AUGUSTA — Gov.-elect Janet Mills will soon name her pick for Maine’s next education leader, and her administration will look at the state’s system that assesses students and schools to determine whether it’s reasonable, Mills spokesman Scott Ogdon said Friday.

Recent results of Maine Education Assessments tests show that only 37 percent of students in the state scored at or above grade level in math, and only 50 percent scored at or above grade level in English. At Fairview Elementary, which had the highest MEA scores of any Auburn school, only 38 percent of students scored at or above grade level in math.

When a majority of students don’t meet the standards, some officials, educators and parents have questioned the value, and they wonder if the tests are too rigorous.

In early January, the Maine Department of Education is poised to release new school district “report cards” that rely on MEA scores.

Meanwhile, Auburn Superintendent Katy Grondin and others say the state has lacked education leadership with an understaffed department and the frequent turnover of commissioners under the LePage administration.

Auburn no longer uses the Maine Department of Education as a resource, Grondin said. State education staffers “are doing the best they can, but many of their positions had been unfilled,” she said. The Department of Education used to be regarded “with pride,” Grondin said. Now, “it’s not seen as leadership for the education system.”

After Mills is sworn into office on Jan. 2, she and her commissioner of education will review test process “and assess whether or not it fairly evaluates schools and encompasses the many factors that impact learning and the success of students and schools,” according to Ogden.

Mills has interviewed candidates for commissioner and will announce her selection soon. Her goal, Ogdon said, is to select someone who’ll provide strong leadership and guidance for school departments “to ensure that we are providing Maine students the best education possible to position them — and our state — for success in the future.”

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said he’s looking forward to learning who will be the next education commissioner. He said he hopes it will be “someone with a good understanding of public education in Maine, someone who will be visible” and someone who will listen to feedback.

Webster also said he’s looking forward to having a state education department that’s responsive to the needs of the state. He added that whenever he’s reached out to the department, “they have been responsive.”

But the department “has been under a lot of pressure in recent years,” Webster said. “They’re understaffed, and been walking a tightrope in what the Legislature wants, constituents want, and what the governor expects from them. Put that all together” and it’s been a difficult time, he said.

Grondin hopes the next commissioner is someone who’s “going to be there,” saying there’s been too much turnover of education commissioners. “We need someone committed to education and moving the state forward.”

The commissioner should be focused first on students, and someone who evaluates proposed laws “carefully about what’s being asked of school districts.” Districts are already doing a lot, Grondin said, and new laws should not be underfunded, which places more costs on property taxpayers.

Grondin said she’s pleased the Mills administration will evaluate the state’s assessment system and new report cards coming next month.

The report cards are, in part, because of federally-required Every Student Success Act, Grondin said.

When MEA scores are compared among districts, the public doesn’t always understand that poorer districts will do worse than affluent ones, Grondin said.

In the new report cards “people are going to see green and red,” with green meaning the district is doing well, red not so well.

Webster said he’s waiting to see the report cards and understands struggling schools may not qualify for help as in the past.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

Education commissioners under Gov. Paul LePage

• Current: Robert Hasson
• 2016: Debra Plowman
• 2016: Bill Bearsley, acting commissioner
• In 2016, LePage said he’d nominate himself as education commissioner, after Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster told LePage at a meeting that DOE “has not had dedicated leadership for a while now, and that department needs leadership. How do you see that being solved?”
• 2014: Tom Desjardin
• 2013: Jim Rier
• 2012: Stephen Bowen

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