The Maine Course Pathways Project
Guaranteeing all Maine students the opportunity to learn the knowledge and skills essential for the future, including the workplace, postsecondary education, and citizenship.
Project Summary
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) has partnered with the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) to develop a system for determining if high school students are given the opportunity to learn all required state standards and learning goals included in the Maine Learning Results (MLR). The goal is to help schools validate curriculum and academic programs while also maintaining local control over the content and sequencing of courses.
To accomplish this goal, Maine public high schools will submit syllabi for all courses offered and identify intended MLRs within each. Trained content experts will then review each syllabus for evidence of the state standards being taught. Once the syllabi are reviewed, the available course pathways (combinations of courses within a subject area taken during high school) to graduation will be analyzed to determine which provide students the opportunity to learn all required state educational requirements. High schools will then be notified which course pathways successfully cover all MLR, and which course pathways need additional evidence or content to be certified as providing every student the opportunity to learn all state standards and learning goals.
The Benefits of Ensuring High Quality Syllabi
Course syllabi are powerful information sharing and learning tools. EPIC has conducted years of on the content of college and high school course syllabi. Although a comprehensive
syllabus has been more closely associated historically with college courses, Maine high school
teachers will now have the opportunity to create high quality syllabi that will provide the following
benefits:
- Collaboration among teachers and professional development experience as teachers compare course content and receive feedback about their syllabi.
- Student and parent involvement provides better familiarity with the expectations and content for each course, allowing students to understand how to succeed and helping parents support their children to be successful.
- Administration and department involvement that leads to greater alignment among courses.
- Useful external validation for quality syllabi, along with information regarding how to modify course syllabi so that they better reflect the relevant curricular expectations claimed for each course.
- Student and parent understanding of what is expected in each course and how the course addresses the MLR.