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Home > Rules & Legislation > Letters from the Commissioner > Informational Letter 050

Training for Cohort and Transfer Certification

INFORMATIONAL LETTER: 50
POLICY CODE: JF

TO: Superintendents of Schools
FROM: Susan A, Gendron, Commissioner
DATE: November 24, 2009
RE: Training for Cohort and Transfer Certifications

Topics in this letter:

  • Clarification on Cohort Report Submissions
  • Training Available
  • Who Should Attend
  • New Deadline for Report Certification (December 31, 2009)

Clarification on Cohort Report Submissions

Validation and certification of the Cohort Report was due November 15, 2009 and the Transfer-in Report, and Transfer-Out Report was due October 15, 2009. There has been confusion on the use and submission requirements for the data. To assist in clarifying your questions and show you how to calculate your own graduation rate, we have created two new training webinars.

Training Available

Even if you have already submitted your certifications, it is strongly recommended that someone from any School Administrative Unit (SAU) that has a secondary school participate (see “Who should attend” below). A review of the required data, use of the reports, and a working example of how to calculate a graduation rate will be included.

We currently have the webinars scheduled on two different days (you only need to register for one):
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 10:00 am
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 12:30 pm

To register for the webinar:

  1. Go to http://www.maine.gov/education/lds/training.html
  2. Click on “Registration”
  3. Click on “Using Verification Reports”
  4. Choose either :
    1. JITGradCohort-Dec8-10am
    2. JITGradCohort-Dec15-12:30pm

Who should attend?

Staff from the Superintendent’s office are welcome to participate, but these sessions will be geared toward those in your School Administrative Unit who do the data entry, analysis, and validation. It is essential that these staff members understand the concept and procedures to avoid any adverse affect to your School Administrative Unit’s graduation rate calculation.  It is highly recommended that staff from your secondary school administration and your guidance office participate.

New Deadline for Report Certification:

In order to allow School Administrative Units to submit accurate data, we have extended the certification deadlines. The following reports will be due by December 31, 2009:

  • Cohort Report
  • Cohort Transfer-in
  • Cohort Transfer-out

If you have already submitted your certifications, you can resubmit newer ones if, after you attend the webinar, you decide the data you previously certified are not accurate.

Please direct any questions to either Dan Chuhta or Richard Bergeron by calling 207-624-6790 or email Daniel.Chuhta@maine.gov or Richard.Bergeron@maine.gov .