As part of your awareness of the local comprehensive assessment work, school
librarians may want to read the Commissioner's Informational Letter #66,
Local Assessment System Update sent today to Superintendents. - Sylvia


> TO:  ALL SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS
>
> The following message is being sent at the request of the Commissioner.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> 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: 66
> POLICY CODE:  ILBA
>
> TO:           Superintendents of Schools
>
> FROM: Susan Gendron, Commissioner
>
> DATE: May 2, 2003
>
> RE:           Local Assessment System Update
>
>
> I am very mindful that the next phase of local assessment system
> development is crucial for you and your districts.  Department staff and
> our contractors for various aspects of the work will continue to give the
> highest possible priority to providing the technical guidance and support
> you need to complete the development of your local assessment system.
> This update is intended to keep you informed of a few upcoming events that
> bear on the work.
>
> A key piece of supportive information has recently been developed by the
> Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) in consultation with our local
> assessment contractors.  This technical report, which outlines proposed
> criteria and guidelines for complying with Chapter 127, will address the
> questions of sufficiency, balance of representation, range and type of
> assessments, as well as provide several content area model assessment
> plans.  In order to make every effort to ensure that the report is clear
> and helpful, DOE staff have begun a series of critical review sessions
> with groups of practitioners, the first with a group of curriculum
> coordinators on April 16th.  In addition, this year's Curriculum
> Coordinators' Conference on May 5th will be used to obtain additional
> critical feedback on the report from a broader group of practitioners.
> Also planned is a session with a mixed group of superintendents,
> principals, and teachers, which will be held on May 8th. (DOE staff will
> be soliciting names of suggested participants from MPA, MEA, and MSSA for
> this session.)  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.
>
> Our plan is to mail the technical report to all superintendents at least a
> week in advance of our summer DOE assessment system design institutes to
> allow local teams to review the document in advance, then use the
> institute session to compare local assessment systems to the complete set
> of technical requirements.  We will, of course, be devoting considerable
> time to this subject at the Superintendents' Conference as well.
>
> We are committed to completing this crucial work as rapidly as possible
> while making sure that when it is completed it provides the most complete,
> comprehensive, and usable guidance for local assessment system design
> teams.  With that in mind, I encourage you to register a team for one of
> the summer assessment system design institutes, information for which
> should have reached you by now or will be in the very near future.  I will
> also make every effort to provide up-to-the-minute information on other
> components of the system, including our NCLB plan and the very important
> Maine Educational Data Management System (MEDMS).   If you have questions,
> please contact Pam Rolfe, Local Assessment Coordinator at 624-6785.