The question I am choosing to investigate this week is one that I have often wondered about - who has decided what information should be included in the standards or MLRs? When looking at various standards, such as my favorite science standard, that all students should be able to measure interstellar distances, I often wonder, who wrote this? Who really thinks that measuring interstellar distances, or being able to identify taxonomic levels of an organism from domain to species, is an essential science skill? If I were in charge.... (so many statements begin this way!) ...things would be more straightforward!
So... where did these MLR's come from? Here's what I discovered. In 1984, the Education Reform Act took place, and Maine decided to address the reform by defining Maine's Common Core of Learning , published in 1990. This was intended to be a vision of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that Maine students should develop. In 1993 the State Board of Ed developed a Task Force on learning results, and it was this task force that developed the 1997 Learning Results.
So, who was on the task force? After quite a bit of investigation, I have found out that the task force was quite large. It included individuals from the Great Maine Schools project, school superintendents, CEOs, university trustees, university professors, business owners, and school leaders including principals. Once the Learning Results were developed, it them went to a Critical Review Committee, that included many groups. The Maine Parent Teacher Association, MPA, Maine Children's Alliance, Maine Math and Science Alliance, MAMLE, Maine Teacher of the Year Association, Maine Association of School Health Coordinators, Maine Educators, Champion Paper, UNUM, and the UMaine Board of Trustees are some of the many groups charged with review and revision of the Learning Results.
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