Monthly Archives: February 2015

Legislature under LePage administration delivers educational mandates but won’t foot the bill!

The legislature in Augusta passed LD 1422: Proficiency-Based Diplomas in May of 2012. This law requires students to demonstrate proficiency in all eight content areas of the Maine Learning Results in order to receive a high school diploma. The eight content areas in which a student will be obliged to show proficiency are: Career and Education Development; […]

Should schools teach empathy?

The education reform agenda promoted by the federal government, the testing industry, and many state governors is off the mark. Our greatest need in education is not measurement and accountability and standards. While these can be useful tools for improvement, they should hardly occupy center stage. Our focus should instead be on making sure we are giving our youth an education […]

Will we have quality teachers in the future?

  The degrading treatment teachers have suffered over the past decade at the hands of politicians and bureaucrats is turning talented, ambitious young people off from pursuing careers in the classroom. “Teaching in general has been losing favor. From 2010 to 2013, the number of student candidates enrolled in teacher training programs fell 12.5 percent, according to federal […]