Reading
in the summer is essential for elementary school students to keep their reading
skills sharp. That’s why we launched the fourth annual Give Five – Read Five book drive this week to help put at least
five books in the hands of elementary school children at the end of the school
year.
We launched
the first Give Five – Read Five campaign in 2013 as research
from Harvard revealed that reading just five books over the summer can reduce
students’ learning loss. As a part of this effort, districts, schools,
businesses, nonprofits, churches and other community partners conduct local book
drives from April to early June. Books from these local drives are then
distributed to students to provide them with quality reading material over the
summer.
Teachers,
principals and others report book collection totals to Diane Dulaney with
NCDPI by June 17. The top four
schools that collect the most books receive a free one-year schoolwide license
to online literacy tools provided by campaign partners Achieve3000, Reading Horizons and myON.
Other Give Five – Read Five partners and supporters
include MetaMetrics,
the North
Carolina Campus Compact, Book Harvest and Communities In Schools of North Carolina.
This
year, thanks to a new partnership between NCDPI and myON, a division of
Capstone, students will receive books from local drives and they will have access to thousands
of digital book titles that can be downloaded for free over the summer through
the myON Reader online literacy tool. Districts may register with
myON to ensure students in all schools have access to this tool.
For last year’s book collection totals by school and resources to help
you and your partners conduct book drives, visit NCDPI’s Give Five –
Read Five website. I
hope your school district and community organizations will participate in this
year’s program to help ensure that your students have books to read this
summer.
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Webinars
Scheduled for Recurring Low-Performing Schools
Two
webinars are scheduled for recurring low-performing schools:
* Tuesday, March 29, 4 – 5 p.m., please
register here
* Monday, April 4, 4 – 5 p.m., please register here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the webinar. Questions regarding the webinars may be
directed to NCDPI District and School Transformation Director Nancy Barbour.
NC TWC
Survey Extended Through Friday, April 1
Due to
several LEAs and charters on or with upcoming Spring Breaks, the NC Teacher
Working Conditions (NC TWC) Survey window has been extended to Friday, April 1. Please continue to encourage
educators in your LEA to participate. Our statewide goal is 100 percent participation. We
are currently at 82.7 percent.
A few
key reminders:
- Principals must review and confirm
their school headcount before the survey window closes. Once the survey
closes, information cannot be changed. Please visit the NC TWC website and click on RESPONSE RATE to
verify the number listed for your school.
- A school must have a 40 percent
response rate in order to receive survey results in May.
- You may check real-time
participation rates for your school, district, or statewide by visiting the NC
TWC website.
Contact
your Regional
Education Facilitator if you have any questions or need further assistance.
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Licensure Application
Update: Processing Numbers and Progress to Date
NCDPI’s Licensure
section beat their weekly goal for processing for the week that ended on March
25, processing 1,869 applications, 369 more than the weekly goal of 1,500. A
total of 1,055 new applications (generated applications) were received. This
brings the “pending” pool to 5,388 down from 6,108. A total of 2,496
applications are pending from teachers who are currently employed. This figure
also is lower than the prior total of 2,935.
The numbers give a
good picture of activity in Licensure. Here are some other important facts. A
school district or an individual may begin an application in the online
licensure system and it is noted as a new application even if the applicant has
not completed all the elements, including submitting payment, to allow NCDPI staff
to finish the license decision.
Currently, staff
have 1,141 pending educator licenses that have been started but not completed.
A total of 602 applications are pending payment. Until the application fee is
paid, the license cannot be issued. Here are other “pending” situations:
• Pending Institution of Higher Education (IHE)
action (230 are in this status). The application requires some action by the
university/college of record for the applicant.
• Pending Legal Review (75 are in this
status). The application indicated a legal issue related to the applicant
(self-reported).
• Rejected by IHE (39 are in this
status). The IHE states that the application should not move
forward. These applications will be closed.
• Pending LEA Review (one is in this status).
The application requires action by the hiring entity.
In
total, staff have 7,476 applications that are not closed in the system. Of
those, 5,388 are in the licensure specialists’ queue. The other 2,088 are
listed above.
 Home Base Update
When it comes to the
Home Base suite of software applications and other resources, we know that
reliability is critical to you and your schools’ faculty and students. That’s
why we are beginning a regular newsletter item to give you performance
highlights.
For the week ending
March 25, 289 of the PowerSchool instances were up without outages; two
PowerSchool instances had some issues and outages. (Each local school district
and charter school is its own PowerSchool instance.)
Schoolnet reached a new high in terms of
classroom assessments given through the system. On March 23, North Carolina set another record
for online assessments given in a single day – 90,000, up from the previous
high of 70,000 approximately 18 months ago. Approximately half of these
assessments were district benchmarks and the other half were divided among
school, classroom and shared classroom assessments.
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Celebrate NC Advanced
Manufacturing and STEM Careers Awareness Week
April 3-9 is NC
Advanced Manufacturing and STEM Careers Awareness Week in North Carolina.
Advanced
Manufacturing and STEM careers are modern, sophisticated and use cutting-edge
technology to create products and services in fields such as aviation,
communication, biotechnology and healthcare. Students are encouraged to visit
their local community college or meet with business and industry
representatives to learn more about education opportunities in this career
field.
Submit Comments on Annual State Application for
Grant Award Under Part B of IDEA
NCDPI is making available its annual State
Application for receiving grant award under Part B of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as amended in 2004 for Federal Fiscal Year
2016.
A copy of the State Application is available for
public review on the NCDPI Exceptional Children website under Hot Topics. Also, each local school
district’s central office received a copy for public review. Comments will be
accepted through April 22.The review
period ends May 6.
Interested citizens may submit comments via email or by
U.S. mail to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Exceptional
Children Division, ATTN: Tracy Riddle/Carol Ann Hudgens, 6356 Mail Service
Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-6356
 2016-17 Projected
NCVPS Allotment
North
Carolina Virtual Public School staff have sent the 2016-17 projected NCVPS
allotment to your district’s e-learning coordinator. NCDPI’s Financial and
Business Services staff calculated your allotment by using its statistical
projection model.
If you
anticipate needing more enrollments than your allotment covers, you may request
an increase in your projections. To request an increase in your projections,
please complete this online form.
Districts have until April 15,
to submit the form. If you have any questions, please contact NCVPS Chief
Operations Officer Rachel McBroom.
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 Spring 2016 Principal READY Heads East
Spring
2016 Principal READY is headed east during the month of April with invaluable
information concerning 2014-15 Educator Effectiveness data, EVAAS and ASW
updates, and State Board of Education highlights concerning student growth.
Principals
also will have the opportunity to choose from a slate of sessions based on
their feedback to area Service Support Teams. EVAAS (Education Value Added
Assessment System) Conversations: Helping Teachers Make Instructional
Improvements; Effective PLCs (Professional Learning Community) for Growth and
Improvement; and Leadership Matters: Creating a Culture of Learning
are just a few learning opportunities designed to meet the diverse needs of
principals across the state.
Interested
in attending? Please visit the NCEES wiki homepage and
register for the location nearest you.
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 Additional
NCStar Trainings Scheduled
Due
to demand, NCDPI staff decided to hold an additional three
sessions in April for educators who might be
interested in learning more about the free NCStar tool that helps schools
manage their school improvement process.
With
NCStar being a requirement for Priority and Focus schools, staff have trained
approximately 700 educators. It is recommended that in schools that experience
high turnover, more than one person participate in this initial training. If
your school has not sent at least two representatives, please consider these
April sessions.
The
three sessions will be held in Lincolnton (April
19), Asheboro (April 21) and
Wilson (April 25). They are open to any
school or district in the state. Please make sure to register
soon as registration will close as soon as site capacity is reached.
For more information, please visit the NCStar website. Questions regarding
the training may be directed to Alessandro Montanari.
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Job Creators Lead the Charge to Get Local
Communities
Ready to Work
The
North Carolina Chamber Foundation serves as the final certifying body for North
Carolina counties taking part in the NCWorks Certified Work Ready Communities
program. The program, which is a collaborative effort between workforce
development partners in both the public and private sectors, aims to align
local leadership around shared economic development goals and send a message
that North Carolina counties are prepared to support new business investment
from day one.
Earlier
this month, partners of the Work Ready Communities initiative met to review the
program’s progress and discuss next steps. To date, 30 North Carolina counties
are participating in the program, 1,286 employers have signed on to support,
and more than 300,000 National Career Readiness Certificates have been awarded!
Still, large pockets of the state have not yet applied. As leaders in your
local communities, you can help lead the charge to get your home county certified
as a Work Ready Community.
For more
information on how you can support or how you can help get the application
process started, visit the NCWorks
Certified Work Ready Communities page on the NC Chamber website or
contact NCDPI CTE Director Jo Anne Honeycutt.
 Superintendent Vacancy Announced: Union County
Schools
The
Union County Board of Education is seeking a superintendent to lead the school
system in its continuing pursuit of excellence. Candidates must have or be
qualified to hold a North Carolina superintendent license. Central office and
building-level experience are preferred. A doctorate degree or progress toward
a doctorate degree is preferred but not required. The individual chosen will be
required to live in the Union County Schools District. The application deadline
is May 17.
An
electronic version of the application is available by going to the N.C. School
Board Association's website and
clicking on the appropriate link. Inquiries and requests for applications also
can be directed to Allison Schafer, Legal Counsel/Director of Policy, North
Carolina School Boards Association, PO Box 97877, Raleigh NC 27624-7877,
telephone 919/841-4040, fax 919/841-4020, email. All inquiries will be kept confidential.
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