INFORMATIONAL LETTER:  27

POLICY CODE:  ILBA

 

TO:                  Superintendents of Schools (Please forward to Asst. Superintendents, Curriculum Coordinators, School Principals, and Special Education Directors)

 

FROM:            Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

 

DATE:             September 10, 2004

 

RE:                   Local Assessment System Documents

 

            Enclosed are copies of Local Assessment System Implementation Study (2003-2004): Technical Report, and The Development and Implementation of Local Assessment Systems: Statewide Progress Report for All Maine Schools, September 2004.

 

            As you may remember, we conducted a Local Assessment System Implementation Study (LASIS) during the 2003-2004 school year. This study examined how the 18 school districts in our study were responding to the challenges of developing a Local Assessment System using the principles and criteria set forth in the Local Assessment (LAS) Guide distributed to schools in June of 2003. The Local Assessment System Implementation Study (2003-2004): Technical Report includes a detailed description of the study, the results, an analysis of the results, identification of the “boosters” and “barriers” to LAS development work, and an “Implications and DOE Actions” section.

 

            The Development and Implementation of Local Assessment Systems: State-Wide Progress Report for All Maine Schools,  June 2004 provides the results from the Local Assessment System survey that was sent to all school administrative units in Maine in June.  This status report includes four sections followed by a summary: Section 1 is the Demographics; Section 2 is the Progress Toward Implementation; Section 3 is the Collaboration, Help Needed and Confidence Levels; and Section 4 is the Local Assessment System Boosters and Barriers.

 

            These reports are further examples of our both continued commitment to make the Department a learning organization based on careful gathering and analysis of data, and our commitment to providing up-to-date information to educators across the State.

 

            In addition, I am enclosing a pamphlet Maine Education Data Management System Data Collector which explains a temporary tool that will be available in late September for schools to use.  This MEDMS Data Collector provides a way for school administrative units that do not already have a local assessment data management system to capture student scores.

 

            We hope you will find these documents useful as you make decisions about your Local Assessment System development and implementation.