Julianne McLaughlin accepts her award. (Photo Courtesy of Julianne McLaughlin)
UMF’s representative this year in the Maine Policy Scholar Program, political science major Julianne McLaughlin, presented her extensive research on the implementation of proficiency based learning standards in Maine at the scholarship program’s annual graduation ceremony in Orono last week following an initial presentation at our own Michael D. Wilson Symposium. In her research, McLaughlin concluded that the conflicts surrounding the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are not due to a fault in the CCSS itself, but the result of other factors such as limited availability or easy access to resources for teachers and parents to utilize and understand the standards. She will be sending her final policy recommendations to Maine’s Commissioner of Education.