State Board of Education Meets
This Week

State Board of Education members will meet this Wednesday and Thursday, April 5-6, in the 7th Floor Board Room, Education Building, Raleigh.

Board action items include English Language Arts draft standards revisions; restart school applications for Bertie County, Weldon City, Johnston County, Northampton County, Iredell-Statesville, Halifax County and Cleveland County Schools; Kestrel Heights Review Panel recommendation; and School-Based Mental Health Initiative policy.

Discussion items include update to READY Accountability Annual Performance Standards policy; State Advisory Council on Indian Education Annual Report; restart school applications for a number of districts; NCVPS update on FLEX Learning/Non-Public Program and enrollment; and CTE Incentive Grants for CTE programs.

On Thursday, Board members will recognize National Title I Distinguished School Union Elementary (Union County Schools).

The agendas for this meeting and executive summaries are available online (under Meetings tab). The State Board’s committee meetings and full Board meeting are audio streamed for those who can’t attend.

Superintendent Unveils New
Reading Initiative

NC Superintendent Mark Johnson today unveiled North Carolina’s new statewide reading initiative, NC Reads. NC Reads will connect state literacy efforts from preschool to career.

The launch of NC Reads will promote three goals for this summer to combat the summer brain drain:
* Collect books, and funds for books, to donate to preschoolers and students for summer reading.
* Distribute free subscriptions for every student in K-5 to myON, which provides each user with a personalized literacy environment.
* Develop the NC Reads online resource to seamlessly connect volunteers, donors, and stakeholders to literacy efforts and programs across North Carolina.

As NC Reads continues beyond this summer, the program will expand to:
* encourage and support preschool literacy efforts to ensure children are kindergarten ready;
* align the efforts of donors, volunteers, and stakeholders to best support literacy in preschool and throughout school; and
* maintain a seamless continuum of literacy support from preschool to graduation.

This is the fifth consecutive year that the NC Department of Public Instruction has encouraged local communities to collect or purchase and distribute appropriate books to elementary school students. A revamped website will provide a clearinghouse of local book drive sponsors so that volunteers and donations can be connected to local organizations that sponsor local book drives and fundraising efforts.

NCVPS Opens Registration

NCVPS registration for the 2017-18 academic year opened today (April 3). This includes Summer 2017, Fall Block 2017, Yearlong 2017-18, and Spring Block 2018.

All enrollments are counted in your new allotment totals for the 2017-18 school year, which may be found in the NCVPS registration system.

If you have any questions, please contact NCVPS Director of Outreach and Support Mia Murphy. NCVPS staff look forward to serving North Carolina districts in the new school year!

Notice of Public Comment:
NC Extended Content Standards for English Language Arts

The Exceptional Children Division is accepting public comments on proposed changes to the North Carolina Extended Content Standards for English Language Arts (ELA).

Per federal guidelines and regulation on the Alternate Achievement Standards for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (2007), students must be provided access to state standards by aligning instruction and assessments. Currently, NCDPI K-12 Curriculum and Instruction staff are in the process of revising ELA K-12 standards. The Exceptional Children Division will revise the current standards to align with the newly proposed ELA revisions.

These documents can be viewed in person at the Exceptional Children Division office, Education Building, 301 N. Wilmington Street, Raleigh, and on the web (under Hot Topics).

Interested citizens and school personnel are invited to review the proposed changes and submit any comments by April 30. In making comments, please indicate the section(s) on which you are commenting (e.g., NC.RLK.1; NC-RL 6.3 a), and provide comments in the form of statements. Comments may be submitted via email or mailed to: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Exceptional Children Division, ATTN: Dreama McCoy or Ronda Layman, 6356 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-6356.

Multi-Tiered System of Support:
Intentional Connections with the
MTSS Team

Module 1 of the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) blended learning course provides sequential guidance for teams on how to establish readiness, and define and analyze core instruction. MTSS Module 2 was created to help district teams gain the necessary skills and build local capacity to implement a MTSS that contains effective intervention systems with fidelity.

As Cohort 1 and 2 teams proceed through the course, they are considering the following questions: 

-  Is what we are doing effective for most of our students?

-  What do we currently have in place that is part of our layers of support for students?

-  What additional data do we need to determine effectiveness of core and supplemental instruction?

-  What are some ways we can strengthen core instruction for all students?

-  What gaps do we have in our intervention system?

The leadership superintendents provide in designing and supporting school systems that meet the needs of all students is much appreciated. Feel free to use the questions above to examine where your district is with MTSS implementation.

Many of the Moodle resources designed to facilitate discussion around these questions are found in the MTSS LiveBinder. For further assistance, please contact NCDPI Director of Integrated Academic and Behavior Systems Amy Jablonski.

Schoolnet: Data for All Users

If you’re interested in knowing the extent to which Schoolnet is being used in your district, be sure to request access to your Schoolnet data! This data provides a summary of the assessments administered in your district’s schools and can be retrieved by having your Schoolnet lead submit a help ticket.

If you have questions about how to access this program in your district, please contact NCDPI Instructional Improvement Systems Consultant Yanisha Mann.