Happy 4th of July

The Office of Charter Schools would like to wish each one of you a very Happy and Safe 4th of July holiday!  Thank you for all you do to service our students in North Carolina. 

OCS Summer (West Regional) Huddle

Contact: ocs@dpi.nc.gov

July 16, 2019 | Register Here

Mark your calendars for the OCS Summer (West Regional) Huddle! Please join us at Gray Stone Day School in Misenheimer, NC on July 16^th for a full day of development and support. You can register here. We will not host a huddle at this year’s Financial Business Services (FBS) Conference, though there will be some charter-specific programming for those attending.

Below is the link for OCS Summer (West Regional) Huddle Agenda

7_16_19 Final agenda (002).pdf

CSLI - Charter School Leadership Institute (2019)

SAVE THE DATE!

What:  Charter School Leadership Institute 2019

When: October 17 and 18, 2019

Where: Envision Science Academy

REGISTRATION:  Click link below.

2019 Charter Leadership Institute registration

The North Carolina Virtual Public School invites you to its 2019 Virtual Open House

When: Tuesday, August 20, 11 AM - 12 PM or Thursday, August 22, 7 PM to 8 PM

This year we are offering two opportunities to attend the Annual Virtual Open House.  Please choose the date that works best for your schedule

Where: The event will be hosted in an NCVPS online classroom. Details will be sent following registration.

Presenters: NCVPS staff, teachers, and students.

Topics: The presentation will include Who is NCVPS?, Teaching and Learning with NCVPS, Meet the Teacher, See the Classroom, Support All Around, and Q & As.

Audience: The NCVPS Open House is open to the public. While our presentations are geared toward parents and students in public schools, private schools, and home-schools, we have something for everyone. Educators will learn about the NCVPS teaching and learning process.  The general public will discover what online learning is. 

Register: August 20, 11 AM

Register: August 22, 7 PM

EDDIE

EDDIE is the authoritative source for NC public school numbers and demographic information, is used by multiple NCDPI technology systems including: Accountability, PowerSchool, NC School Report Cards, and is used to meet federal reporting requirements. LEAs and charter schools are responsible for ensuring their data in EDDIE are complete, accurate, and current. EDDIE is located at: http://apps.schools.nc.gov/eddie

Dr. David Stegall, Deputy Superintendent

of Innovation

Dr. David Stegall is the Deputy Superintendent of Innovation for the NC Department of Public Instruction, joining in June of 2019. He previously served as Superintendent and Vice President for Global Education Management Systems in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia regions of the world.

Prior to his tenure working abroad, Dr. Stegall served as the Superintendent for Newton-Conover Schools where 100 percent of schools met or exceeded growth in his final two years at the helm. Stegall helped develop a national award-winning STEM school, a national award-winning Leader in Me school, a state-recognized personalized learning school and a successful dual-language school, among other accomplishments. Additionally, N-CCS was one of the only three districts in the state with graduation rates of greater than 95% and ranked in the state’s top five for graduation rate five consecutive years during under his leadership.

Dr. Stegall co-founded the #NCed statewide educator twitter forum that worked to bring educators across the state together in bi-weekly online exchanging of ideas and resources. He was named the NW North Carolina Superintendent of the Year in 2017 and a national Superintendent to Watch in 2016. He was previously named the Outstanding Young Educator for North Carolina in 2012.

After earning a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Stegall taught in Rowan-Salisbury Schools and Iredell-Statesville Schools before entering administrative leadership positions in Iredell-Statesville and Newton-Conover Schools. He holds a master's degree in education administration from Gardner-Webb University as well as an Ed.S degree and a doctorate in education leadership from Appalachian State University.

Operating after July 1 Without a Budget

GS.143C-5-4 provides the legislation on operating without a ratified budget. In the event that there is not a signed 2019-20 budget July 1, the following will apply:

Public school units are authorized to continue to expend at a level not to exceed the level of recurring expenditures from State funds for the prior year.

Carryforward for allotment categories that have a carryforward provision, will be requested from State Budget and Management.  If approved, spending authority will be made available to the public-school units.

No allocations will be formerly made until there is a signed budget.

An authority to draw funds will be entered by July 12th. The authority will be calculated at:

2018-19 State average base for continuation funding:

Charter, Regional & ISD - $5,606.41

Virtual charter schools - $5,420.81

State Allotment - Summer Reading Camps (PRC 016)

Is scheduled to carry over from FY 2018-19 into FY 2019-20 when the State Public School Fund Budget is passed, and the Allotment section allots the carry over funds.

Please do not request cash for State PRC 016 until the General Assembly passes the State Public School Fund Budget and the Allotment section has allotted state PRC 016 funds.

If you have any questions, please contact Roxane Bernard at (919) 807-3725, or via email roxane.bernard@dpi.nc.gov.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 1, 2019

UNC System Implements Standardized AP Credit Policy

New policy goes into effect today

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina System has a new System-wide Advanced Placement (AP) credit policy, effective today. Under the new policy, the 16 universities in the System must grant credit to students who have earned a score a “three” or higher on AP exams, except in cases when a course has been granted an exception by an institution’s board of trustees.

"Our new AP Credit Acceptance policy is vital to the UNC System’s ongoing work to put higher education within reach of every qualified North Carolinian,” said UNC System Interim President William Roper. “This new policy will encourage more high school students across the state to get a head start on their college careers. It will make completing a UNC System education, at any one of our institutions, faster and more affordable.”

The new AP policy is aligned with the UNC System’s Strategic Plan, which aims to increase access, affordability, and degree completion. Research suggests that students who earn college credit prior to enrolling in college are more likely to graduate and do so in a timely fashion. 

With this new policy, prospective students will benefit from greater transparency and predictability. These improvements may also create greater incentive for students to enroll in AP courses and for high schools to offer a robust set of offerings. Making the policy consistent across the UNC System will therefore enhance the University’s efforts to ensure that all North Carolinians, including those from rural counties and low-income families, have “access to success.” Data shows that students from rural counties and those from families earning less than $60,000 per year could receive credit for up to 45 percent more courses than they did under current policy.  

“Each year, the state of North Carolina invests millions of dollars to cover the cost of AP exams for students in the hopes that those credits will shorten the path to a college diploma,” said Andrew Kelly, UNC System Senior Vice President of Strategy and Policy. “This change is significant because it will encourage high school students to earn their first college credits before they even set foot on campus, making a degree more affordable and helping more students graduate in a timely fashion.”

Prior to the change, the policies governing the acceptance of AP scores varied across UNC System institutions. For example, at 10 universities, students could get credit for scoring a ‘three’ on the popular US history AP exam; at the remaining six universities, a four was required for credit. A score of three on the English Literature and Composition exam was the cutoff for credit at nine institutions, while two institutions required a score of five.

The University’s new AP credit policy will dramatically increase the return on the state’s investment. In 2016-17 alone, the state spent more than $12 million on AP exams. In that same year, UNC System students missed out on 13,950 course credits under the existing policy. Under a uniform policy, the UNC System would have granted credit for 40% more courses that year. After today, students and the state will save on tuition and appropriations that previously went toward the cost of University courses that cover material students have already learned.

As students move through the University more efficiently, they will enter the workforce more quickly, fully prepared to succeed in and contribute to our state’s growing economy.

Greetings HR Directors (**New Instructions**) Human Capital/Licensure Webinars

In an effort to keep you all better informed about changes to state policy, NCDPI will begin offering monthly webinars closely following State Board of Education meetings.  The purpose of the webinars is to provide you with the opportunity to hear about proposed and approved changes to state policy that have an impact on Human Resources departments.  

Because we anticipate many participants, the webinar will not offer a "Q & A" session.  We will, however, have a chat feature enabled and will try to answer the most common questions raised from the field.  Additionally, we will record these webinars and place those recordings online so you will be able to hear the information even if you are unable to attend.  Attendance is, of course, optional, but we hope you all will join us for the webinars.

Charter School directors can designate a staff member to attend these webinars. To do so, the Charter School director/head of school should email Kimberly Evans <Kimberly.Evans@dpi.nc.gov> and request access to the webinar. Please include the designee’s name, position, and email address.

Here is a list of the dates we are planning to schedule the webinars:  

July 15

August 12

September 6

October 4

November 8

December 6

Specific times and the login for the webinar will be provided in the invitation.  Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thomas Tomberlin

Director, Educator Recruitment and Support

Office of the Deputy State Superintendent of District Support

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

(O) 919-807-3440

2018-2019 Evaluation and PDP Plans Archive Completed

PowerSchool has reported the completion of the archival process for NCDPI's NCEES Evaluations and Professional Development shortly after 5PM today, Friday, 6/28/2019.

NCDPI has verified that the following plan types have been archived:

• Abbreviated Evaluation 2018-2019
• Comprehensive Evaluation 2018-2019
• Late Hire Evaluation 2018-2019
• Principal or Assistant Principal Evaluation Process 2018-2019
• Professional Development Plan 2018-2019
• Standard Evaluation 2018-2019

Staff with access rights to the Staff Evaluations tab may view the archived 2018-2019 plans under the three stack lines icon beside All Evaluations. The plans are no longer accessible to work in.

Please wait for another communication from NCDPI that will notify when principals and other designated staff may begin setting 2019-2020 Teacher Plan Types and PDP Types under My Staff.

NOTE: Reminder when these are available to set to set both the Teacher Plan Type and the PDP Type at the same time and the system will configure the correct observation rubrics to match the staff role. Principal Plans will again be system assigned. Principals do NOT get PDPs assigned to them.

NCDPI would like to thank all our NC school leaders, educators and support staff for all you do! Thank you for a great 2018-2019 School Year. Looking forward to beginning 2019-2020!

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New NCEES 2019-2020 Webinars Posted 

NCDPI is offering new webinars for the 2019-2020 School Year. Please mark your calendars and share with your NCEES users.

To view the listing of new webinars posted to the NCEES Google site click this link: http://bit.ly/ncees-support and navigate to WEBINARS 2019-2020. 

There is one July webinar for district PD Leads wanting to house local PD opportunities in their  NCEES PD Office. Note: LEA or Charter should be opted into Home Base to use a local PD Office..

Housing PD Opportunities in NCEES

Date: Tuesday, July 16, 2019 

Time: 4-5PM

Description:  This session will show PD District Administrators how to utilize a NCEES Professional Development Office to house all types of differentiated staff PD Learning Opportunities. Keep track of rosters, sign-in sheets, attendance, credit types and more to award staff CEU credits, a certificate recorded to staff NCEES transcripts. Don’t pay for a third party system if your district is opted-in to Home Base for 2019-2020. Home Base includes a District PD Office. Plus learn how those credits can transfer into HRMS. Our review will include an overview of PD Playlists and Transfer Credit Manager.

Click here to Register:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2052683055413466369

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Online Professional Development Sources

NCDPI often receives inquiries on how staff that are not in the NCEES system can access PD opportunities within the NCEES catalog.

The online professional modules offered by NCDPI are in Home Base/NCEES. Access to online PD in the Home Base system is managed through an active employee ID Number, so only current employees of North Carolina Public School Districts or Charter Schools can access Home Base. 

There is no mechanism for others to access and hence use the educator resources housed in the Home Base system.

Here are a few sites that may help staff search for PD outside of NCEES. The first source is free of cost....others may have a charge associated.

NOTE: not all of these listings are endorsed by NCDPI - check and vette any searches to find what best meets credit needs. Follow local professional developemnt policy on approval processes. Some districts require prior approval before participating in credit earning PD.

• DPI Open access modules. Open Access Modules are located on NC Education PD (https://center.ncsu.edu/ncpd/)
• ASCD http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/pd-online.aspx
• ACHIEVE THE CORE http://www.achievethecore.org/steal-these-tools/professional-development-modules 
• BloomBoard http://my.bloomboard.com/
• Capella University https://www.capella.edu/online-degrees/education-professional-development/
• EdWeb.net http://home.edweb.net/
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/premium/plan/learning/
• NCSU Friday Institute https://place.fi.ncsu.edu/local/catalog/catalog.php
• Professional Development Institute https://www.webteaching.com/ncteacher.html
• Teacher CEU Toolbox http://www.teacherceutoolbox.com/
• TEACHME PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT http://www.teachmeceus.com/
• Virtual Education Software, inc.http://www.virtualeduc.com/courses.php

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Staff Access to NCEES Statement

The NCDPI contract with the vendor of the NC Educator Effectiveness System (NCEES) has a specified number of users.

For this reason, access to the Evaluation and Professional Learning module within Home Base is limited mainly to current certified employees of North Carolina Public School Districts and Charter Schools.

Identity Access Management (IAM) helps maintain the threshold of our license agreement. User accounts in the Home Base NCEES PD System are verified, through IAM, using an active employee ID number and a payroll code. These codes allow the system to guide the assignment of rubrics to appropriate roles in the evaluation module and to collect/maintain credit transcript information from the PD system.

There are many licensed educators in NC with interest in using the NCEES PD system. Unfortunately granting access to them (retired teachers, long-term subs, etc.) would exceed the quota of users within our license agreement. For this reason, there is no mechanism for them to access the educator resources housed in the Home Base/NCEES PD system.

Your district may have recent retirees, long-term subs, or other contracted roles to whom this applies. If you receive access requests from such individuals, please advise them of this limitation.

Please review this document, NCEES DATA v6, for a listing of which certified staff according to paycode/role would provision into NCEES access. There is one classified salary object code 153 (from the Chart of Accounts) that for the role of NCEES Administrative Specialist provisions classified staff into NCEES. Per NCDPI School Business that is the only classified code to access NCEES at this time.

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