Work by Matthew Stone

March 22, 2010

Maine schools retooled and started teaching to new academic standards in 1997, 2007 and again last year.

Now, they're bracing for another change.

Educators across central Maine are reviewing a draft of national academic standards that all but two states have expressed interested in adopting.

They're praising the benchmarks for their specificity and clarity, but are concerned about implementing another shift in what teachers must teach.

"We're pivoting once again," said Mary Boyle, a literacy and instructional specialist for schools in Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro. "I think it's going to take awhile for teachers to sort of get a grip on how the framework is a little bit different."

A bill to allow Maine to sign onto the national set of standards known as the Common Core, L.D. 1800, is making its way through the state Legislature after receiving initial committee approval earlier this month.

Signing onto the national initiative could offer a financial reward: The Common Core standards are a focal point in the federal Race to the Top competition among the states for $4 billion aimed at education reform.

Curriculum specialists in Maine say it's too early to know exactly what impact the Common Core standards -- which address primarily English and math -- will have in classrooms. That's because the standards -- which are being developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers -- are still in draft form.

They say it's unlikely, however, that adopting Common Core standards would require significant overhauls of Maine classrooms.

Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has the same assessment. "It's not going to be a major adjustment," she said.

In the standards for writing, she said, Maine schools might need to implement more demanding standards in kindergarten and first and second grades.

But "Nothing else at this moment has been pointed out as needing significant changes," she said.

In teaching elementary-level math, many Maine school districts already use a curriculum that seems to align well with the Common Core standards, said Pam Kenney, owner of Cribstone Educational Services in Harpswell, which offers testing and tutoring services. And, she said, the Common Core standards even seem to address that curriculum's shortcomings.

"This is not going to be as major a change (in Maine) as it would be in some states," said Kenney, who's also a member of the Maine Coalition for World Class Math. "The weaknesses of the Everyday Math curriculum seem to be ameliorated in these standards."

The draft Common Core standards lay out expectations by grade; Maine's standards, Maine Learning Results, explain expectations by grade ranges.

For example, Common Core says a first-grade student needs to learn the properties of addition and subtraction. Maine Learning Results say students need to learn that knowledge between kindergarten and second grade.

"There's less haziness because it is more specific," said Sue Williamson, a math specialist in Gardiner-based Regional School Unit 11. "I think, at first, it seems overwhelming. But when you think about Maine Learning Results ... you have to know what needs to be taught that's not specified."

For English and writing, the Common Core standards suggest specific books appropriate for each grade level, and they show how a student at each grade level should be able to write with samples of student writing.

"Having some specifics about what grade-level complexity is and having some writing samples to guide teachers, I think that could be really useful once we get familiar with it," said Tina Meserve, the curriculum coordinator for Augusta's schools.

"When they say that students should be able to develop a narrative essay, now they're showing you what should be a benchmark for a sixth-grader or an eighth-grader," said Boyle, the instruction specialist for the Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro school district.

While adopting the Common Core standards could be beneficial, Meserve said, it won't be simple.

"We now need all new materials, and we need to do professional development for staff in that field," she said. "There's a lot of repercussions for realigning curriculum constantly."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com

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