PLEASE NOTE: Legislative Information cannot perform research, provide legal advice, or interpret Maine law. For legal assistance, please contact a qualified attorney.
Amend the bill by striking out all of section 3.
Amend the bill by striking out all of section 4 and inserting the following:
‘Sec. 4. Rulemaking. The Commissioner of Education shall amend the Department of Education’s Rules Chapter 131, the Maine Federal, State, and Local Accountability Standards, and Rules Chapter 132, Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction, to include in the statewide system of learning results and assessment a core of science standards for kindergarten to grade 12 that are, to the extent practicable, identical to the science standards adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2006. Those standards must be aligned to the interactive components, including the hands-on applications, experiments and laboratories, of the Next Generation Science Standards developed by a collaborative, state-led process involving the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and others and released in April 2013.
The 2 rules chapters to be amended by the Commissioner of Education in accordance with this section are major substantive rules pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 253, subsection 9 and section 6211. In order to implement the science standards as part of the State's system of learning results and assessment beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, the Department of Education shall provisionally adopt these amended rules on or before December 31, 2018 and shall submit the provisionally adopted rules to the Executive Director of the Legislative Council by the deadline established for the legislative rule acceptance period in 2019 in accordance with Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 5. Appropriations and allocations. The following appropriations and allocations are made.
 
EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF
 
Learning Systems Team Z081
 
Initiative: Provides funds for rule-making, professional development and technical assistance costs associated with implementing a core of science standards for kindergarten to grade 12 in the statewide system of learning results that are consistent with the science standards adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2006 beginning with the 2020-2021 school year.

GENERAL FUND	2017-18	2018-19	
All Other	$10,000	$10,000	
			
GENERAL FUND TOTAL	$10,000	$10,000	

Learning Systems Team Z081
 
Initiative: Provides funds for the costs to develop and adopt a new assessment for a core of science standards for kindergarten to grade 12 that are consistent with the science standards adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2006 beginning with the 2020-2021 school year.

GENERAL FUND	2017-18	2018-19	
All Other	$0	$1,000,000	
			
GENERAL FUND TOTAL	$0	$1,000,000	

EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF			
DEPARTMENT TOTALS	2017-18	2018-19	
			
GENERAL FUND	$10,000	$1,010,000	
			
DEPARTMENT TOTAL - ALL FUNDS	$10,000	$1,010,000	
 
’
Amend the bill by relettering or renumbering any nonconsecutive Part letter or section number to read consecutively.
 
SUMMARY
This amendment is the minority report of the committee. The amendment strikes the provision of the bill that adds science to the content areas of English language arts, literacy and mathematics as part of the rating scale required to measure educator effectiveness as required under the performance evaluation and professional growth system. The amendment further directs the Commissioner of Education, in amending the Department of Education rules in order to include science standards as part of the State's system of learning results and assessment, to include the science standards adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2006 and align those standards to the interactive components of the Next Generation Science Standards released in 2013. The amendment also extends the implementation of the amended rules to the 2020-2021 school year and requires that the Department of Education provisionally adopt these rules on or before December 31, 2018.
The amendment also provides funding for the costs associated with including the science standards adopted by Massachusetts as part of the learning results.
FISCAL NOTE REQUIRED
(See attached)