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.