MAINE COURSE PATHWAYS PROJECT
The Maine Department of Education is engaged in the Maine Course Pathways Project, a system to ensure that high school students are given fair opportunity to learn all of the standards of Maine’s Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction. The goal is to help schools validate curriculum and academic programs, and maintain local control over the content of courses.
During 2008, Joel Baxley, SCEA’s director of visual art education, was a consultant for the development of the visual and performing arts syllabus scoring guide. In 2009, Joel is serving as a senior reviewer for visual and performing arts syllabi.
Maine public high schools are submitting syllabi and identifying standards and performance indicators. Trained, expert reviewers from each content area are then reviewing syllabi for evidence of standards and performance indicators identified by the teacher. After reviewers confirm a school’s syllabi, the school’s course pathways will be analyzed to determine the possible course sequences that will provide students fair opportunity to meet the parameters for essential instruction in that content area.
