Skip Maine state header navigation

Agencies | Online Services | Help

Skip First Level Navigation | Skip All Navigation

Home > Learning Standards and Guidelines

Learning Standards and Guidelines

When the Maine State Legislature adopted the Maine Learning Results in 1996, it established learning standards for all Maine students educated at public expense. These standards identify the knowledge and skills essential to prepare Maine students for work, for higher education, for citizenship, and for personal fulfillment.  Since 1996, learning standards have moved to the forefront of education reform.  To learn about Maine’s current efforts to develop a standards-based system of education, go to:

Standards-Based Education in Maine

 

Maine Course Pathways

As required by Maine statute, students in Maine will demonstrate achievement of Maine’s Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction. The Maine Course Pathways Project is developing a system to document that all high school students, through course syllabi, are given fair opportunity to demonstrate achievement of the Learning Results through multiple pathways that honor student choice, learning preferences and career aspirations.

Click here for more information about Maine Course Pathways.

 

 

Maine Learning Results

Maine’s learning standards were revised in 2007, and are now called Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction, commonly referred to as the MLR’s.  Several changes have occurred since adoption in 1996.  

The MLR’s were originally articulated in four grade spans.  To satisfy federal accountability requirements, Maine developed Grade Level Expectations (GLE’s) which further articulated mathematics and reading standards by each grade, 3-8 and developed the Maine Education Assessment to correspond to this change.  The GLE’s and state assessment information can be found at Maine’s Comprehensive Assessment System (MeCAS): http://www.maine.gov/education/lsalt/index.htm

As part of the original adoption process, Maine reviewed and revised the MLR resulting in the document Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction (MLR: PEI).   These revised standards reflect the knowledge and skills essential for college, career, and citizenship in the 21st century. They are in effect as of October 22, 2007.

In 2009, Maine joined the New England Comprehensive Assessment Program (NECAP) to assess reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 in partnership with Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.  This action required a change to our accountability standards identified in law as Chapter 131.  Download the text of Chapter 131 by clicking here.

View the NECAP standards for reading, writing, and mathematics at http://www.maine.gov/education/lsalt/necap/standards.html.

 

2007 Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction:

http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/pei/index.html

The Maine Learning Results: Guiding Principles

The knowledge and skills described in the Maine Department of Education Regulation 132 support Maine students in achieving the goals established in Maine’s Guiding Principles.

Guiding Principles PDF

Guiding Principles RTF

 

Specific Content Area Resources

The 2007 Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction is also available on CD. To obtain a copy, contact Peter Bernard at the MDOE.

1997 Learning Results: http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/lres.htm

 

Maine Learning Results Rules Documents – Chapter 125 Basic Approval Standards: Public School and School Administrative Units; Chapter 127 Instruction Program, Assessment and Diploma Requirements.

 

UMS CollegeReady! Preparing for Success in Maine's Public Universities.  This University of Maine System site has links for UMS expectations for college readiness in mathematics and writing and the UMS statement for college readiness. 

 

Early Childhood Learning Guidelines in Word or in PDF - The State of Maine Early Childhood Learning Guidelines serves as a guide for state and local early care and education practitioners’ efforts to improve early childhood professional practice and programs for young children ages three through their entrance into kindergarten. This document considers the core elements contained in the State of Maine Learning Results (K-12). The Guidelines reflect current research on early learning and best practice in early education. The document can be used within and across a wide range of early learning settings—public preschool, Head Start, subsidized child care programs, private child care programs, nursery schools, family child care homes, and informal care settings. The Early Childhood Learning Guidelines are intended to effect greater collaboration and consistency across systems by aligning practice across all early childhood settings and the early grades.

Early Childhood Learning Guidelines Appendix in Word or in PDF

 

At this time, students in the class of 2010 will be required to demonstrate achievement of the standards of the 1997 Maine Learning Results in English Language Arts and Mathematics in order to graduate.  Students demonstrate achievement based on locally determined measures.

Once the Legislature adopts the proposed revised Maine Learning Results and revised graduation requirements, the Maine Department of Education will provide further guidance.

Many of the documents provided on this website are in PDF format. In order to access these materials, you will need the Adobe Reader program installed on your computer. For further information, or to download Adobe Reader for free, click on the Adobe Reader icon below.

Get Adobe Reader

 

Updated 10/20/09...pb