Truitt Outlines “Operation Polaris” Model for School Improvement

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt presented to the State Board of Education her four-year strategic plan to support public schools across North Carolina to address learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and also to achieve the long-term goal of ensuring a sound, basic education for all students in the state.

Truitt told the board that the plan, called “Operation Polaris,” will be guided by her North Star – “that every student deserves a highly qualified, excellent teacher in every classroom.” She explained that her North Star is a “navigational tool” to ensure that students remain at the center of the department’s work. “It’s how we stay on course no matter where we are.”

She said that the Operation Polaris initiative will include the participation of a new Office of Learning Recovery, which will work in conjunction with other divisions focusing on school and district transformation, literacy, student support services, accountability and testing and human capital.

“At the center of Operation Polaris is the Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration,” Truitt said. “That’s the starting point for this work. Learning loss is real and we must support public school units to recover this loss while also creating opportunities for learning acceleration.”

She said the mission of the Office of Learning Recovery is to serve public school units by providing the research and support needed to make evidence-based decisions to combat learning loss and accelerate learning for all students. The office will interface with District and School

Transformation and collaborate with each of the constituent units within DPI, she explained, and it will partner with districts, schools and other stakeholders to bring needed solutions to long-standing challenges facing NC public education.

“There will be school districts that do not necessarily need the help of the Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration,” Truitt said, “but the vast majority of our school districts need support from this agency to come alongside them and provide technical assistance, help them build capacity they don’t currently have so that they provide for and meet the individual needs of their students.”

Superintendent Truitt's presentation to the State Board can be found here.

DPI Exceptional Children Leaders Outline Goals for Equity and Excellence 

Building on the Strategic Plan Action Framework that the State Board of Education adopted last year, with a strong focus on ensuring equitable opportunity for all students, leaders of the Exceptional Children Division outlined to the board their own plan for promoting equity in programs for children with disabilities.

Sherry Thomas, director of the EC Division, told the board that in many ways, equity has been a key focus for special education programs since the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, was enacted in 1975.

“Much of IDEA is founded on equity,” Thomas said. “All students in need of special education must have access and receive appropriate instruction and support.” Given the basic underlying focus of the Exceptional Children Division, she explained, its new five-year strategic plan is in synch with the State Board’s goal.

“Our work so beautifully aligns with the strategic plan of the State Board and the vision of the superintendent,” Thomas said. “It was really very easy to make that alignment happen.”

Matt Hoskins, assistant director of the EC Division, emphasized to the board that educators who choose to teach students with disabilities often do so because of their commitment to both equity and to those students who may be vulnerable and marginalized.

“Equity is inherent to the work of special education,” Hoskins said. “It’s not a passing trend. It’s a moral obligation as well as a legal obligation for decades now.”

Still, he said, that in developing their plan, EC division staff first focused on their own implicit biases to better understand their own limitations and needs for growth while also examining chronic issues of racial disproportionality in disability placement and discipline.

Hoskins said that disproportionate short- and long-term suspensions for students of color “is a clear target that we need to focus on.” He also pointed to concerns that students of color are often more likely to be in more restrictive placements or in categories of intellectual disability or serious behavioral disability.

He said he was encouraged by current efforts across the state involving multi-disciplinary teams to address such issues.

“This is an issue that’s much broader than just special education,” Hoskins told the board. “There’s a whole host of complexities that lead to these disparities.”

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said she was concerned that students of color and those from low-income families may be over-identified for a learning disability because they’re not getting effective reading instruction in the early grades.

“My fear is that because children are not reading proficiently by the time they’re in eighth grade, they’re being over-identified along the way as SLD [specific learning disability],” Truitt said.

Go here for the goals and objectives outlined in the EC Division’s 2021-26 strategic plan.

Five New Charter School Proposals Win State Board’s Approval

The State Board of Education approved five new charter schools for opening in the 2022-23 school year. The five proposed schools were recommended for approval by the board’s Charter School Advisory Board, which reviewed a total of 21 applications that were submitted in July 2020.

Winning the State Board’s approval at its April meeting were:

• Central Carolina Academy Charter (Lee)
• Triangle Math and Science Academy (Wake)
• Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy (Mecklenburg) (EMO Charter One)
• American Leadership Academy (Johnston) (EMO Charter One)
• Dogwood Classical Academy (Cabarrus)

Board Approves Guidance to Districts and Schools for Summer Learning Recovery

Meeting April 19, the State Board of Education approved guidance to districts and schools for providing learning recovering and enrichment programs this summer in response to disruptions in schooling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Board Chairman Eric Davis called the summer programs an important effort to help students who may have lost ground during the last year.

“This summer is a critical opportunity to provide immediate academic recovery for our students as well as laying the foundation for strategic, structural and long-term improvement in our state’s public school system,” Davis said.

Under legislation that Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law earlier this month, all school districts in the state are required to schedule a summer session after the current school year and before the start of the 2021-22 school year with 30 days or 150 hours of instructional programming. Year-round schools have the flexibility to provide the programming during track-out periods through Oct. 1.

Enrollment is voluntary, but districts are required to identify at-risk students and notify families of student eligibility. Other students may attend, within space available, and districts are to establish criteria prioritizing additional students’ participation.

Students in kindergarten through second grade will be provided instruction in reading and math. Students in third through eighth grade will be provided instruction in reading, math, and science.

All K-8 students will have a period of physical activity, meal service, and at least one enrichment activity. Enrichment activities may include art, sports, music, or other activities at the discretion of the LEA. For eligible students, the LEA may integrate the unit’s RtA reading camp into the program.

High school students must have access to in-person instruction in end-of-course subjects, access to modules and teacher support for credit recovery, including courses offered through the NC Virtual Public School, and in-person instruction for an elective course.

All students shall have access to transportation services to the school facility housing the program and access to in-person social-emotional learning (SEL) supports. The programs will have time during the instructional day for teachers to provide individual or small group instruction to at-risk students.

Local boards of education are encouraged to find ways to incentivize highly effective teachers to participate in the program, such as increased compensation and varied contract durations. Teachers and other personnel hired to work in the program are considered temporary and on a contractual basis. From the COVID recovery funds available, a signing bonus of $1,200 shall be offered to any teacher who had received a past teaching bonus for reading in grades 3, 4, or 5 or in mathematics in grades 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 or has received National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification.

Districts will use funds from their ESSER II allocation to operate the program. NCDPI, as directed by the State Board of Education, will make additional funds available via a grant program. The grants will support in-person instruction to address learning loss and provide enrichment activities.

Full guidance on summer extension and enrichment programs can be found here.

Board Proposes Spending Priorities for Federal COVID-19 Funding

Following review and approval during its regular April meeting of several policies governing the allocation of two rounds of federal funds (ESSER I and ESSER II) aimed at helping schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Board on April 19 approved a list of funding categories for prioritizing the use of a third – and significantly larger – round of recovery funding (ESSER III).

“The ESSER III funding that our state, schools and students will receive provides a unique opportunity for our state to make necessary changes to our education system to better serve all students,” Board Chairman Eric Davis said. “While we’re thoughtfully using these federal funds, we look forward to partnering with the General Assembly to align state funding from our strong and resilient North Carolina economy to ensure maximum impact of all of these resources.”

The Department of Public Instruction’s new Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration recommended that the board designate the use of $223 million reserved for statewide support in 16 categories, including high-dosage tutoring, after-school learning and enrichment, social-emotional learning and coaching and professional development for low-performing districts.

The funding for those efforts would come from a $3.6 billion allocation to North Carolina under the $1.9 trillion federal American Rescue Plan enacted last month. Most of the state’s allocation for K-12 education -- $3.2 billion – will be allocated directly to school districts and other public schools, based on their Title 1 funding levels. Under the law, districts and other public school recipients of the funds must use at least 20 percent of their allocation to address learning loss.

During its discussion earlier in the month about the various COVID-19 funding streams, board members asked DPI leaders to develop priorities for using what is a 10 percent reserve from the $3.6 billion allowed for state initiatives. The uses for much of the “reserve” from a second federal relief bill that was passed late last year were set by the General Assembly. The purposes of that $160 million include $66 million for grants supporting in-person instruction for addressing learning loss.

Alan Duncan, the board’s vice-chairman and chairman of the Business Operations Committee, said during the board’s regular monthly meeting that he wanted to board and DPI to have more say in how the latest “reserve” is used.

“I’m going to respectfully suggest that we as a board have priorities in line to share with the legislature before we have a decision made without the board or the department consulted,” Duncan said. “We’re blessed to have many educational experts here in the department, and I think we very much value the thoughts they bring – and [Superintendent Truitt] brings as their leader – to the table so we can make the best use of the funds, or at least make our best recommendations for the use of the funds.

“For some of our students, these are generation-changing funds. Some of our students have had impacted school years for four or five years in a row,” Duncan said. “The responsibility is awesome here to make sure we address the generational needs of these children.”

The funding categories for the $223 million endorsed by the board include these:

Board Hears Joint DHHS/DPI Guidance on Prom and Graduation Ceremonies 

DPI Deputy Superintendent of Innovation David Stegall reviewed with the State Board joint guidance from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and DPI for districts and schools on proms and graduation exercises this spring.

“DHHS does not recommend traditional proms,” Stegall told the board, “which can be linked to high-risk activities where predominantly unvaccinated students could be in close proximity for an extended period of time.” But he said that decisions remain at the local level and at the discretion of local leaders.

“So, superintendents, local board and local health officials will have to meet to discuss the feasibility of having proms – indoors or outdoors – and in an ideal world, with six feet of distance,” Stegall said.

He added that the state is not imposing capacity limits, which are also to be decided at the local level, based on their own assessments of risk.

See the full guidance on proms and graduations here.

EC Division’s State Improvement Project Earns National Accreditation

The North Carolina State Improvement Project within DPI’s Exceptional Children Division has earned a first-in-the nation accreditation from the International Dyslexia Association. The program was recognized for its achievement by the State Board of Education during its April monthly meeting.

The State Improvement Project received the accreditation for its Reading Research to Classroom Practice, a 40-hour course on the science of reading taught by approximately 300 certified instructors regionally across the state. DPI is now the first state education agency to be accredited by the International Dyslexia Association.

Dr. Catherine Edmonds, deputy superintendent of DPI's Office of Equity, congratulated Dr. Paula Crawford, a section chief in the EC Division who leads the State Improvement Project, EC Division Director Sherry Thomas and the division staff for their "huge accomplishment and for exemplifying State Superintendent Truitt's cultural norms of 'aim true and achieve together' as well as the State Board of Education's commitment to equity for all."

In announcing the accreditation, the International Dyslexia Association's review team said: “Your course(s) serves as a role model for other states’ Department of Education offices to follow in order to provide educators throughout the United States the knowledge and practice standards required for expert literacy instruction. The team found that collectively the Reading Research to Classroom Practice course met ​all ​of the requirements for Accreditation through the International Dyslexia Association.”