Maine was among seven states that did not file teacher quality data

on time.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Education says it did not miss the federal government’s deadline to file a report on highly qualified teachers in Maine.

However, the report didn’t tell how many qualified teachers the state has.

Maine and six other states made headlines last month after The Education Trust, a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., reported that they missed a federal deadline to file information about their teacher quality. The U.S. Department of Education has since criticized the trust’s conclusions.

Jackie Soychak, learning systems policy director for the Maine Department of Education, said state officials filed the reports required under the No Child Left Behind Act by the Sept. 1 and Dec. 22 deadlines. But the state’s new data system was not working, so the department could not include the number of highly qualified teachers.

“Until MEDMS is up and running, we simply don’t have the capacity to reveal that information.” said Soychak, referring to the Maine Education Data Management System.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, teachers are deemed “highly qualified” if they have a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate. They also must have majored in the subject they teach or must have passed a competency test.

According to Jim Rier, policy director for the Maine Department of Education, the state’s new data system will allow officials to more easily collect and manage school information. The $2.3 million MEDMS program has been in development since the summer of 2002. Education officials had hoped it would be ready to deal with teacher quality information by last October.

But there have been delays in getting people trained to work with the new system. Officials hope to have it running teacher quality information after Feb. 1.

ltice@sunjournal.com

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