MAINE LEARNING RESULTS
PrefacePURPOSE
The Learning Results identify the knowledge and skills
essential to prepare Maine students for work, for higher education, for
citizenship, and for personal fulfillment. Strongly supported by the public, the
Learning Results are built on the premises that:
- all students should aspire to high levels of
learning;
- achievement should be assessed in a variety of ways;
and
- completion of public school should have common meaning
throughout the state.
The Learning Results express what students should
know and be able to do at various checkpoints during their
education. The Learning Results serve to focus discussion and to develop
consensus on common goals for Maine education. In identifying essential
knowledge and skills to be achieved by Maine students, the Learning
Results do not represent a curriculum nor do they reduce the school's
responsibility for curriculum planning or determining instructional approaches.
In fact, the Learning Results challenge communities, schools and teachers
to work together in implementing effective instructional strategies to achieve
high expectations for all students.
This document defines only the core elements of education that
should apply to all students without regard to their specific career and
academic plans. Every student is expected to achieve goals that are broader than
those outlined by the Learning Results. At the high school level, for
instance, many students heading directly to post-secondary study or to the
workplace may require learning experiences that exceed the Learning
Results in specific content areas.
The overriding purpose of the Learning Results is to
provide teachers and parents with guidance to improve an existing education
system that is already working well for many students in most Maine communities.
The adoption of common standards and an accompanying mix of measures which
assess learning is widely regarded as the most important next step in improving
the quality of public education for all students.
BACKGROUND
Following enactment of the Education Reform Act of 1984, Maine
schools undertook a wide variety of initiatives designed to improve the quality
of teaching and learning. Many of the lessons learned from those initiatives
informed Maine's Common Core of Learning, a document published in 1990
that articulates a common vision for education in Maine by defining the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes that all students should possess upon
graduation from high school. In 1993, the Legislature directed the State Board
of Education to undertake the next step in education reform by establishing a
Task Force on Learning Results that was directed to:
"develop long-range education goals and standards for school
performance and student performance to improve learning results and recommend to
the commissioner and to the Legislature a plan for achieving those goals and
standards."
After substantial work, the Task Force presented to the
Legislature, in January of 1996, a report which contained a series of
recommendations together with a set of standards, a plan for implementation, and
proposed legislation. After a series of intense hearings during the 1996
Legislative Session, the Legislature adopted much of the work of the Task Force
and directed the Department of Education and the State Board of Education to
continue to develop the Learning Results.
Acting on the recommendations of the Task Force, the Legislature
adopted six Guiding Principles which describe the characteristics of a
well-educated person. To fulfill these principles, the Legislature required that
the Department of Education and the State Board of Education develop
Learning Results within the following eight areas:
Career Preparation
English Language Arts
Health and Physical Education
Mathematics
Modern and Classical Languages
Science and Technology
Social Studies
Visual and Performing Arts
These are not "subjects" in the same sense that we use the word
when referring to courses in school. They are areas of learning that will in
some cases cut across a number of discrete courses or disciplines.
In response to the legislative directive, the Commissioner
appointed a working group, known as the Critical Review Committee, to prepare a
draft of standards for consideration by the State Board of Education and by the
Legislature. The Committee met on numerous occasions during the summer and fall
of 1996 to produce this revised document, which was approved in May of 1997 by
the 118th Legislature.
STRUCTURE
As a structure for Learning Results, each subject area
has been divided into Content Standards which are broad descriptions of
the knowledge and skills that students should acquire. Within each content
standard is a series of Performance Indicators which help to define in
more specific terms the stages of achievement, or checkpoints, toward meeting
the content standard within each of four grade spans:
pre-school to second grade (Pre-K-2)
third and fourth grades (3-4)
fifth through eighth grades (5-8)
secondary school.
Performance indicators describe what
students should know and be able to do from one level to the next
to demonstrate attainment of a content standard. Good performance
indicators are those that:
focus on academics and are grounded in important
content;
combine both knowledge and skills;
describe development in a concrete way from one stage to the
next;
define results and not methods of teaching;
are clear and useful to parents, teachers, and students;
and
can be assessed, tested, and measured in a variety of
ways.
Broadly defined content standards are lettered, labeled, and
described in the introduction to each area of learning. Under each content
standard, the specific performance indicators are given numbers merely to
identify them and not to imply an order of significance.
Examples are given after some of the
indicators to clarify what the indicator means and how it might be addressed in
the classroom. Examples are not part of the indicator or the content
standard; they merely illustrate the standard by suggesting what a student might
do as one step toward attainment. Please note that the examples may not
demonstrate how learning can and should be integrated across content
areas.
INTEGRATED LEARNING
While the division of learning into content areas is necessary
to form a structure for writing performance standards, this does not mean that
teaching should be divided in any similar way. In many schools, both learning
and assessment are often successfully integrated across several content areas at
one time. For example, a science project may include historical research, data
collection and mathematical analysis, followed by preparation of a narrative
report with freehand illustrations, and conclude with a computer-assisted oral
presentation to the class, thus combining, in this example, elements from at
least five content areas into one project.
Teachers are encouraged to approach the standards from an
interdisciplinary perspective when designing curriculum and planning
instructional activities.
Maine's Common Core of Learning
articulated knowledge, skills, and attitudes in a non-disciplinary organization
that is helpful when thinking about integrated teaching and learning. The four
interdisciplinary areas identified in the Common Core are as
follows:
Personal and Global Stewardship
Responsible citizenship requires awareness and a concern for
oneself, others, and the environment. It involves interactions not only within
the self and family, but between the self and friends, the community, the
nation, and the world. It includes the knowledge and care of all dimensions of
our selves as humans, an understanding of the group process, and a willingness
to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Stewardship also
includes the study of current geography and foreign language and an appreciation
of pluralism and human rights.
Communication
The ability of human beings to communicate through a variety of
media with a high degree of specificity is one of our most remarkable
achievements. In a rapidly-changing world, communications skills will become
ever more essential to our students' future success.
Reasoning and Problem Solving
Knowledge is power. We must help students want to gain
knowledge, show them how to get it, and encourage them to use it to reach a new
understanding or to create a new product. We must help students learn to reflect
on their processes of learning, regardless of their field of study.
The Human Record
The study of the human record not only includes the actions and
events of the past but also the constructs of human thought and creativity as
they have evolved through time. The human record includes works of literature
and the arts; scientific laws and theories; and concepts of government, economic
systems, philosophy, and mathematics. In fact, much of what we now think of as
"subject matter" in today's curriculum belongs in this section.
CONTENT AND CRITICAL THINKING
Wherever education is publicly discussed, there is much debate
over the balance between student acquisition of factual knowledge and critical
thinking skills.
This debate is embraced, but not resolved by the Learning
Results. The truth is that both content and thinking processes are
important. Students need a common factual frame of reference grounded in the
events of history, the structure of geography, the discoveries of science, and
the richness of art, music, and literature; and they must also learn how to
think, how to search and investigate, and how to evaluate, filter, and process
the information that they uncover. All students need to learn, at least at some
level, how to investigate like a scientist, evaluate like an historian, reason
like a mathematician, and communicate like a writer and an artist.
Across the content areas of the Learning Results the
higher order reasoning and thinking skills are often embedded within the
language chosen for the performance indicator. For example, in Social Studies,
students are often challenged to "evaluate," "analyze," and "explain," as much
as to "identify," "recognize," or "describe" the content included within the
standard.
RESULTS AND METHODS
In Maine and throughout the United States, there is controversy
over the means and methods by which children are taught. In reading, there is
the familiar debate over the merits of phonics versus whole language
instruction. In mathematics, there is concern whether it is appropriate to
de-emphasize mental computing skills that can now be performed using a pocket
calculator, and in some communities parents are distressed by an apparent lack
of structure or formality within certain classrooms.
It is not the place of this document to address methods of
teaching or the organization of the classroom. Rather, this document focuses on
results - not the means or methods by which students are taught. Some teachers
prefer a structured classroom while others use a less formal setting. Further,
it is not the place of this document to specify how many students should be in a
classroom, what level of formality should prevail, or what instructional methods
are most appropriate. These are matters for teachers, parents, and local
administrators to resolve.
However, the state does have an obligation to monitor the
results of student learning within our communities. That is the role of the
state as dictated by the Maine Constitution.
FOR ALL STUDENTS
One of the most commonly asked questions regarding the
Learning Results is whether they apply to all students. These standards
establish goals for what all students should know and be able to
do, including students with unique learning needs and/or identified
disabilities.
In order for all students to have appropriate opportunities to
move toward achievement of the Learning Results and demonstrate mastery
as they progress, schools will continue to design curriculum, instruction, and
assessment opportunities that meet the needs of a diverse student population. A
comprehensive, personalized planning approach will be helpful in this effort to
identify and meet the unique needs of individual students.
Currently, students with identified disabilities have rights
under federal and state special education laws - this does not change with the
adoption of the Learning Results. A continuum of services and appropriate
adaptations and modifications will still be available to students.
ASSESSMENT
These Learning Results are just one part of an
educational system. As goals for what all students should know and be able to do
upon finishing school, they are not written to prescribe a minimum or "passing"
standard. The setting of minimum requirements is the function of assessments
that are separate from the creation of academic goals.
Because some students are ready for assessment at earlier stages
than others, no assumption is made about when a standard might be
achieved.
The statute passed in April of 1996 includes the following
provisions relating to assessment:
Student achievement of the learning results . . . must be
measured by a combination of state and local assessments to measure progress and
ensure accountability. The 4th-grade, 8th-grade, and 11th-grade results of the
Maine Education Assessment, the "MEA," are the state assessments used to measure
achievement of the learning results. The 4th-grade and 8th-grade MEA must be
used to measure achievement of the learning results beginning in the 1998-99
school year. The 11th-grade MEA must be used to measure achievement of the
learning results beginning in the 1999-2000 school year. Local school
administrative units may develop additional assessments to measure achievement
of the learning results, including student portfolios, performances,
demonstrations and other records of achievements.
An Assessment Design Team comprised of Maine educators and
assessment specialists has been established to redesign state level assessments
and to assist in development of high quality local assessments that will be used
to measure student achievement of the Learning Results. The statewide
assessment system they are developing will:
align with Maine's Learning Results;
utilize multiple measures of learning;
ensure fair and equitable assessment for all
students;
utilize recognized, relevant technical standards for
assessment;
provide understandable information to educators, parents,
students, the public, and the media;
provide professional development opportunities for teachers,
administrators, and Future educators; and
be practical and manageable.
IMPLEMENTATION AND RESOURCES
Implementation of Learning Results is a local function.
The Learning Results does not identify the resources, the methods, the
relationships, and the concerns that need to be addressed to enable all students
to achieve these standards. Schools and communities will establish their own
unique approach to such issues as school organization and climate, innovative
instruction and assessment, the fostering of higher order thinking skills,
professional development, differences in student needs and learning styles, use
of emerging technologies, and collaboration among participating groups and
individuals.
Learning Results are not a
curriculum. A full curriculum contains the detail about what students should
know and be able to do within each area of learning at every grade level. It
often prescribes materials and methods, contains reading lists and texts, while
specifying course content and instructional sequence. The Learning
Results describe a new literacy for all students in terms of knowledge and
skills which schools may use in forming local curricula and designing
assessment.
Aware that meeting the standards is neither easy nor without
expense, the Legislature has stated that implementation is conditioned on added
state funding for professional development. Further, districts may delay meeting
the standards for career preparation, modern and classical languages, and visual
and performing arts if they cannot be achieved within existing local resources.
REVISION
This document was initially revised during the summer of 1996 by
the Critical Review Committee. 3000 copies were circulated to schools primarily
for peer review by educators. Over 2000 educators answered questionnaires and
offered suggestions for further revision.
Based on those responses, the Learning Results were
modified and broadly distributed to the public for hearings and formal reviews
conducted jointly by the Department of Education and the State Board of
Education during early 1997. The revision that finally resulted from that
rule-making process was then presented to the Legislature for its review and
approval, which, as mentioned previously, was granted in May of 1997.
Be advised that this is not a static or finished document, but
rather a dynamic one designed to stimulate continuing discussion. The
Learning Results will need to be revised periodically in light of
experience, research, public commentary, and the products available from many
other groups that are creating and refining similar documents. Under their rule-making responsibilities, the Department of
Education and the State Board of Education will retain jurisdiction to make
changes in future years. Comments and suggestions are appropriately addressed
to:
Learning Results
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0023
This document is available at http://www.state.me.us/education,
the Department of Education's home page on the World Wide Web.
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