Thank you to everyone in the western and eastern districts who quickly responded to information requests regarding the impact of Hurricane Matthew in the east and the wildfires in the west. Having this information about the impact of these two natural disasters is helpful to lawmakers as they come to town for their special session this week.

As I depart this role, I encourage you to continue to follow the legislative activities in Raleigh. Your voice is powerful and important.

K-12 Mathematics Update

NCDPI K-12 Mathematics staff are pleased to announce that there will be a one-year extension on the University of North Carolina System’s acceptance of the Essentials for College Math Course (SREB) as meeting the fourth-level math as minimum course requirements. This translates to a fourth year, so as your schools work on scheduling for the 2017-18 school year, please know that the UNC system will once again accept this course into the 2018-19 year of incoming freshmen.

There is a new opportunity to share and test drive units from a free middle school curriculum. North Carolina is one of the advisory members of Open-Up Resources who has developed and is piloting a full middle school curriculum aligned to the standards. Feedback will be used to make this North Carolina tested and approved and available as a free curriculum next school year for grades 6-8.

District curriculum leaders and principals will receive specific information about how to access the materials in the coming week.

The K-8 Math Data Review Committee met last month and came up with recommendations for the K-8 Math writing teams who will be meeting in Raleigh this week to begin the revision process. Districts will be notified of the timeline for LEA writing feedback once the revision work produces a tentative draft over the next few weeks.

For more information, please contact NCDPI K-12 Mathematics Section Chief Jennifer Curtis.

Multi-Tiered System of Support:
Assessment Guidance

Your district and school Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) teams are in place to continually answer the question, “Does our system/school make sense for all of our students?”

North Carolina’s MTSS model includes a comprehensive and efficient assessment system that is balanced, uses multiple sources and is culturally appropriate. At full implementation, this system should measure critical areas within literacy, math and behavior/social emotional functioning in a manner that eliminates redundancy and achieves a degree of uniformity across a school district.

Cohorts enrolled in the MTSS modules have access to content, which guides them through system development. The Assessment in a Multi-Tiered System of Support Overview document provides guidance to district and school teams for creating a structure that allows for effective problem solving at all tiers and across all student groups in order to design a responsive system for all students.

Thank you for the vital role you play as a member of the MTSS leadership team, and for supporting your district team in implementation. For more information, please contact NCDPI Director of Integrated Academic and Behavior Systems Amy Jablonski.

Implementation Science:
New Innovations

Implementation of any new innovation requires organizations to build readiness among their stakeholders to implement the innovation. Intentionally building stakeholders’ knowledge of the innovation, its content and processes increases the organizational capacity to implement the evidence-based practice and the client benefiting from the innovations implementation.

Shady Brooke Elementary School’s (Kannapolis City Schools) assessment of their current learning community, thoughtful planning and tracking of ongoing implementation practices increased the self and collective efficacy of teachers to implement the Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) and see evidence of positive student outcomes.

In just over a year, Shady Brook Elementary School’s Assistant Principal Josh Sain and faculty have seen an increase in student success, a decrease in the number of students receiving intensive support in the MTSS framework, reduced office referrals, and improved instruction. Teachers indicated that attending to the whole child has allowed them to learn valuable lessons about children that affected their learning and development.

Shady Brook’s focused conversations on what students “can do” through formative assessment and utilization of the KEA’s construct progressions has yielded positive outcomes for Shady Brook students, faculty and staff.

Visit Stages of Implementation Analysis (Blasé & Fixsen, 2013) to learn more about North Carolina’s process for implementation of new innovations or contact NCDPI Exceptional Children Division State Implementation Specialist Matt Hoskins.

NCVPS Offers Scheduling Solutions

Look to NCVPS for those difficult to solve problems as we offer a variety of scheduling solutions. See if any of these options can help your students this spring semester:

Mastery Learning. This program gives schools the option to provide alternative scheduling to students in special enrollment situations. NCVPS will function as an intervention for students in these situations. These courses are not bound by time. If students need more than a semester for the course, we can arrange that. If students need to finish the course quickly, we can arrange that, as well. This program is good for homebound students or students who are hospitalized or in a treatment facility. It’s also an option for those students who are late arrivals and need a course to advance or graduate. Read more about our mastery learning program at this link.

EL English 1 and 2 - We have courses specifically designed for English Learners. This spring, we offer both EL English 1 and 2. For more details, click this link.

Health and Physical Education. We now have a ½ credit health course, a ½ credit physical education course, and a full-credit health and physical education course. These courses have already helped schools with students who have moved in from out-of-state and are missing some combination of health and PE. Early college campuses also are using these courses to meet their needs for health and PE. Click here to learn more.

Transfer Students. Transferring students from a traditional course into an online course is a great option for students who arrive to your district from another district in the middle of the semester. In their previous district, these students may have been enrolled in courses your district does not offer. There’s no need to lose those credits. Transfer those students into NCVPS courses.

If you have any questions regarding these options, please contact NCVPS Director of Outreach and Support  Mia Murphy.

Digital Learning Initiative
Fall Update

The Digital Learning initiative has hit the ground running! This fall we have launched three application-based programs, accepted participants, and hosted a series of professional development opportunities – already reaching approximately 1,100 education leaders. Below are some highlights of our progress to date.

If you have any questions about any of these programs, contact NCDPI Director for Digital Teaching and Learning Verna Lalbeharie.

Digital Learning Competencies (DLCs)

Throughout the month of November, the Digital Teaching and Learning staff have hosted professional development in each of the eight regions of the state for district leadership cohorts. The Digital Learning Competency Cohort professional development focused on deepening participant’s understanding of the DLCs for administrators. District teams consisted of central office administrators, instructional support personnel, principals, and teachers. Ninety-eight out of 115 school districts participated.

Based on the feedback at these sessions, 91 percent of participants agreed they had a good overview of the legislatively mandated competencies. At each of these events, there was an opening general session as well as five breakout sessions covering each of the five focus areas: Vision & Strategy, Content & Instruction, Human Capacity & Culture, Personal Growth & Connectedness, and Community.

More information about the professional learning offered is available online. Additional information regarding the competencies also is available online.

Save these Dates

Winter regional meetings have been scheduled for the following dates. Registration information will be sent to LEA team leads.  

• Jan. 11 - Northeast
• Jan. 20 - Piedmont-Triad
• Jan. 20 - North Central
• Jan. 23 - Northwest
• Jan. 24 - Southwest January 24 - Southeast
• Jan. 30 - Sandhills
• Feb. 8 - Western

Digital Leaders Coaching Network

NCDPI and the Friday Institute’s Digital Leaders Coaching Network are providing North Carolina instructional technologists, instructional coaches, mentor teachers and media coordinators with ongoing and job-embedded professional learning opportunities to build capacity in both digital and personalized learning.

This program is a unique opportunity to bring together educators from across the state for a year-long, blended learning experience that will help them grow as an educator and coach, and assist them in building a strong professional learning network. Participants are acquiring strategies and knowledge related to best practices in leadership, coaching and supporting educators, students, and administrators in their schools.

Out of 239 applicants, 186 participants were accepted for this year’s Digital Leaders Coaching Network cohort. Currently, we have 113 educators in the Raleigh cohort and 73 educators in the Asheville cohort. Applications for next year’s cohort will be released in August.

More information about this initiative is available online.

Leadership in Blended and Digital Learning

Leadership in Blended and Digital Learning is a program providing North Carolina principals with ongoing and job-embedded professional learning opportunities to build capacity in blended, digital and personalized learning.

This program is a unique opportunity to bring together principals from across the state for a year-long, blended learning experience that will help them grow as educators and coaches, and assist them in building a strong professional learning network. Participants are acquiring strategies and knowledge related to best practices in leadership, coaching and supporting educators, students and administrators in their schools.

Locations for the cohorts are Wilmington, Raleigh and Asheville. Currently, we have 32 principals in the Wilmington cohort, 52 principals in the Raleigh cohort, and 35 principals in the Asheville cohort participating in this year’s initiative. Applications for next year’s initiative will be released in June.

For more information about this initiative, please click this link.

District Teams for Digital Learning

District Teams for Digital Learning cohorts will have the opportunity to participate in district-based and collaborative activities focused on Leadership in Digital Teaching and Learning. District teams will develop capacity to understand, model, and lead digital learning, as well as build an understanding of and plan for key elements of digital learning: human capacity, curriculum and instruction, data and assessment, and technology and infrastructure.

Acceptance letters for this initiative were sent out to team leaders on Dec. 7. Cohort locations are New Bern, Colfax and Asheville. There are 10 districts in the New Bern cohort, 10 districts in the Colfax cohort, and 9 districts in the Asheville cohort. Applications for next year’s initiative will be released in August.

For more information about this initiative, click here.

Save The Date! Home Base Symposium 2017 Set for February

As all LEAs and many charter schools are now using Home Base to support the instructional improvement cycle, this year’s Home Base Symposium provides an opportunity to PLUG IN & CONNECT with Home Base users statewide.

The Home Base Symposium 2017 will be held Feb. 22-24 at the Sheraton Four Seasons, Koury Convention Center, Greensboro. There will be a pre-conference for PowerSchool district coordinators and technology directors on Feb. 21. Symposium sessions will be facilitated by product experts and colleagues, and will feature product functionality, updates and best practices.

Registration information will be coming soon!

Speak Up, North Carolina!

Speak Up, an online national research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow, annually polls students, educators and parents about key topics of importance to K-12 educators and policymakers.

Speak Up provides an easy way for students, parents and educators to participate in the dialogue about K-12 program and policy decisions at the local, state and national level. Since 2003, Project Tomorrow has collected the viewpoints of over 4 million students, educators and parents – the Speak Up data set represents the largest collection of authentic feedback from these key educational stakeholders.

As a participant in Speak Up, your district will receive free, online access to the aggregated results with national comparisons. This valuable data can be used for strategic planning, professional development and budgeting plans during the school year. Additionally, Speak Up data can inform North Carolina digital learning initiatives.

As of Dec. 8, North Carolina is in the top five participating states; Randolph County Schools is in the top 10 districts; and Archdale Elementary School (Randolph County Schools) is one of the top 10 schools across the country.

Visit the Speak Up website for more information and to access the Speak Up surveys. Follow Speak Up on Twitter @SpeakUpEd.