NCDPI Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates

Please click on each link.

Charter School Diabetes Memo

Charter School Epinephrine Memo

SPOTLIGHTS on OCS   Professional Learning 101 https://www.smore.com/z7vg5   The Scoop with Coop   The Scoop with Coop is a newsletter that focuses on the North Carolina Charter School Renewal process.  In addition, this letter provides insight on a variety of charter school topics to assist our leaders and readers alike!  https://www.smore.com/8hcf9

Performance Framework Report for 2019

Dear Charter School Directors,

The 2019 Performance Framework data has been compiled and your individual draft reports will be posted in Epicenter in January. We will include a form that you can submit directly to us online with evidence of any corrections you believe should be made. There will be a 2 week window for correction through evidence submitted in the form. This window will open the day after the draft report is posted so please keep an eye out for that in Epicenter!

Did you know…….. New and Improved DPI Website!   The Office of Charter Schools, and all of DPI, has a new website!  This site is designed to be much more mobile friendly and we hope you enjoy the new look and feel.  Direct links to the old website will no longer work, so please bookmark this url: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/students-families/innovative-school-options/charter-schools Charter school specific information can be found on the right side of the navigation and all other DPI information can be found from the several drop down menus at the top.

NC ACCESS Subgrant Application Info   The 2019-2020 NC ACCESS Subgrant Application is available on the NC ACCESS Program Website. Letters of Intent must be emailed to NCACCESS@dpi.nc.gov by January 15, 2020.  Applications are due by 5pm in Epicenter on March 1, 2020.    For all NC ACCESS Program questions, please contact us at NCACCESS@dpi.nc.gov or 919.807.3981.

Required Planning Year Sessions Opportunities

Board members from charter schools that are opening in 2020 are required to attend 5 face-to-face Planning Year Sessions from September to January.  The school leader and some of the board members are also required to attend the New Charter School Leaders Institute in June.  As a customer service, the Office of Charter Schools continues to open up these sessions to all charter schools.  If you have a new school leader and/or a new board member interested in attending any of the sessions, he or she must register to attend.  Please note the schedule below:

Registration is now open for the January session.  Registration ends on Sunday, January 19, 2020.  Please use this link to register:

https://forms.gle/d445czthdD4GdESGA

For questions, please contact Dr. Kebbler Williams at kebbler.williams@dpi.nc.gov or 919-807-3920.

SAVE the DATE: March 9, 2020 to March 11, 2020 Charter School Connections Conference-Cullowhee   How can charter school teachers build networks of support for schools, staff, and students? With each charter school operating as an independent LEA, how do we form communities with other charter school educators to share best practices and increase community support?   Explore how teachers can better advocate for their specific school and charters in general and how to develop your own leadership style to help support school initiatives. Learn best practices in connecting students to digital learning and student leadership development through exploring personalized, project-based and flipped learning. Discuss ways to model these practices in your schools. Using a “make and take” model, participants will have time to develop a communication or networking plan, digital lessons, and project-based modules to share with your school.   CLICK HERE TO APPLY

2020 SECU People Helping People Scholarship   Charter High School leaders:   It is time again to begin thinking about the 2020 SECU Foundation People Helping People Scholarship! Each year, $10,000.00 scholarships have been awarded to three graduating senior attending North Carolina Charter Schools.   These scholarships will be awarded to students attending one of the 16 constituent campuses of the University of North Carolina. Funds are made possible through the contributions to SECU Foundation by members of the State Employees’ Credit Union.    Please see the attached memo, Eligibility Criteria, Program Application and Consent Form linked below.   2020 Charter Schools People Helping People Memo   2020 Charter Schools People Helping People Eligibility Criteria   2020 Charter Schools People Helping People Operating Procedures   2020 Charter Schools People Helping People Consent Form   2020 Charter Schools People Helping People Application

Early Registration Discounts to Fresh Take Conference

Fresh Take: Strategies for Student Success education conference is February 7, 2020 in Davidson, NC

Todd Whitaker's keynote is titled "What Great Educators Do Differently"

Visit our website to see all the details

Early registration and group discounts are available now

Register Now

#FreshTake2020

Lock in the date

Leading & Learning Day  Thursday, March 26, 2020 at The Capitol Encore Academy

OCS Huddle West  Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at Brevard Academy

Big News at Triangle Math and Science Academy

WRAL-TV

AP News

NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Updates

Superintendents' Weekly Message: Dec. 19

20191216 Monday Message.pdf

Application for the North Carolina Purple Star designation   Superintendents & Charter School Administrators:   Please see the following three items included in this message.     Item 1: REVISED ITEM There has been a revision to the Purple Star application. The item School Welcome Video or Photo Slideshow has been removed from required to optional, and specific guidance has been provided about this item. Please see the attached revised application. Again, School Welcome Video or Photo Slideshow is now an optional item. You will now see the following language on the application:                                               Optional School Activities (At least 1) All optional activities must have been completed during the 2019-2020 school year. e.) School Welcome Video or Photo Slideshow – The school posts a school video or slideshow of pictures to highlight certain aspects of the school facility (i.e. gym, cafeteria, media center, typical classroom, playground) on its website, as a way to help new students transitioning to the area. FOR SECURITY PURPOSES: THE SCHOOL WELCOME VIDEO OR PHOTO SLIDESHOW ARTIFACT MUST BE FREE FROM IMAGES OF STUDENTS. THIS ARTIFACT MUST NOT BE A GUIDED WALK-THROUGH OF THE SCHOOL. PLEASE ONLY INCLUDE IMAGES OF THE SCHOOL IN GENERAL (I.E. POINT OUT THE GYM, CAFETERIA, ETC. WITHOUT PROVIDING SPECIFIC LOCATIONS IN THE SCHOOL OR ON THE CAMPUS).   Item 2: LOGOS North Carolina's Purple Star logos are attached to this message. Please use these with any communication you provide on Purple Star.   Item 3: PD IDEAS A request was made to provide some ideas for professional development. Please visit this resource for guidance.   purple_starLOGO.png Revised NC Purple Star School Application.doc purple_starLOGOcentered.jpg

Definition of High Quality Reading Instruction (Birth - 12th Grade) Survey

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) convened a B-12 Literacy Team with cross-divisional/cross-area involvement to examine the alignment of policy, legislation, instructional practices, initiatives, and programs to support literacy in NC Public Schools. Subsequently, and in line with the focus to improve student reading proficiency in the early grades, the State Board of Education (SBE) adopted a Collaborative Guiding Framework for Action on Early Reading. NCDPI is developing action steps for each of the priorities, including new or revised SBE policies, NCDPI initiatives using existing resources, and legislative recommendations, including both recommended statutory revisions and appropriations requests. 

The first action of the framework is to develop a definition of high quality reading instruction that is aligned with the National Reading Panel and current research to guide state policy and practice in reading, from Birth - 12th Grade. NCDPI has also held three regional stakeholder meetings to gather feedback on a working definition of high quality reading instruction. Stakeholder groups were comprised of Administrators, Advocacy Group Leaders, Faculty from Institutions of Higher Education, Practitioners, Parents, District and State Leadership, Organization Leaders, and Literacy Leaders.

From December 11, 2019 - January 11th, 2020, NCDPI is launching the Definition of High Quality Reading Instruction (Birth - 12th Grade) Survey for widescale public review. The survey results will inform the final state definition of high quality reading instruction, Birth - 12th Grade.

Survey Link:

https://ncdpi.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aUZP5pakex194aN

Thank you for your time and input on the Definition of High Quality Reading Instruction (Birth - 12th Grade) Survey.

Due to the approaching holidays, we have an additional ECATS message this week.

LRE/Placement Issues

Thank you to all the districts who have worked to certify their December child count well ahead of the January 16, 2020 deadline. In working with districts, we have found that some migrated data is showing incorrectly in child count for the LRE/Placement Setting category. PCG is working to correct this data and the fix will be released over the weekend of 12/20-12/22. Due to this data correction, all districts, including those previously certified, will need to Decertify their child count, re-run the child count report to gather the corrected data and then certify the count again. The Decertification and Re-certification should not be completed until after the holiday break.

Directions to Decertify and Re-certify:

• Go to Admin

o Click School System

o Click Reporting

o Click State Reporting Certification

o Click the Decertify button next to the December 2019 child count

o Check the box next to: I decertify that information was submitted and accepted by ECATS for Region/LEA

o Click Decertify button at the bottom of the page

• Go to Reporting

o Standard Reports

o Special Education

o Child Count

o Run the child count with exceptions

o Verify the data in your report is correct

o Complete the steps to certify again

**If your district has not yet certified the count simply re-run the child count report before certifying to ensure that the latest setting updates are applied.

Reduced Number of Records It has been reported that students who have had a revocation of services prior to 12/1/2019 were being included on the child count. NCDPI and PCG have corrected this issue which may result in a larger number of excluded records on your child count certification. If you need more specific information about the students that have been excluded by the state due to parent revocation of services, please contact Kelley Blas at kelley.blas@dpi.nc.gov 

Charter Schools and NEW EL Coordinators   Face-to-face Meeting on January 10th 301 North Wilmington Street in Raleigh - Room 150 9:00 am-3:30 pm (with lunch on your own from 12-1 pm) Testing and Accountability for ELs: 2020 ACCESS Update, Data Validation Process, Accountability Update, and February 1st Immigrant Headcount.   Registration link   All PSUs (LEAs/Charter Schools) Virtual Meeting on January 15th Morning session: 9:00 am-12:00 Testing and Accountability for ELs: 2020 ACCESS Update, Data Validation Process, and Accountability Update; Policy and Reporting: Consolidated Monitoring and February 1st Immigrant Headcount.   Afternoon session: 1:00 am-4:00 pm Professional Learning/Growing Success for ELs: New PD Structure (EL Support Team Service Requests), EL Teacher Network, and Promising Practices from the Field.   Registration link

Can We Function Both Effectively and Efficiently?    As the calendar year comes to a close and you consider all of the work your schools are accomplishing, we want to commend your persistence and vision for school improvement.    Many times, we as educators add more teams and meetings to accomplish “the work” but don’t pause to align communication or combine teams that are actually all working towards the same outcomes. This School Teams in MTSS document will provide some structure enabling you to answer the question, “how can we accomplish the work of school improvement with the fewest number of teams and meetings?”    If your School LeadershipTeam would like additional support with MTSS implementation,  please contact your school MTSS Leader or visit the MTSS modules which provide more comprehensive support to school teams building an MTSS.

#GoOpen NC Has Launched! Greetings North Carolina Educators!   The #GoOpenNC Team is excited to announce the launch of our statewide Open Educational Resources platform. We invite you to join our community of practice and explore our resources aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study Standards.  #GoOpenNC will continue to transform as our users commit to sharing high quality, standards aligned resources and become active members of the community.   All public school unit staff can access #GoOpenNC from the NCEdCloud tray by clicking on the #GoOpenNC icon:     If you do not see the icon in your NCEdCloud tray, please reach out to our team at goopennc@dpi.nc.gov.   The #GoOpenNC team is working to continuously improve the platform and add additional openly licensed content. As content users, it is important that we understand intellectual property rights, copyright law, and open-licensing guidelines. Users have the responsibility to review and abide by the terms of use for instructional resources.    For additional information about the GoOpenNC initiative and platform, including FAQs, professional learning resources, and more, visit the GoOpenNC Google site. A one hour on-demand webinar about #GoOpenNC is available to help you learn more about the platform and how to become an active member of the OER community. The #GoOpenNC Team

AP/IB/CIE Program Updates - December 2019

Dear AP/IB/CIE Coordinators,

We hope you all have had a good first semester and that each of you is looking forward to a well-deserved break for the winter holiday. Please don't hesitate to call or email with questions regarding information shared below.

December's Update includes:

2019-20 AP/IB/CIE Teacher Bonus Pay

Legislation governing AP/IB/CIE Teacher Bonus Pay has been updated by the General Assembly. The updated legislation changes the grade requirement for Cambridge AICE exams bonus program from grade E to a grade C or better. Teachers are eligible for AP/IB/CIE bonus pay if they remain teaching in the same LEA or charter school the following year until January 1 of the corresponding school year that the bonus is paid. Please follow up with your Finance Department with a list of teachers who are eligible for the bonus in January, as we do not provide a list of teachers eligible.   Please find attached below the 2019 AP/IB/CIE Teacher Bonus Pay FAQ.

2019 Advanced Courses Report to the NC General Assembly

The 2019 Broaden Successful Participation in Advanced Courses Report to the NC General Assembly was discussed and approved by the State Board of Education during their December meeting.  Please find attached below the 2019 Advanced Courses Report to the NC General Assembly.

Congratulations to NC's AP Honor Roll Districts

• Onslow County Public Schools
• Roanoke Rapids Graded School District

These school districts are recognized by the College Board and the State Board of Education for increasing the number of students participating in AP while also increasing or maintaining the percentage of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher in a 3-year period. Reaching these goals shows that these districts are successfully identifying and supporting students to be motivated, academically prepared, and ready for AP. Congratulations!

Thank you all for your dedication and hard work to increase student participation and success in advanced courses in North Carolina. Please continue to reach out to us in the Division of Advanced Learning and Gifted Education at NCDPI whenever we can support your work.

We wish each of you, as well as your family and friends, a wonderful holiday season.

Beth Cross,

NC Department of Public Instruction

State Consultant, Advanced Learning and Gifted Education

Beth.Cross@dpi.nc.gov

919.807.3705

• APIBCIE-FAQ-bonus-pay19-20.pdf
• JLEOC.AdvCoursesReport.Dec2019.FINAL.pdf

Social Studies Standards: Public Draft 1

Per SBE policy SCOS-012, the revision process is feedback-based, research-informed, improvement-oriented, and process driven. The NCDPI K-12 Social Studies Team is deeply committed to ensuring that the Revision Process include the consideration of all concerns posed by educators in the schools and local districts. 

The public feedback survey for Draft 1 will open on December 13, 2019 and will close on January 31, 2020. Each course, kindergarten through high school, has its own individual survey. The feedback provided from these surveys will be used in conjunction with input from teachers and social studies specialists from North Carolina Public Schools to create Draft 2 of the standards.

Link: Standards Revision Survey

E-rate Data for Entity Profiles

All,

Please find at the link below, a spreadsheet which includes data for profile updates.  Included will be your student counts (Oct. 2019) <COLUMN K> , NSLP <COLUMN N>  or if CEP, group percent <COLUMN M>.  We have also calculated your C2 budget <COLUMN Q> for 2020 based on the Dec. 3 Category 2 Order guidelines.  Provided at the link is a slide deck on how to update the profiles. 

***For those of you who received a personal email with an attached spreadsheet due to data privacy, please use that data.

**** For those of you with consultants, you will need to share this with consultants as we only send to school personnel.

Please update your entities as soon as possible. We have not been told of the closing date for the Administrative Window but have heard it is January 10.  If your numbers are not updated, discounts and budgets will be calculated on 2018 data.  Furthermore, if our data, which is the State Valid File sent to USAC, is not used, we will not be able to “verify” any other data when asked by PIA.

DATA LINK

If you have any questions, please reach out to your E-rate Coordinator!

Rebecca Martin - rebecca.martin@dpi.nc.gov

Roxie Miller - roxie.miller@dpi.nc.gov

Jeannene Hurley - jeannene.hurley@dpi.nc.gov

Join us for EVAAS Training for the Northeast Region   EVAAS 101: Advanced Topics ~ Satellite Training In this coaching edition format, participants will work to interpret patterns in the reports and use data to support informed decision-making. Bring your team to work with your own data reports. Who should attend: District and School Administrators, Instructional Coaches, Teacher Leaders Monday, January 7, 2020 4:00pm - 7:30pm – Light refreshments will be served. Main site: Beaufort County Ed Tech Center. You may attend there or participate remotely at the Edenton-Chowan Technology Center or Currituck Knapp Center.   Teaching with EVAAS: Classroom Edition   In this highly interactive, advanced course for teachers, participants learn how to use student growth data to inform instructional decisions. Who should attend: Classroom Teachers, Instructional Coaches, School Administrators   Tuesday, February 25, 2020 8:30am - 3:30pm Edenton-Chowan (School TBD) *Lunch provided by the NERESA   To register, use this link; https://forms.gle/SpCenLjMgAzwvhj48   Please register one person per form. Specific location information will be emailed to registrants closer to each event. Register your team today!   Contact Dr. Catherine Stickney at catherine.stickney@dpi.nc.gov with questions.

CDC: Students Interested in Government - NC Youth Leadership Assembly 2020 Applications

The North Carolina Youth Legislative Assembly (YLA) is a state program that continues to shape young leaders and provide them with a hands-on approach to government. 

The YLA program replicates a legislative atmosphere of geographic diversity similar to our legislature. In doing so, the YLA program builds, encourages, and strengthens character traits that equip students to take leadership roles in civic activities in their communities.

In April 2020, approximately 200 North Carolina high school students will convene at the NC General Assembly for YLA. 

Applications for the Youth Legislative Assembly are now online and can be found at https://www.ncleg.gov/YLA. 

If you have questions regarding the YLA program, please contact Erica Gallion, YLA Program Coordinator, at erica.gallion@ncleg.net or (919) 301-1372. 

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – 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