2022-2023 Instructional School Start and End Dates  

G.S. 115C-84.2(a2) specifies that a report on the start and end dates of the instructional calendar for students for the next academic year be provided to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of education by April 1 of each year.  To make this deadline, the start and end dates of the instructional calendar for students for each school must be in PowerSchool before April 1.

A report of the 2022-2023 school start and end dates will be shared with PSUs for verification and to identify the statutory exception authorizing an earlier start date for schools with a start date earlier than August 29, 2022.

Update to PowerSchool SIF Agent

Working with PowerSchool Support, we have successfully updated all NC PowerSchool SIF Agent syncs to Canvas to only include data for the active school year. This means that as SIS admins are building out their 2022/23 schedules, those future terms and courses should no longer show up in your Canvas instance.

• If your PSU has already begun to see these 2022/23 terms/courses in Canvas, the SIS sync will not delete them. They can be removed either manually or by using a CSV SIS Import.
• Moving forward, you should not see new Terms/Courses created unless they are for the current academic year.
  
  

If you have any questions or issues, please contact Corey McNeill.

NCDPI Technology Services is Hiring

The NCDPI Technology Service Division is seeking to fill the following position. If you are interested or know of someone that may be interested, please share this posting. The application must be submitted by 5 p.m., March 1, 2022. 

IT Business Systems Analyst 1  

Read-to-Achieve Update - 02/25/2022

Please read and share the latest Read-to-Achieve Update dated 02/25/2022.

Read-to-Achieve Update - 02/25/2022 

OCR/CRDC - State Certification Progress Report - Feb. 25, 2022 

Dear Coordinators,

Please share with other staff as appropriate. If your LEA has completed certification, please disregard this message.

Note:  PSUs which were not open in the school year 2020-2021 are not required to participate in this collection.

To-date, 119 of 325 PSUs have certified the collection.  You may link to the most recent State Certification Progress Report.  The CRDC Submission End Date is March 11, 2022.

Please be aware that the Percent Complete column does not indicate the report has been functionally certified.

If you are unable to certify due to an incorrectly listed school, please contact Partner Support using the link located at https://crdc.communities.ed.gov/#program.

Reminder:  PSUs Can Now Add New Grades in PowerSchool SIS

The EDDIE process has been modified to allow PSUs to begin adding new grade levels without the EDDIE feed being disabled. The new process temporarily pauses the feed to only the grade level fields located on the Schools/School Setup page. 

PSUs who need to add new grade levels for the 2022-23 school year may now do so in PowerSchool. Prior to adding these grade levels to PowerSchool, your EDDIE administrator must first ensure that the EDDIE “Approved” grade levels include the grades being added to the SIS. It is important that you remember to add these new grade levels to EDDIE “Current” grade levels after EOY. EDDIE “Current” grade level changes should not take place until then.

For assistance, please visit the PowerSchool SIS Administrator - School Information.

Reminder:  School Start-Time and End-Time Spring Collection 

The School Start-Time and End-Time Spring Collection period began on Feb. 1 and is set to end on March 1, 2022.  Please remember to review the school start-times and end-times in PowerSchool and make adjustments, if needed, prior to running the report. 

For assistance with this collection, please link to the quick reference document, School Start-Times and End-Times.

Reminder: PowerSchool Years and Terms at the LEA Office

At the LEA Office level in PowerSchool, the Years and Terms start and end dates MUST encompass the start date of the PSU’s earliest starting school and the end date of the PSU’s latest ending school. This also includes all Program Schools. The start date for Years and Terms at the LEA level should be 7/1 and the end date should be 6/30.

This information has been updated in the PS User Guide: End-of-Year Processing and can be found under Creating Years and Terms in the user guide.

Reminder:  Attendance During Exam Week(s)

To be considered in attendance, a student (except for hospital/homebound or staggered kindergarten) must be present in the school for the school day or at a place other than the school with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity. Such activities may include field trips, athletic contests, student conventions, musical festivals, or any similar approved activity.

Except as noted above, a student must be present at least one-half of the school's instructional day in order to be recorded present for that day.

NC General Statute 115C-378 states in part that no person shall encourage, entice, or counsel any child of compulsory school age to be unlawfully absent from school.

If a student is exempted from an exam and is not present in the school for the school day or not at a place other than the school with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity, the student is absent.

For questions or concerns, contact Student Accounting at studentaccounting@dpi.nc.gov.

Schoolnet at NCTIES

Join us for Collaboration in Schoolnet at NCTIES on March 4, 2022, at 10:30 AM!
Attendees will gain an understanding of the collaborative features available in Schoolnet and have an opportunity to share how they might use these features in their schools or PSUs.

Register today!

Canvas for Elementary at NCTIES

Join us at NCTIES as we explore Canvas for Elementary! Thursday March 3, 2022, from 1:15 - 2:45 p.m. The Canvas for Elementary feature creates a digital classroom that reflects the physical classroom experience for elementary students. This change allows teachers to set up a homeroom course and a course for each subject to organize and focus student course participation. In this session, teachers will have the opportunity to explore the new Canvas for Elementary dashboard and learn about settings and resources to make their courses more K-5 friendly.

Register today!

Canvas Teacher Webinar

Our next Canvas Teacher Webinar will be held on Thursday, March 10, 2022 from 7-8 p.m. The topic of discussion will be about ways to assess within Canvas. Those who attend will receive 0.1 DLC CEU.

Please use this link to register for the webinar. If you have any questions, contact Corey McNeill

Transcend Webinar Recording

In case you missed the informational webinars for Transcend, the recording is now available on the NCDPI YouTube Channel.

Transcend is a computer-adaptive interim assessment add-on for Schoolnet that will be available as part of the Home Base opt-in process for the 2022-2023 school year. Transcend provides tests for grades 3-8 ELA and Math and will be priced at $4 per 3rd-8th grade ADM. 

If you have any questions about Transcend or would like to learn more prior to the Home Base opt-in period, please contact john.mairs@dpi.nc.gov or jeffrey.hauger@pearson.com.

NCEES Winter/Spring Webinars

Please click on the titles below to register for the upcoming NCEES Webinars which are held most Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m.  A certificate to turn into your PSU for approval of .1 -.15 CEUs will be provided to participants that complete the feedback survey at the end of each live session.

• 3/4/2022  NCTIES    
• Presentation: Growth, Goals & Credits in NCEES
• NCTies Registration    
• Target Audience: Staff in NCEES
•  3/8/2022        
• End of Year Principal Evaluation Processes (1 hr)
• Target Audience: Superintendents/Directors (evaluators of Principals) Principals, APs, Evaluators
•  3/15/2022     
• End of Year Teacher/Support Staff Evaluation & PDP processes (1 hr)
• Target Audience: Teachers and Support Staff. Evaluators and Observers of Teachers/Support Staff.

 A Black History Moment

In honor of Black History month, NCDPI will share facts about North Carolina's African American history.

Harriet Jacobs was born in 1813 in Edenton, NC. During the course of her life, Harriet became a fugitive slave, writer and abolitionist. Her book — Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl — is one of the only written accounts of the Maritime Underground Railroad.

After suffering years of abuse at the hands of her slave owner, Jacobs fled in 1835 and went into hiding in the attic of her grandmother, a freed Black woman living in Edenton. After nearly seven years hiding above her grandmother’s home, Harriet secretly boarded a boat in Edenton, bound for Philadelphia, New York and, eventually, freedom. 

Harriet gained her full and legal freedom in 1852. By the time of the Civil War, as a free African American woman, she served as a relief worker dedicated to assisting the newly freed people of the South.

During a time when it was unusual for slaves to read and write, self-publishing a first-hand account of slavery’s atrocities was extraordinary - and it being written by a woman was unprecedented. Harriet Jacobs’ story is a remarkable piece of North Carolina's Black history. 

Learn more about Harriet Jacobs here.

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These messages will include upcoming changes, tips, and even hidden treasures within each product to make your job easier.  If you are not following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, click on the links below and begin today!  Make sure you share this information with other staff within your school.

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