MAINE Governor: John McKernan Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Mitchell Maine Department of Education Augusta, Maine 04333 207/289-5918 Five-Year Award Request: $10,000,000 "Maine: A Community of Discovery" will change fundamentally opportunities, performances, and aspirations in mathematics and science for all of Maine's students, pre-school through college. Educational, political, business, and community leaders joined in the initiative to coordinate changes in: 1. Curriculum. 2. Teacher preparation programs. 3. Teacher enhancement programs. 4. Alignment of curricular goals with assessment. The vehicles for change will include Beacon Schools, schools selected to be laboratories for testing new curriculum materials and teaching methods and, later, as models and dissemination centers for all schools in Maine. Fourteen mathematics and science facilitators will be responsible for dissemination of instructional materials, methods, and technology developed at the Beacon Schools. At the postsecondary level, Maine will establish a Beacon College, a consortium of institutions of higher education that will reform their teacher preparation programs consistent with the Beacon Schools' needs. In addition, the State will mount community awareness programs, progressive institutes and workshops for teachers, and efforts to increase the use of technology. Mathematicians and scientists will participate throughout the project's components.
