Pam Batchelor is our new consultant for the Instructional Improvement System (Schoolnet) and NCLOR (North Carolina Learning Object Repository).

She joins us from Johnston County Public Schools, where she served as a middle school teacher and district-level instructional coach for the past nine years. Pam led her district in adopting Schoolnet four years ago and served as a Canvas administrator for the past two years.

She has presented at several conferences, including NCTIES, CCSA, and most recently, FETC, for her work as an instructional coach and digital leader.

Pam is an avid reader and tweeter (find her @pambatchelor on Twitter) and is a lifelong Pirate with two degrees from East Carolina University in History Education and Instructional Technology. Pam lives in Johnston County with her husband Joe and their seven-year-old son, Ben.

Justin Connors is our new Student Information System Analyst.  He joins us from Rutherford County Schools, where he served as the district's Information Systems Coordinator and Director of Information Technology.

Prior to working at the district office, Justin taught at East Rutherford High School and Isothermal Community College. He took over as the SIS coordinator for Rutherford County Schools just before the statewide PowerSchool implementation and helped begin the PSUG Southeast Conference in Myrtle Beach.

Justin is a graduate of Limestone College and Appalachian State University and lives in Forest City with his wife, Stacey, and two children, Lennon and Wesley.  Justin also serves on several boards, including Forest City Town Council, Rutherford County Planning Commission, and the DSS Board. 

PowerSchool News

As we finish the first half of the school year, the Home Base team would like to make teachers, principals, counselors and others aware of a few recently implemented features and the status of other developments now in the works.

·       Global Language Endorsements (GLEs) were deployed into the NC Graduation Planner (North Carolina’s version of grad planner – not core) in PowerSchool on Tuesday evening, Dec. 12. These endorsements can now be placed on diplomas of students who have academically met the requirements or demonstrated proficiency for GLE.  More information about GLE is outlined in the SBE Policy GCS-L-007.

·       NC Academic Scholar Endorsements were completely deployed into PowerSchool in the fall of 2017.  These endorsement calculations do not update until final grades are posted.

·       Read to Achieve Data Collection has been completed in PowerSchool. Users can begin updating data as usual.  

·       PowerTeacher Pro Cohort II planning is underway. Now that PT Pro Cohort I has successfully completed, the Home Base team is gearing up for our next PowerTeacher Pro deployment in the spring of 2018.  Visit the PT Pro Resource page to learn more about the use of PowerTeacher Pro.

·       NCDPI is currently testing PowerSchool 11.0. New features include: 

o   Preferred Class Name

o   Standards and Full Student Schedule Report Options

o   Import Scores

o   Copy Traditional Grade Calculations

o   Copy Assignments from PowerTeacher Grade Book

o   Comment Bank Usability Improvements

o   Formatting Bar for Class, Assignment, and Category Descriptions

o   Section Readiness Report

o   Metrics on Category Totals Screen

and much, much more!

Questions concerning these items may be addressed to the Home Base Team at home_base@dpi.nc.gov.

CTE Reports

Did you know there is a new CTE Reports Hub located under the Federal Dashboard in PowerSchool.  Beneath the CTE Web Reports Home Page, LEAs can find reports about:

·       CTE Indicators Reports

·       CTE Enrollment Error Reports

·       CTE Enrollments by Course Reports

·       CTE Unduplicated Enrollment Reports

·       CTE Unduplicated Enrollment Counts and CAR Participant Reports

·       CTE Articulation Credit Reports

The CTE web reports are dynamic and intended for building transparency around our CTE reporting. Questions about these reports may be directed to Kimberly MacDonald at kimberly.macdonald@dpi.nc.gov

Discover Schoolnet

Sneak Peek at Home Base Meet Ups

New Features Coming in Version 19.1

Interest ran high last week at our Home Base Meet-Ups in Johnston, Cumberland, Wilkes, and Buncombe Counties. Pearson reviewed new features coming in Schoolnet version 19.1 (targeted for an early February launch).

Some of the updates include:

• A new centralized benchmark dashboard with summary graphics and one-click access to reports.
• Test report summary now available for benchmark assessments.
• Assessment enhancement, including support for MathML items.

Along with the sneak peek, we also celebrated the grade passback feature working with PowerTeacher Pro and welcomed Pam Batchelor, who has joined the Home Base team as lead for the Instructional Improvement System.

Participants led an “unconference” style afternoon session that facilitated excellent conversations about test item restrictions, training plan needs, and how we can support instructional change after an assessment. If you were unable to join us at a Home Base Meet-Up, you can view the slide deck and resources at: bit.ly/SchoolnetDec4

Needs Assessment Survey Invitation

Schoolnet Leads are invited to give us feedback on how we are doing with providing support for Schoolnet and where we can grow. Survey results will be used to drive the training plan for the remainder of the year. Please complete the survey by December 18th. Survey link: bit.ly/schoolnetsurveydec

Truenorthlogic

Home Base Meet-Ups last week were productive for NCEES Coordinators and Leads throughout the state’s regions. Truenorthlogic breakout sessions allowed opportunities to discuss and network solutions for reporting, upcoming Middle-of-Year processes for evaluations and PDP’s and also offered a look at the new PD playlist function in Professional Development.

All presentations can be found here: Home Base Meet-Ups folder for Districts.

17.06 Feature Release 

To get information about Performance Matters/HomeBase 17.06 Feature Release, please register here for a webinar Dec. 18 at 10 a.m.

The 2017.06 Feature Release for the Performance Matters Home Base solutions will be available Saturday, December 23. We are excited for you to take advantage of all the new features and enhancements for evaluations, professional development, inactive user icon on administration screens, and exporting from Staff Evaluations screen and more. We invite you to join us for this web-based session to preview key enhancements prior to the release date. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

CCES Preview

We are excited to invite you to attend CCES conference March 11 to 15. A big thanks to all who submitted proposals for sessions, which include classes for beginner to advanced users. New: Register for one or more days.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the topics:

• PD on the Double!
• Supporting Teacher Professional Growth through Online Learning Truenorthlogic NCEES Basics
• Connect the dots on Entering Staff in NCEES
• NCEES Process: Principal Evaluation Process
• NCEES Process: Teacher Evaluation Process
• NCEES: Elements and Indicators Count!
• Ain't Nobody Got Time for That - NCEES Tips and Tricks
• NCEES and Best practices learned from small and large/ urban and rural districts.

For more information visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/cces/. Early Registration starts tomorrow, Dec. 15th. 

Watch for a NCDPI communication.

New Online Professional Development Module from NCDPI

We are very excited to launch a new professional development online learning opportunity for North Carolina Educators:

Culturally Responsive Teaching about American Indians

Culturally responsive instruction is a philosophy and accompanying implementation of instruction that purposefully acknowledges, embraces and uses what each student brings culturally to the classroom in order for all students to have equitable access to the learning content. 

It is built on a foundation of relationships and respect. Culturally responsive teaching is one strategy identified by the NC State Advisory Council on Indian Education (SACIE) and others to address issues in student performance. With this in mind, the mission of this module is to promote culturally responsive teaching about American Indians among educators in North Carolina. This module should take approximately 10 hours to complete and is worth 1.0 CEU on successful completion.

For a complete list of online courses, modules and mini modules, visit http://rt3nc.org/ or look under the Professional Development tab in Home Base.

To access the course, follow the instructions below to log into Home Base to self-register for a course.

• Log in to the NCEES system (directions attached)
• Click the Professional Development tab.
• You can search for the course, or list all opportunities to find the course for which you wish to register.
• Click on the course title, you are then presented with the course screen. 
• Click on the register button.

Contact Dr. Geetanjali Soni at Geetanjali.soni@dpi.nc.gov  if you have any questions.