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Between
now and the June State Board of Education meeting, I hope you will provide
feedback to State Board of Education members regarding the proposed Digital
Learning Competencies for classroom teachers and school administrators.
These
competencies are intended to help North Carolina meet the Board’s goal of every
student in North Carolina having a personalized education. Our NC Digital
Learning Plan addresses this goal; and the State Board of Education’s 2016-17
supplemental budget request includes substantial support for digital learning.
The competencies are available on the State Board’s website (scroll
to and click on SCDL 1).
Please
use these forms below to provide feedback:
• Draft Digital Learning
Competencies for School Administrators. Feedback Form
• Draft Digital
Learning Competencies for Classroom Teachers. Feedback
Form
North
Carolina has been making progress in the area of digital learning. Some
highlights of our accomplishments to date include the recent release of the new
Digital Learning and Media Inventory, the development of an RFP to establish
contracts that districts may use to procure devices such as Chromebooks, as
well as the aforementioined development of Digital Learning Competencies for
School Administrators and Classroom Teachers.
If
you have specific questions about moving digital learning forward in your
district, please feel free to reach out to the Department’s Director for
Digital Teaching and Learning Verna
Lalbeharie. Verna and her staff are available to provide guidance and
support.
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State Board of
Education
Meeting Highlights
At last Thursday’s State Board of Education
meeting, members approved School Reform Models to be applied to five schools in
four districts, FY 2015-16 Final Allotment adjustments, Long-Range Facility
Plans (Five-Year Report), requests for local flexibility in the Analysis of
Student Work, and a number of consent agenda items including the Middle School
Athletics Manual update.
Members also discussed Digital Learning
Competencies/Digital Learning Plan, Math I, II and III Draft Standards
Revisions, and Career and Technical Education Licensure revisions and heard a
presentation on the Military and Education Connection.
The
complete list of this month’s Board actions is available on the Board’s website. The Board’s May agenda as well as
supporting executive summaries also are available online by
clicking on the SBE Meetings tab.
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 Comment
Now on Proposed Revisions to High School Math Standards
As you
know, the State Board of Education heard discussion on the high school math
review and revision process at the May meeting. As a part of this process, your
Curriculum & Instruction leaders will be receiving a draft implementation
plan and very short survey this week. This draft plan is being developed in
preparation for the June SBE meeting where action may be taken. Please also
review the message below that is being shared with your teachers this week in
the teacher newsletter:
For
the past year, the Department of Public Instruction has been in the five-year
review process for the mathematics content standards, involving local district
teachers, curriculum leaders, higher education representatives and others.
Also, information from other resources, including the Academic Standards Review
Commission’s December recommendations, was included in the process.
As a
result of this feedback, modifications to the sequencing of standards as well
as revisions for clarity of the standards have been proposed to Math I, II and
III (high school levels). K-12 English Language Arts review will begin
this summer and Mathematics in grades K-8 and the fourth level math courses,
AFM, Discrete and Pre-Calculus, will be under review beginning this fall.
Educators,
parents and other interested citizens are invited to provide feedback regarding
proposed revisions to the content standards for high school math courses Math
I, II and III via an online survey. The survey will be available
through May 20. You may access the background information on each
set of math standards’ changes by clicking on the links below.
* NC
Math 1 Draft Standards
* NC
Math 2 Draft Standards
* NC
Math 3 Draft Standards
* Summary,
Overview and Rationale
If
you are a mathematics teacher, please consider taking the survey and sharing
your feedback. The State Board of Education could act on these revisions as
early as June 2 when it holds its next monthly meeting.
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 New Schools Closure
The
following was included in last week’s Superintendents’ Weekly Message
I know
that many of you were concerned to hear that New Schools has closed its doors
after 13 years of service. Of special concern are those of you who have
Cooperative and Innovative Schools. While we are still evaluating how we can
support North Carolina schools that had been working with New Schools, please
know that there will be no change with funding for the Cooperative and
Innovative schools.
There
are four NCDPI-funded staff at New Schools who will be returning to the
Department to work, and we expect them to continue their support of the schools
that they were serving all along. As we obtain more information during this
transition time, we will let you know as soon as possible.
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NCVPS
Summer Session
Begins June 20
Please
have your district’s e-learning coordinator identify who your summer NCVPS
contacts will be via the NCVPS
Summer 2016 ELA Contact Information link. We need a contact for
each school. Some districts will elect to have one contact for all schools in
the summer, and that is fine. This information is essential for NCVPS teachers.
Registration
is still open and will remain open until the fifth day of class, June 24. Please have your advisors
register as soon as possible, however. Seating may become limited in certain
courses as the start date approaches. Additionally, students who are able to
start on the first day of class are more successful in their summer courses.
Also note that the allotments for summer enrollments are part of your
2016-17 allotment totals. Please visit NCVPS’ Summer School Guide
for more details.
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Multi-Tiered System of Support:
Cohorts 3 and 4
Since January 2014, 97 percent of school
districts in North Carolina have submitted an MTSS Readiness Instrument. There
are 57 school districts and charter schools currently involved in Cohorts 1 and
2. Participation includes enrollment in modules housed in NCEES.
Last month, an additional 119 districts and
charter teams were invited to join MTSS in Cohorts 3 and 4. The invited school
district and charter school teams have been asked to submit a Partnership
Agreement by May 20 to initiate
strategic involvement in the MTSS Professional Development and Coaching
support. School district and charter school teams that submit this agreement
will begin the face-to-face and online support in August 2016.
For suggestions on membership within the district
teams supporting and facilitating school implementation, please review Selection
criteria for District MTSS Team/District Leadership Team. If you have
additional questions, please contact Amy
Jablonski.
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Spring 2016 Principal READY
Resources Available
Approximately
700 principals across North Carolina participated in the Spring Principal READY
series. The series, designed based on participants’ feedback, featured over 22
sessions on how to empower principals to be instructional leaders.
Principals
in the field as well as NCDPI consultants facilitated discussions on improving
Professional Learning Communities, using NCStar for school improvement
planning, implementing data teams, understanding digital learning competencies
for school administrators, and other customized topics in each area of the state.
Principals also had the opportunity to ask questions about the 2014-15 educator
effectiveness data and changes concerning licensure requirements.
Materials
and resources from all eight Principal READY sessions are still available on
the NCEES wiki. Check
out this wonderful resource today!
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And the 2016 NC TWCS
Winners are…
NCDPI staff would like to thank the over 101,800
educators who participated in the 2016 North Carolina Teacher Working
Conditions Survey (NC TWCS). Almost 1,100 NC schools met our statewide goal of
100 percent participation.
In order to recognize the effort of this
accomplishment, we have partnered with the North Carolina Business Committee
for Education (NCBCE) and the North Carolina Association for Educators (NCAE)
to award those schools with prizes and monetary incentives. On May 9, the
Department organized a live drawing to randomly select six schools to recognize
those schools and districts that led the state with participation.
The following schools were selected “firsts”
in our state:
* First Elementary
School in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
Allenbrook Elementary (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools)
* First Middle
School in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
East
Rutherford Middle (Rutherford County Schools)
* First High
School in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
Creswell
High (Washington County Schools)
* First School
District in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
Edenton-Chowan Public Schools
* “Nick of
Time” School (final school in state to reach 100 percent response rate):
Plain
View Primary (Bladen County Schools)
All schools that reached 100 percent
participation can be found here.
Thank you to all of our gracious sponsors: BB&T, California Casualty,
Blue Cross Blue Shield, Duke Energy and Lenovo.
The DPI Prize Patrol will travel the state to hand-deliver
prizes to these schools. Stay tuned … they may be arriving at your school
during the month of June!
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