Education Commons^™

Early Childhood Field Experience Supervision: Negotiating Praxis, Amy L. Kelly

Journal of Educational Supervision

This case examines the complex partnership between the university teacher education program and the host school district. Many factors contribute to the expectations and requirements of both institutions, which can at times, conflict in fundamental ways. The theoretical and research-based methods of early childhood coursework are often different than the reality of those classrooms. Furthermore, the adoption of initiatives like, Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading standards by university teacher education programs must translate to the fieldwork. School and district-wide mandates often overrule best pedagogical and developmentally appropriate practices. With these opposing perspectives how can supervisors bridge the gap between the …

“Reading Is Everywhere:” A Case Study Situating Children's Book Distribution Within The Literacy Practices Of Somali New Mainers, Rachel C H Groenhout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Somalia has a long and rich oral literacy tradition of poetry, proverbs, and songs, while Somalia’s print literacy history has been significantly disrupted by colonization and then the Somali Civil War. Many Somalis have fled the country since the start of the civil war in 1991, and an estimated 10,000 Somalis have made a new home in Maine. When Somali citizens relocated to Maine, they were exposed to Maine’s Raising Readers children’s book distribution program. Raising Readers distributes high-quality, age-appropriate, English-language children’s books during pediatric well-child visits to foster family literacy interactions and children’s emergent literacy skills.

This study explores …

Children's Center_Updated Protocol For Close Contacts-Chapel, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Email from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding changes to protocols put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early Childhood Supervision: Tensions In The Advancement Of Developmentally Appropriate And Social-Justice Oriented Practice, Sarah Jean Baker, Sascha C. Mowrey, Denise Cunningham

Journal of Educational Supervision

This case examines the complex interactions among university faculty, teacher candidates, and school-based mentor teachers during supervision. In early childhood, among other skills and dispositions, the use of developmentally appropriate practice and an equity focus are important to the overall advancement of teacher candidates’ practice. However, supervisors do not have oversight of the classrooms in which early childhood candidates are placed for field experiences. In some cases, teacher candidates may be expected to conform to or demonstrate practices themselves which are not developmentally appropriate, or which are inequitable. What is the role of the supervising faculty member in these cases, …

Children's Center_Chapel Covid-19 Testing, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Email from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding the Children's Center no longer participating in test-to-stay for the Preschool and Chapel programs which was out in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Document Analysis Of Behavior Expectations And Disciplinary Action Policies Of Public Preschools In Maine, Kristin Davies

Honors College

Student handbooks from public preschools in the state of Maine were collected to analyze what behavior expectations, disciplinary actions, suspension policies, expulsion policies were included, and to what degree of detail these policies were explained in student handbooks. A document analysis framework was utilized to collect and interpret the data. The document analysis framework has two different content analysis techniques, and a content analysis technique was utilized to determine the number of times specific words or phrases were utilized in each of the 72 student handbooks. Key terms were chosen in order to quantify the frequency of words used in …

Reliability Evidence For The Nc Teacher Evaluation Process Using A Variety Of Indicators Of Inter-Rater Agreement, T. Scott Holcomb, Richard Lambert, Bryndle L. Bottoms

Journal of Educational Supervision

In this study, various statistical indexes of agreement were calculated using empirical data from a group of evaluators (n = 45) of early childhood teachers. The group of evaluators rated ten fictitious teacher profiles using the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process (NCTEP) rubric. The exact and adjacent agreement percentages were calculated for the group of evaluators. Kappa, weighted Kappa, Gwet’s AC1, Gwet’s AC2, and ICCs were used to interpret the level of agreement between the group of raters and a panel of expert raters. Similar to previous studies, Kappa statistics were low in the presence of high levels of …

Children's Center_Covid Update, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Letter from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding changes to protocols put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the fact that face covering will be in optional in all of the Children's Center programs.

Children's Center_Updated Covid-19 Information, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Letter from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding the opening hours of the Center and guidelines put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Quantitative Study Of Mathematics Anxiety In First-Generation Pre-Service Teachers, Wendi Malenfant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many pre-service teachers suffer from mathematics anxiety which can lead to mathematics avoidance, poor mathematics performance, and the potential to pass on mathematics anxiety to their future students. More and more first-generation college students, who also suffer from math anxiety, are attending four-year universities and studying to be teachers. School leaders, educators, and researchers must recognize the serious nature of mathematics anxiety, how it negatively impacts learners, and how the cycle is perpetuated if the root causes of mathematics anxiety are not mitigated, especially in elementary teachers.

This quantitative study, which utilized an anonymous mathematics anxiety survey, examined the prevalence …

Certification Patterns Of Grades K-8 Teachers In Maine Public Schools, Amy F. Johnson, Lisa Morris

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Kindergarten Screening Tools Used By Maine Public School Districts, Amy F. Johnson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Telehealth Support Services For Students In Maine Schools Before And After The Covid Pandemic, Patricia Lech, Amy F. Johnson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Extended Learning Opportunity (Elo) Programs In Maine High Schools, Lauren Saenz, Amy F. Johnson, Matt Pines

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Mainecare Billing In Public School Districts, Amy F. Johnson, Patricia Lech

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

School-Community Partnerships In Maine, Janet C. Fairman, Catharine C. Biddle, Ming Tso Chien

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

School Leadership Development Programs In Maine: Building Statewide Capacity And Addressing Challenges, Janet C. Fairman, Ian M. Mette, Maria C. Frankland

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Services For New Mainers Community, Hibo Omer

Student and Trainee Scholarship

Mission: Sandcastle Clinical & Education Services: we decided that children with special needs would no longer be separated and that our classrooms would be composed of a mixture of children. Sandcastle’s goal was and still is to this day that children graduating from our program at age five, who had special needs, would transition directly into a regular classroom and not be segregated from their peers. We are proud to have been on the cutting edge of inclusion, and proud to be educating children to be open minded, with open hearts.

Vision: Sandcastle was the first early childhood education program …

Child Development Services - Partnering For Improvement Through Survey Data Collection, Gabrielle Jackson

Student and Trainee Scholarship

Child Development Services (CDS) Part C’s wish to see improvement with the Fidelity check Database system. Fidelity checks are performed on providers to assess the fidelity they are implementing for the Routines Based Intervention System (created by Robin McWilliams) in their work with families and children.

Barriers To Accessing Early Intervention And Early Childhood Special Education: Professionals' Perspectives, Tracey Miller

Student and Trainee Scholarship

Supervised by the Maine Department of Education, Child Development Services (CDS) provides Early Intervention (EI) for children from birth through age 2 and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) for children ages 3-5 through a network of regional sites.

Access to EI and ECSE services educates and empowers families to understand and respond to their children’s developmental needs and supports improved cognition, language, communication, social-emotional skills, and school readiness. These early gains can lead to better outcomes later in childhood and into adulthood.

How Students With Iep’S And Their Teachers Are Faring In Maine Schools During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Patricia Lech, Amy F. Johnson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

The goal of the study was to better understand how instruction to students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) was delivered during remote learning this past spring and during the fall semester of the 2020-21 school year, and how these vulnerable students have been impacted. Research questions looked at special education teacher impressions of what was effective, the challenges in delivery of remote education, and how student academic progress was affected. Special education teachers and special education directors were also asked how to best help students who fell behind and what additional resources or supports they needed. Teachers reported that most …

Children's Center_Urgent-Center, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Letter from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding the Center programs taking a 72-hour pause in its operations from November 10 to November 12, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Educator Recruitment And Retention In Maine Schools, Amy Johnson, Kathryn Hawes, Sigrid Olson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Educator Recruitment And Retention In Maine, Amy F. Johnson, Kathryn Hawes, Singrid Olson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Maine Principals’ Perceptions Of Beginning Teacher Preparation, Janet C. Fairman, Tammy M. Mills, Patricia L. Lech, Amy F. Johnson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Inclusion/Services And Family Engagement: Leadership Opportunities, Nicole Drown

Poster Presentations

Project was created to provide: data driven materials to Maine's Child Development Services; resources and supports to families; and exploration into Applied Behavioral Analysis for Behavioral Intervention Support learning.

The Educational Needs Of Children Ages 0-5 Born With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome In Maine, Julia Casey

Honors College

The goal of this study is to better understand the educational needs of children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in Maine. This study will consider two questions. First, what is currently being done to help children born with NAS in Maine? To answer this question, I looked into previous studies that evaluate the needs of children born with prenatal drug exposure. I also looked into Maine’s Strategic Action Opioid Plan to determine what initiatives the state is taking towards helping these children. Second, what should Maine be doing to help the children born with NAS? To answer this question, …

Consider "Grow-Your-Own" (Gyo) Models By Examining Existing Teacher Preparation Programs In Maine, Sarah Jessen, Janet Fairman, Cathie Fallona, Amy Johnson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Considering "Grow-Your-Own" (Gyo) Models Examining Existing Teacher Preparation Models In Maine, Sarah B. Jessen, Janet C. Fairman, Cathie Fallona, Amy F. Johnson

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Response To Intervention And Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support In Maine Schools: Portraits Of Promising Practices, Kathryn Hawes, Amy F. Johnson, Angela Atkinson Duina

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

In response to requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Maine enacted a rule requiring all schools to have a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in place by 2012 for a general education, pre-referral system of student support. The purpose of this system, generally termed Response to Intervention (RtI) by many practitioners, was to increase student achievement and decrease the growing number of students referred for special education services. It was anticipated that the system would also reduce overall costs for student support by providing early interventions. The Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) was asked by …