Mixed signs on a reform agenda

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week reiterated his line to states interested in getting their piece of the stimulus pie: Prove you're serious about reform.

"We want to reward those states that are willing to lead the country where we need to go and are willing to push this reform agenda very, very hard," Duncan told the Associated Press.

What does pushing a reform agenda mean in the feds' eyes?

While it could be broad, the discussion invariably returns to a few concepts: data systems, merit pay for teachers, graduation standards and charter schools.

Sound familiar?

It should to those who follow education policy in Maine. They're among the highest profile education-related issues the Maine Legislature has dealt with this session.

• States that wanted any piece at all of stimulus funding for education had to prove to the U.S. Department of Education that they were at work on longitudinal data systems, which track students' progress throughout their education and beyond. The Maine Legislature this session is taking up legislation -- which has the support of the Maine Department of Education from the executive branch -- that would allow Maine to use Social Security numbers to track students. The idea has received initial committee-level approval.

• President Barack Obama in March indicated he wants to see states experiment with performance-based pay systems for teachers. The Maine Department of Education agreed. So have the Legislature's Education Committee and the Maine Senate.

• On graduation standards, the Legislature is considering a bill -- again, which the executive branch is backing -- that would shift Maine to a standards-based system. Students would be awarded diplomas after achieving a specific set of goals, rather than passing a particular number of classes. So far, legislators have asked for more clarity on the proposal and indicated they'll revisit the more substantive parts of the legislation next year. Meanwhile, the state's Department of Education will continue heading in a standards-based direction regardless of the Legislature's ultimate decision.

• Whether Maine becomes the 41st state to allow charter schools at all is still up in the air. While the state Department of Education is pushing legislators to allow the independently run schools, the bill's fate -- after an Education Committee vote against the proposal -- is in doubt.

Is Maine, then, pushing a reform agenda when it comes to education by Obama administration standards?

The state Department of Education would like to think so, but lawmakers appear to have a conflicting agenda.