Jan. 23, 2017 Superintendents' Weekly Message

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Superintendents' Weekly Message

Jan. 23, 2017

Following are this week’s information items from across NCDPI’s departments and divisions of interest to local public school superintendents.




Recurring Low-Performing Schools Reform Model

 

Friday you received a memo regarding the optional application process for the recurring low-performing schools reform model with timelines and website information. Please remember that all information can be found online by clicking on the Reform Model button on the left.

 

District and School Transformation staff are looking forward to reading and submitting these applications on your behalf for State Board approval. Please contact District and School Transformation Director Nancy Barbour if you have any questions.


Congrats!

2017 NC Regional Teachers of the Year Announced

 

Congratulations to the following nine teachers who were recently selected as the state’s regional Teachers of the Year for their dedication, innovation and ability to inspire students and will now compete for the title of 2017 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year:

  • Northeast: Amy Parker, Hertford Grammar (Perquimans County Schools);
  • Southeast: Lisa Godwin, Dixon Elementary (Onslow County Schools);
  • North Central: Miles MacLeod, Heritage High (Wake County Schools);
  • Sandhills: Juandalynn Ray, Sampson Middle (Clinton City Schools);
  • Piedmont-Triad: Adam Reeder, Asheboro High (Asheboro City Schools);
  • Southwest: Anthony Johnson, Jr., Isenberg Elementary (Rowan-Salisbury Schools);
  • Northwest: Carrie Franklin, Glenwood Elementary (McDowell County Schools);
  • Western: Leslie Schoof, Madison Early College High (Madison County Schools); and
  • Charter Schools: Deborah Brown, Research Triangle High (Research Triangle Park).

The 2017 North Carolina Teacher of the Year will be announced April 6 at an awards ceremony in Cary.


Math Chalkboard

Revised Mathematics
Standards Update

 

Last week your Curriculum and Instruction leaders received the information below. Please help us with the revision process by assembling teams (if you haven’t already) in your district to review and suggest revisions of the first draft of the K-8 Math Standards. We hope to receive your district's feedback by Feb. 10.

 

K-8 Math Standards and Opportunity to Provide Feedback

 

Based on NC State Board of Education policy, standards are to be reviewed every five years. For the K-8 mathematics standards, groups of teachers, district leaders, and university faculty were brought together from various regions of the state to review all the stakeholder feedback provided on current practice and content standards in the NC Standard Course of Study for Mathematics.

 

This data review committee made recommendations for revision to the current standards. Following that, a subset of the review team served as the revision/writing team for the current draft of revised mathematics standards. Both the data review committee and the revision/writing teams paid close attention to the feedback provided by various surveys of educators, parents, community members, the Academic Standards Review Commission as well as focus groups comprised of North Carolina teachers and district leaders.

 

LEAs are asked to further review the standards and complete an online survey by Friday, Feb. 10. We ask that one survey be completed per LEA. Remember when providing feedback on this draft of the standards:

*  Educational standards define the minimum knowledge and skills that all students in North Carolina should demonstrate by the end of the school year.

*  Standards should be concise, written descriptions of what students are expected to know and be able to do by the end of each grade level.

*  Standards should not specifically support any curriculum or assessment method.

*  Expectations expressed in a grade level are not repeated in other grade levels.

*  Further explanation of standards will be found in the instructional support documents (e.g, Unpacking Documents).

 

Below are links to the survey questions as well as the first drafts of K-5 and 6-8 revisions of math standards. Questions regarding the mathematics standards revision process should be directed to NCDPI K-12 Mathematics Section Chief Jen Curtis.


Laptop

NCVPS NC Math 1 Intervention
Course Webinar

 

Do you have students who are low performing or under achieving in Math 1? NCVPS has partnered with NCDPI to create a new NC Math 1 intervention course to help students in need. This course is designed for students who lack prior success in a traditional math setting, are learning English as a second language, or who have an IEP or 504.

 

Please join us in one of our NC Math 1 Information Session webinars. Participants will be given a detailed overview of why, how and the benefits of enrolling in the program, which is part of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Preliminary data from the pilot will be shared along with implementation for the upcoming school year.

 

Webinar dates are as follows. Click on the date for details and registration.

-  Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2 – 3 p.m.

-  Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 – 8 p.m.

-  Friday, Feb. 24, 10 – 11 a.m.

 

Learn more about the NCVPS NC Math 1 Intervention course by clicking here. Questions may be directed to NCVPS Director of Outreach and Support Mia Murphy.


Recruitment and Retention of Special Educators Summit

 

The Exceptional Children Division is pleased to announce the third Recruitment and Retention of Special Educators Summit. The Summit will be held at Elon University on Friday, Feb. 24, from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. District Exceptional Children and Human Resources directors (or designees) should work together to identify a school principal to attend with them as a team.

 

Regional groups will identify key issues related to recruitment and retention of special educators faced by LEAs, DPI and Institutions of Higher Education. Innovative strategies to address these issues will be shared. Working in regional teams, an action plan specific to each LEA’s needs will be developed and reviewed to incorporate the strategies learned during the summit. Each LEA will leave equipped with an implementation plan, which will help with both retention and recruitment of special and general educators.

 

Please register your team online by Feb. 8. Upon registration, attendees will be provided with a campus map and agenda. Breakfast and lunch are included.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Exceptional Children Program Improvement and Professional Development Consultant Carol Moffitt or 919.807.3997.


READY Principals

Spring 2017 Principal READY Dates Set

 

NCDPI’s Educator Effectiveness staff have set the spring dates for the annual Principal Ready sessions to begin in early February and extend through April.

 

This session will address Equitable Distribution of Effective Teachers, including current statewide data trends, and explore strategies to assist school leaders to support instructional improvement at their individual schools.

 

Service Support team members will facilitate area-specific breakout sessions based on regional principal feedback and data collected by service teams. These sessions will generally address some combination of the following:

-  improving/supporting teacher evaluation;

-  recruiting, supporting, and retaining teachers;

-  improving teacher professional development; and

-  supporting teacher leadership.

 

Each region across the state will host a session planned by the division’s statewide Service Support Teams in collaboration with principals from each zone. Participants are free to choose the date that best fits his/her schedule. You do not have to attend the session in your home region if another date is more appropriate.

 

Please use this link to register for the spring 2017 PREADY.


CCSA: Collaborative Conference for Student Achievement

Registered for CCSA? Check!

 

The 2017 Collaborative Conference for Student Achievement is open to educators, administrators and education stakeholders. Register before Feb. 1 and receive a reduced registration fee of $175. Registration after Feb. 1 is $200.

 

If you have any questions about the CCSA conference, please call the CCSA hotline at 919.835.6133 or email staff.


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