The first round of regional public comment sessions regarding the Every Student Succeeds Act and North Carolina’s plan that is under development will begin on April 13 in Wilmington at 4 p.m. That first session will be held at Ashley High School, 555 Halyburton Memorial Parkway, from 4-6 p.m. Other dates and locations are April 21, Green Hope High School/Wake; April 26, Mallard Creek High School/Charlotte-Mecklenburg; April 27, North Pitt High School/Pitt; May 17, East Forsyth High School/Winston-Salem/Forsyth; and May 18, Charles D. Owen High School/Buncombe.

People who wish to speak during the session are asked to sign in by 4:15 p.m. Each speaker will have up to 3 minutes to provide comments, and written copies of comments also are welcomed.

Individuals interested in speaking may want to consider the following questions when formulating their comments:

-  What do you expect from our schools?

-  What school characteristics are most important?

-  How should we measure school success?

-  How do we ensure that all schools are successful?

-  How should we celebrate school success?

As we develop our state’s plan, it is important to hear from educators, parents, business people, students and other community members. Please feel free to distribute the news release with more information in your community. I want to say a special thank you to the high schools and school districts that are hosting these for us.

State Board of Education
Meeting Highlights

The State Board of Education held a planning and work session on Tuesday and Wednesday prior to today’s regular monthly meeting. Issues discussed at the planning and work session included the Every Student Succeeds Act, standards review and revisions, the state assessment system, criminal background checks and the Board’s legislative agenda for the General Assembly’s short session.

At this morning’s Board meeting, in addition to a number of consent agenda items, members approved policies on general licensure requirements, beginning teacher support program, standards and criteria for evaluation of professional school employees and the teacher performance appraisal process; applications from reform models; technical changes to the recurring low-performing schools’ policy; and an equipment assistance grant for school nutrition.

Board members also discussed several charter schools’ issues, the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee Dropout Prevention Pilot Report; Annual Measurable Objectives/Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives policy revisions; middle school athletics manual updates; and an update on the teacher licensure system.

The complete list of this month’s Board actions is available on the Board’s website.

Examining the Multi-Tiered System of Support as a School Improvement Framework

Intentional implementation of a school improvement framework is necessary for change to occur. However, systematically determining where you are and where you want to be can be difficult for teams. NCDPI staff have designed a self-report and guide that examines evidences around:

●      Leadership

●      Building Capacity/Infrastructure for Implementation

●      Data and Evaluation

●      Problem Solving

●      Instruction/Intervention

●      Communication and Collaboration

The Self-Assessment of MTSS Implementation (SAM) will be available to all MTSS Cohorts to assist with identifying and prioritizing implementation steps. As district teams and charter schools participate in MTSS professional development modules, they will be supported in how to facilitate administration of this tool with school-based teams. The SAM is not an evaluative measure, but a way to operationalize installation of a MTSS.

Additional information on the SAM is available online. The quarterly MTSS Principal Brief also provides information on communicating about MTSS within your school, as well as utilization of resources.

Digital Learning & Media Inventory

The new NC Digital Learning & Media Inventory (NC DLMI) goes live on April 11. The NC DLMI collects data for state and national reporting, to inform state and local budgets, and to assist in planning state and local digital learning efforts. Inventory questions are streamlined and align to the NC Digital Learning Progress Rubric. This inventory replaces the Annual Media & Technology Report. Modernizing this tool is a critical component of moving NC’s Digital Learning Plan forward. To read more, please visit the NC DLMI website.

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.

Professional Development Series for School Leaders Continues

On April 20, NCDPI District and School Transformation in partnership with NCSU Northeast Leadership Academy (NELA) continues the Professional Development for School Leaders Series: The Connected Educator. The featured speaker, Principal Baruti Kafele, will guide participants through best practices for engaging the community and building meaningful partnerships to improve student learning. Kafele is the author of The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence, Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success and Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life.

Please join us for this exciting opportunity to connect with practitioners from across North Carolina. Registration is open and may be accessed here. The April event will be held at the Hilton North Raleigh from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (on-site registration begins at 8:30 a.m.).

There is a 200 participant limit so register early. There is no registration fee for this event. A block of rooms has been reserved at a discounted rate at the Hilton North Raleigh. For more information, please contact Amelia McLeod.

Give Five – Read Five Underway

On March 23, DPI kicked off the fourth annual statewide Give Five – Read Five campaign at Winding Springs Elementary School in Charlotte. As a part of this initiative, first launched in 2013, districts, schools, businesses, nonprofits, churches and other community partners conduct 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 and reduce summer learning loss.

Since the campaign’s beginning, more than 946,000 new and gently-used books have been sent home with students as a part of Give Five – Read Five and similar efforts. Once again in 2016, the four schools that collect the most books will receive a free one-year schoolwide license to online literacy tools provided by Achieve3000, Reading Horizons and myON.

As a part of this year’s campaign and thanks to a new partnership with myON, a division of Capstone, DPI is offering every school district in the state access to the personalized literacy tool myON Reader. Students at every grade level in participating schools will be able to use this tool during the summer months to select from thousands of titles and download free books well-matched to their reading levels and personal interests. As an added bonus, parents can use the tool to track how many pages and hours students spend reading and even measure their literacy growth while they are away from the classroom.

Visit the myOn website for more information. To learn more and access resources to help schools and community partners conduct their own book drives, visit NCDPI’s Give Five – Read Five website.

Gaston County Schools’ Teacher is
2016 NC Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to South Point High School English and Journalism teacher Bobbie Cavnar who today was named the 2016 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. The Gaston County Public Schools’ teacher succeeds Keana Triplett, an English teacher at Ashe County High School (Ashe County Schools).

In announcing this year’s recipient, State Superintendent June Atkinson said Cavnar is a champion of public education and the opportunities it provides students. “Bobbie sees public education as the one thing that is equal and fair in a child’s life, and he sees teachers as the equalizers, the keeper’s of America’s promise of equal opportunity.”

As Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Cavnar will spend the next school year traveling the state as an ambassador for the teaching profession. He also will serve as an advisor to the State Board of Education for two years and as a board member for the NC Public School Forum for one year.