As NC Department of Public Instruction staff work with the State Board of Education to develop North Carolina’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan, we will need to hear from you and many other constituents and stakeholders.

We began that work in January and February with presentations to many groups including superintendents and others in the western and northwestern RESAs, the NC School Boards Association, the Public School Forum and more. This effort continues in the coming months.

We are planning two rounds of public comment sessions – April-May and September-October – for parents, educators, business leaders and others to offer feedback. A detailed timeline for doing this work will be shared with you during our regional meetings. ESSA also will be a discussion topic at the April 13 Superintendents’ Quarterly meeting.

Below are the dates and locations for the first round of meetings. Please note that each one will be held from 4-6 p.m., and anyone may attend a session in any region. Audience members who want to speak will be asked to sign in and are invited (but not required) to bring a copy of their remarks to submit into the record of the event.

Wednesday, April 13: Ashley High School, Wilmington/New Hanover County

Thursday, April 21: Green Hope High School, Cary/Wake County

Tuesday, April 26: Mallard Creed High School, Charlotte/Mecklenburg County

Wednesday, April 27: North Pitt High School, Bethel/Pitt County

Tuesday, May 17: East Forsyth High School, Kernersville/Winston-Salem/Forsyth County

Wednesday, May 18: Charles D. Owen High School, Black Mountain/Buncombe County

In addition, the public is invited to submit comments to Department staff through Let’s Talk on the NCDPI website by selecting the ESSA dialog topic.

State Board of Education Meeting Highlights

At last week’s State Board of Education meeting, members approved reform recommendations for continuously low-performing schools, the 2016 Invitation to Submit Textbooks for Evaluation and Adoption in K-12 Social Studies and Healthful Living, and the Board’s 2016-17 Supplemental Budget recommendations.

They continued their discussion of student surveys and proposed conceptual policy recommendations related to licensure and policies on general licensure requirements, and began a discussion of academic standards revision. Board members also approved Dr. Maria Pitre-Martin as the Department’s new Chief Academic and Digital Learning Officer.

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

Spring 2016 Principal READY Underway

Principals in the Piedmont-Triad region will kick off the 2016 spring series of Principal Ready today (March 7) with a full agenda including 2014-15 Educator Effectiveness data, EVAAS and ASW updates, and State Board of Education highlights concerning student growth.

Principals also will guide their own professional learning by participating in working sessions on School Culture, the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System Rubric, and/or Universal Design of Learning.

If you haven’t done so already, there is still time to register for the remaining sessions across the state. Please visit the Educator Effectiveness NCEES Wiki for a complete listing of session dates and locations.

NC Textbook Commission Meets
March 10

The North Carolina Textbook Commission will meet Thursday, March 10, from 8:30 a.m. - noon, in the 7th Floor Board Room, Education Building, Raleigh.

Commission members will discuss health and social studies content training for evaluation, textbook evaluation advisor recruitment, and logistics for textbook evaluation week.

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