anticipate that additional
> changes will be made as we continue our review of feedback and consider
> broader policy implications.  Please do not to any steps to implement
> these guidelines based on this draft version of the document.  Our working
> assumption is that we will get the final draft out to districts prior to
> our summer assessment system design institutes, but much work and
> discussion remains to be accomplished.
>
> To those of you who have commented on technical report, we appreciate your
> taking time to do so.  We will make every effort to ensure the comments
> are incorporated fully in our review of the document.
>
> On another subject addressed briefly in Informational Letter #66, let me
> remind you that the Policy Advisory Committee hopes to complete work on
> the review of MEA cut scores in the very near future.  This task has a
> number of important implications for AYP decisions and for local
> assessment system standard setting.  You can be certain that this work;
> too, will be moving forward as rapidly as humanly possible.