There was a time in North Carolina when most school districts kept a surplus of potential teacher applicants ready for hiring when and if a vacancy occurred. In some districts, recent teacher education graduates once expected to serve as teacher assistants for a time while they waited for a teaching position to open up for them.

Those times are over for many school districts, and no longer do most Human Resources offices have a large stack of applications from potential teachers. I believe the time is ripe to take some steps to fix this situation in our vibrant and growing state.

Last week, I presented a plan for addressing teacher compensation for all to include across-the-board pay increases, pay for teacher leadership roles, competitive recruitment pay to attract teachers to low-performing schools and opportunities to once again earn bonus pay for advancing student academic growth. Please take a look at my ideas and read them in more detail. North Carolina’s economy is improving and state revenues also have improved, giving us a chance to be bold and meet this challenge in 2016.     

State Board of Education
Meeting Highlights

At today’s State Board of Education meeting, members approved policies governing services for children with disabilities, recommendations for charter enrollment and grade expansion requests, recommendations for charter schools expiring in 2016, and a report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on a multi-year survey of driver education. They also discussed policy recommendations pertaining to the teacher licensure and evaluation process, proposed student perception surveys, reform for continually low-performing schools, and the Board’s 2016-17 Supplemental Budget recommendations. Members also received an update on the department's response to the Every Student Succeeds Act.

To view the complete list of this month’s Board actions, please visit the Board’s website.

Regional Principals of the Year Announced

Congratulations to the following eight outstanding public school principals who were recently selected as Regional Wells Fargo North Carolina Principals of the Year and will now compete for the state title of 2016 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year.

The regional principals of the year are:

-  Northeast: William Peele, Bertie Middle (Bertie County Schools);

-  Southeast: Molly White, Lincoln Elementary (Brunswick County Schools);

-  North Central: Matthew Hunt, Northern High (Durham Public Schools);

-  Sandhills: Melody Chalmers, E.E. Smith High (Cumberland County Schools);

-  Piedmont-Triad: Wayne Duggins, South Stokes High (Stokes County Schools);

-  Southwest: Maureen Furr, South Mecklenburg High (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools);

-  Northwest: Kelly Nicholson, Oxford Elementary (Catawba County Schools); and

-  Western: Peggy Marshall, Sugarloaf Elementary (Henderson County Schools).

Regional winners will each receive $1,000 for personal use and $1,000 for their schools. The Wells Fargo Principal of the Year announcement will occur May 12 during a luncheon in Cary. The winner will succeed the 2015 recipient, Steve Lassiter Jr., principal of Pactolus School (Pitt County Schools).

Implementation Science:
A New Way of Work

Using the principles of implementation science helps staff effectively select, begin, evaluate and sustain new initiatives. NCDPI has partnered with the State Implementation and Scaling-up of Evidence-based Practices Center (SISEP) to increase capacity for implementation and scale-up of department initiatives to maximize students' academic and social outcomes. View this brief video to learn more.

The Office of Early Learning is partnering with school districts across the state using implementation science principles to scale-up the NC K-3 Formative Assessment process. The following eight school districts are early innovators, leading the way in this effort, as they apply implementation science principles to scale up the NC K-3 Formative Assessment process: Chatham, Clinton City, Dare, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, Harnett, Iredell-Statesville, Swain and Winston-Salem/Forsyth.   

NC Textbook Commission Meets Feb. 12

The North Carolina Textbook Commission will meet Friday, Feb. 12, from 1–4 p.m., in the 7th Floor Board Room, Education Building, Raleigh.

Commission members will review the process and procedures for textbook evaluation and adoption. The draft 2016 Invitation proposed for health and social studies is currently scheduled for presentation at the State Board of Education’s March meeting.

The meeting will be audio streamed (click on the live audio stream link) for those who are interested and cannot attend.

NCVPS Professional
Development Opportunities

The North Carolina Virtual Public School will host three webinars in February at no cost to administrators and teachers who are interested in learning more about leading, teaching and supporting teachers in an online and blended environment. All webinars will start at 7 p.m. Dates and topics are as follows:

-  Feb. 8: Individualization in Online and Blended Learning;

-  Feb. 15: Cyber Bullying; and

-  Feb. 29: Assessment and Feedback for Teachers in Online and Blended Learning Environments.

Mastery Learning for First-Time Credit Pilot Program

This program gives schools the option of providing alternative scheduling to students in special enrollment situations. NCVPS will function as an intervention for students in these situations. Program details are available online.