Liveblogging the Education Committee meeting today…
3pm
The latest, greatest ed reform idea from Augusta? RISC!
The Re-Inventing Schools Coalition is the commissioner’s chosen model for more fully implementing Maine’s Learning result, which, even though they have been on the books for years, still have yet to implemented in Maine’s schools to the extent that students must master them to graduate.
Interestingly, the commissioner is getting some push-back from the committee on this – they want to know implementation costs and so forth and are apparently hearing from school officials back home that there is little interest in the approach. There is some reluctance among the committee to embrace this.
In fact, the commissioner is on the defensive a little – “this is a model, not a mandate,” she says. Given the extensive debate on diploma requirements last session, one wonders whether the commissioner will be able to get this past the committee. She doesn’t seem to have a lot of takers here.
Rep. Casavant wants to know whether a program like this even makes much of a difference at the end of the day, given all the other factors influencing student outcomes.
At last, an interesting discussion about education policy…