By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — As proficiency-based learning continues to take shape in the state, school boards are getting the necessary policies and procedures in place to help implement the new model that is being promoted by the Maine Department of Education. At the Jan. 15 SAD 1 board meeting, Larry Fox, curriculum director, explained that with some of the overall changes, the language in several existing policies will be updated, and subsequently need to be approved by local school boards.
Fox said the major change in the “Promotion, Retention, and Acceleration of Students” policy — which was approved by directors at the meeting — centers around a new term, learning experiences.
“What is changing is what we used to refer to as ‘credits,’” said Fox. “A student took a course and they earned a credit at the end of the year when they completed that course. They needed to have 22 credits in order to graduate from Presque Isle High School. Now we’ll be using the term ‘learning experiences’ or ‘courses.’
“While the ‘learning experiences’ are a work in progress, they may include things like an internship. As opposed to just credits that are given for seat time, students may be earning proficiencies and working toward fulfilling standards, and one of the ways you might do that could be an internship which would not be a course or credit, but it would be a ‘learning experience,’” he said. “By offering these learning experiences, I think there’s going to be more variety and more possibilities for students to demonstrate that they are meeting the standards than just seat time in a class.”
According to the proficiency-based education model, beginning Jan. 1, 2018, demonstrated proficiency in the content standards of the system of Learning Results and Common Core State Standards and in the cross-curricular standards skills identified in the Guiding Principles of the Learning Results, and successful completion of all other requirements specified in the board’s graduation requirement policy, will be required for a high school diploma. Starting with the 2014-15 school year, credits will no longer be awarded or counted for graduation or other purposes.
High school grade level assignments will be based on the number of learning experiences/courses completed prior to the beginning of the school year. For sophomore status, a student must have completed four learning experiences/courses, eight for junior status, and 14.5 for senior status.
“With the present system, for sophomore status a student must have successfully completed four credits, for junior status eight credits, and for senior status 14.5 credits,” said Fox, “so there really isn’t anything that’s changed as far as say the amount of work or exposure that students have. Students will, however, have more opportunities to demonstrate the proficiencies in other ways. That’s the biggest change so far.”
Current PIHS students are under the existing system, Fox said, while incoming freshmen next school year will be under the new model.
Fox said other policy changes regarding graduation requirements will be brought to the board at either the February or March meeting.
