New Unique CAA Course Codes Now Available

The North Carolina Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA) is a statewide agreement governing the transfer of credits between NC community colleges and NC public universities. On March 25, 2021, the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) released Numbered Memo CC21-012.  As per action of the Transfer Advisory Committee (TAC), three courses have been added to the CAA as pre-major/elective courses. For the latest version of the CAA, please visit the NCCCS Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA) webpage.

These courses are now available in PowerSchool for use for the 2021-22 school year. In accordance with SBE policy GRAD-009 these courses receive the added equivalent of one (1) quality point to the grade earned in the community college course. See below the corresponding NCDPI course codes:

• BX555X0 CJC212 Ethics and Comm Relations
• IJ045X0 CSC249 Data Structure and Algorithms
• IJ055X0 CSC251 Advanced JAVA Programming

CTE Concentrator Calculation Report

This past Thursday, April 22nd, the Home Base team collaborated with the NCDPI CTE team to deliver a webinar around the new CTE Concentrator Calculation state report. This is a new state report that will significantly improve the CTE reporting and concentrator calculation process. If you missed the webinar, the recording and associated Quick Reference Document (QRD) are linked below. From a PowerSchool perspective, this report does not differ significantly from other state reports. As always, if you encounter any technical issues with this report, please submit a ticket to PowerSchool Support. If you have any questions about the CTE process, please contact your local CTE Director.

• Recorded Webinar on YouTube
• CTE Concentrator Calculation QRD

EDDIE Feed Update

Please be reminded that the Educational Directory and Demographical Information Exchange (EDDIE) feed to PowerSchool was disabled as a follow-up to this past weekend's maintenance. PSUs may now begin submitting cases to PowerSchool support to add new schools and grade levels to their PowerSchool instance in preparation for the 2021-2022 school year. All changes made in PowerSchool for the current year, before EOY and after the EDDIE feed is disabled, must be updated in EDDIE manually before the feed to PowerSchool is reenabled. If the data is not accurately reflected in both PowerSchool and EDDIE when the feed is enabled after EOY, these changes will be overwritten by EDDIE since it is the authoritative source.

If you have any questions concerning EOY, please contact the Home Base Team at home_base@dpi.nc.gov.

Reminder:  Guidance Chart for Social Studies Graduation Requirements

Attached to this email you will find a chart that you may find helpful as you make determinations about phasing in high school courses now that the standards have been approved. The information presented in the chart is reflective of the GRAD-004 policy.  This chart is a graphic to help visually clarify the information contained in the policy. 

Guidance Chart for Social Studies Graduation Requirements

Reminder:  Graduation Requirements (GRAD-004) Updates

Due to COVID-19, the State Board of Education approved the following changes regarding graduation requirements for the Graduating Class of 2021; same as was approved for the Class of 2020.  

• SBE waives the CPR graduation requirement for the graduating class of 2021.
• For Occupational Course of Study students, SBE reduces the graduation requirement of paid employment to 157 hours.

Please note these updates and share with pertinent staff.

Reminder:  The Spring Legislative Class Size Report Window is Open

The Spring Legislative Class Size (LCS) reporting window is open. Pursuant to §GS115C-301 this data is collected two times a year and captures data from the end of October and end of February of each school year.  Each local board of education, through the superintendent, shall file a report, based on information provided by the principal, for each school within the local school administrative unit with the Superintendent of Public Instruction.  

The due date for the approval of the Spring LCS Report and affidavit submission is April 30, 2021.  

There are two parts to complete this process: 

1. Reporting the legislative class size in PowerSchool 

• In PowerSchool, the submission window for the report will remain open through April 30, 2021.

2. Submitting a signed affidavit 

• Each local superintendent completes a sworn affidavit (form) attesting that the superintendent has complied with the maximum class size requirements and the reporting requirements. Affidavits should be sent to classsize@dpi.nc.gov.
• Class size AFFIDAVIT 2020 Update.pdf

If there is a need to also submit an individual class size exception waiver use the form supplied by the Division of School Business. Waivers should be sent to StudentAccounting@dpi.nc.gov.

PSUs should begin running these reports as soon as possible to allow ample time to have discrepancies reviewed by the PowerSchool Support team. Cases submitted to PowerSchool Support will be escalated and reviewed on a daily basis with the Home Base team.  

Again, the window to complete this process ends April 30, 2021. 

Reminder:  2021-2022 Home Base Opt-in Process is Scheduled to Begin in May

Please share with District Finance Officers and Charter School Directors/Principals

The NC DTL Home Base team is preparing to open the 2021-22 Home Base Opt-in Process during the month of May. District finance officers and charter school directors will receive further information as to when the system will be taken offline and returned to service for the opt-in process to begin.  Please ensure all finance officer and charter principal information in EDDIE is up to date.  This information is used to identify who is eligible to opt in for the districts and charter schools.

Reminder:  EOY Pre-Validation (EPV) Reports

During the last maintenance window, a new set of reports were added to the North Carolina state reporting dashboard. These EOY Pre-Validation (EPV) reports are to assist users identify items that need corrected or reviewed prior to running EOY. Schools will have the ability to run these reports through June 28. Districts should continuously run these reports throughout the reporting window to capture any erroneous records that have been created since the last run date. These reports can be unapproved and rerun at any time to ensure the schools are ready for EOY. 

PowerSchool is developing a second series of reports that will be considered as the “Final EPV Report” and will have a submission window of June 28 – June 30. Once that report is moved to production, the existing reports will be renamed to “Preliminary EPV Report”. The Final EPV will be an exact copy of the Preliminary EPV,  but will only be available at the district level, not at the schools. The purpose of the Final EPV is to capture any last minute errors that exist on the day of EOY. More details will be released once the final package is ready for production.

Spring 2021 Course Code Webinar Series

Please join the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) for a Spring 2021 course code webinar series. PowerSchool Data Managers, PowerSchool Coordinators, School Counselors, Career and Technical Education Directors, Career Development Coordinators, CCP Coordinators, and Curriculum and Instruction/Academic Leaders are encouraged to join the conversations. Please see details below and we look forward to seeing you (virtually) soon! 

SAVE THE DATES! 

Time:  2 - 3 p.m. EST

Platform:  Webex

Dates and Registration Information:

• April 30th:  Generic Course Code Scheduling (Join the Webinar Here)

Completed Webinars and Slides can be viewed at SIS Resources

• Course Codes General Overview - Part A
• Course Codes General Overview - Part B
• CAA vs. Non-CAA Courses

Questions? Please enter your questions in the Question Collection Form.

GoOpenNC Accessibility Series

Registration is now open for our upcoming Accessibility Series on #GoOpenNC. Designing and procuring accessible digital materials is essential for some but research shows it benefits all learners.

Join us for this free two-part webinar series to learn more about designing accessible digital Open Education Resources (OER) based on the Universal Design for Learning framework. Participants can earn 0.3 CEU credits, recommended for Digital Learning Competency Credit.

Register now at: http://bit.ly/goopenncaccess

New Self-Paced Course on Curating Content in #GoOpenNC

We are so excited to try something new with our monthly webinars for #GoOpenNC. The webinar is now available on-demand in a mini Canvas course (you will need to login to NCEES via NCEdCloud to register).

The course is designed to be completed in one hour and NCEES will apply 0.1 CEU of Digital Learning Competency Credit to your transcript within 48 hours of completing the course.  The course is available until May 31, 2021

NCWiseOwl EBSCO Webinars 2020-2021 

PSUs, please share this message with your teachers.

Want to love and utilize NCWiseOwl even more?  Attend the upcoming webinars available from our database vendors! 

Britannica School: REGISTRATION and RECORDINGS

• Britannica School for Remote Learning 
• Britannica School for Parents 
• Britannica Basics for Elementary Educators 
• Britannica Basics for Secondary Educators 
• Sharing Britannica Content on Google Platforms 
• Preparing Digital Content Sets for Instruction 
• Britannica Tools to Support Reluctant Readers 
• Britannica School - STEAM in Focus 
• Britannica School - Arts & Humanities in Focus 
• Britannica Tools to Support English Language Learners 
  
  

EBSCO: REGISTRATION and RECORDINGS

• EBSCO Reference Center Exploration 
• EBSCO Online Classroom Tools and Integration Tips 
• EBSCO Accessibility and Usability Features within EBSCO Resources
• EBSCO Working with EBSCO eBooks
  
  

Please visit the NCWiseOwl  Toolkit  professional learning section for detailed descriptions and registration links.  www.ncwiseowl.org

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NCDPI Technology Support Center

NCDPI's Technology Support Center continues to meet your support needs for:

• Schoolnet 
• NCEES/Unified Talent 
• Staff & Student UID (eScholar)

Support availability:

Web (NEW URL):  https://ncgov.servicenowservices.com/sp_dpi   -  24/7

Phone:  919-716-1840, Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (excluding state holidays)

Technical support for SIS needs is handled directly by PowerSchool support using chat, phone, or by opening a case ticket.