Commissioner's Update
April 24, 2007
Dear Superintendents, and Leaders of Charter Schools and Collaboratives:
In this Update I have four announcements and five items for your review.
UMASS-Boston Conference On May 7
The University of Massachusetts-Boston's Center for Technical Education will hold its Annual State Wide Conference on May 7th. Dr. Gene Bottoms, Senior Vice President of the Southern Regional Education Board's High Schools That Work Initiative will be the featured speaker. His topic will be "High Schools That Work/Secondary School Reform and Perkins IV." This important conference will take place at the Sheraton Hotel in Milford on Monday, May 7, 2007. For information contact Dr. Sumner Rotman at 1-617-287-7919 or sumner.rotman@umb.edu.
Summer 2007 Professional Development Institutes Brochure Now Available
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be offering Professional Development Institutes for summer 2007, an enhancement of the successful Content Institute Program we offered in the past. This year's Institutes will focus on effective standards-based teaching skills and strengthening teachers' content knowledge in mathematics, science, technology/engineering, reading, and writing. The statewide program will sponsor more than 30 institutes during the summer in mathematics, science, technology/engineering, reading, writing, Sheltered English Immersion, and more. Follow-up sessions will be held in the fall and winter to support educators as they implement content instruction in the classroom. All institutes will offer professional development points (PDPs) and optional graduate credit that can be applied toward educator re-licensure.
A list of all institutes and information about many other professional development experiences being offered this summer is now posted at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/cinstitute/.
New Mathematics & Science Teachers Scholarship Program
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Board of Higher Education are pleased to announce that the state Legislature has funded a pilot scholarship program for mathematics and science teachers who have received waivers from certification regulations or are "out of field" teachers. These funds are designed to help to increase the number of public school teachers in the Commonwealth who are certified in mathematics and science.
Scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees and related expenses for math and science teachers for up to three courses per semester at higher education institutions to meet teacher certification requirements. Eligible mathematics and science teachers (including technology/engineering teachers) can apply this scholarship to courses at participating Massachusetts public or private colleges and universities.
Recipients will be required to commit to continue teaching mathematics and science in the Commonwealth for a term of service after becoming licensed. The program has been designed to give priority for scholarships to teachers from high-need districts.
Information about application materials will soon be available for the 2007 summer semester at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/omste/?section=news&flag=true. Scholarship applications for Fall 2007 semester courses will be available June 2007. For more information, please contact Barbara Libby at blibby@doe.mass.edu.
2008 National Science Teachers Association Conference
The 2008 NSTA annual conference, Science: Bridge to the Future, will be held in Boston on March 27-30, 2008. The conference will include hundreds of workshops, presentations, field trips, short courses and seminars led by dynamic educators and researchers. Participants may concentrate their individual professional development through four strands: using data; successful programs and practices; science & technology research; and instructional technology. As your schools plan for the 2007-2008 school year, I encourage you to send your science and technology/engineering teachers to this worthwhile professional development opportunity.
Items Posted at www.doe.mass.edu:
- Release of March 2007 Retest Results
- School choice receiving district status 2007-2008
- History and Social Science-New "Regions of the United States" for Grade 4/5
- Foreign Language Teachers Programs
- Recruitment of Candidates for Board of Education Advisory Councils
Sincerely,
David P. Driscoll
Commissioner of Education
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