Community Portal Maintenance in PowerSchool

PowerSchool will be conducting maintenance on the Community Portal from 8 p.m., Friday, June 3 through 6 a.m., Monday, June 6. 

This maintenance will not require any downtime; however, it will prevent PSUs from receiving case update emails  from PowerSchool Support. 

Has Your PSU Opted Into Home Base?

The NC Department of Public Instruction is pleased to announce that the Home Base Opt-in Process is open. Finance officers and charter school directors/principals have been notified that they may begin opting into Home Base for their PSU.

This year, PSUs have the option of opting into Transcend, a Pearson computer-adaptive interim assessment add-on for Schoolnet.  Transcend provides tests for grades 3-8 ELA and Math and is priced at $4 per 3rd-8th grade ADM.  For more details about Transcend, see the message, "Why Opt-in to Transcend" below.

Click on the following link to view the full Home Base Opt-in announcement and share with the appropriate staff:  hb_pricing_memo_2022-23. 

Note:  Only finance officers and charter directors/principals should opt in for their PSU.

Please visit the NCDPI Home Base Opt-in Website for detailed information concerning the Home Base Opt-in Process.  Questions may be directed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov or yolanda_wilson@dpi.nc.gov.

Why Opt-in to Transcend?

If you ask any educator what fulfills them the most in their role as a teacher, many will say, “seeing a child’s confidence grow after learning to master a skill,” and the best way to measure a student’s success is with the use of interim assessment tools that are designed to capture just that! 

Transcend is an interim assessment tool that offers educators the ability to measure a child’s success at any given time, and like other assessment tools, it evaluates ongoing programs, informs teaching, and improves learning.   But what separates it from other formative and summative assessment tools is that it uses intelligent blueprinting aligned to local curriculum maps.  Students are assessed only on instruction and standards they have already learned.  Based on a student’s performance during the assessment, the tool will automatically adjust and provide easier or harder items within the same grade level.

Transcend also supports psychometrically sound adaptive assessments. Its assessments demonstrate sufficient levels of reliability and validity for ethical use. 

Finally, Transcend provides dynamic and user-friendly reports that include interpretable, meaningful, and actionable information for district and school leaders and teachers.  Educators may sort, filter, and even drill down in the data to support meaningful decisions.

Transcend is available for grades 3 - 8 at a rate of $4/allotted ADM.   To learn more about Transcend and what it offers, see the Schoolnet Webinar on Transcend Computer Adaptive Testing for a recorded demonstration.  If you have any questions, please contact john.mairs@dpi.nc.gov or jeffrey.hauger@pearson.com.  For more information on the Home Base Opt-in process, visit our website at https://www.dpi.nc.gov/educators/home-base/opt-home-base.

Cross-LEA Enrollment Pilot Participation

The Home Base SIS team is seeking PSUs willing to participate in a PowerSchool Cross-LEA Pilot. The Cross-LEA function will involve enrolling students from one PSU into courses at another PSU within PowerSchool and will not include NCVPS.  The projected target date for the pilot is the first semester of the 2022-2023 school year.

A functional demonstration of the product will occur before volunteers for the program make their final commitment.  The PSUs who choose to continue will be expected to:

• Actively participate in the pilot program
• Submit support tickets to report issues
• Participate in product training
• Attend 30 minutes to 1-hour online monitoring sessions of the pilot program weekly to discuss the positive and or negative aspects of the product and its usage.

Note: The frequency of the meetings will be expected to decrease as those piloting the product become more adept with their use of the product.

Please reach out to Russell Dixon via email if you are interested in being part of the PowerSchool Cross-LEA Pilot.

Read-to-Achieve Update - 06/03/2022

Please read and share with your staff the latest Read-to-Achieve Update.  In addition to the update are 3 additional memos pertaining to RtA.

Read-to-Achieve Update - 06/03/2022

Alternative Assessment Update - 06/03/2022

DL I Memo - 06/30/2022

Using the Reading Camp Calculator

CTE Concentrator Calculation

A new Run of the CTE Concentrator Calculation Report should be initiated once final grades are stored at the end of the school year. This process will allow newly completed courses to be analyzed for each student and applied to their concentrator status in the report.

Overview of Concentrator Validation Process and Timeline:

• Detailed guidance documents, video support, and FAQs are provided at this link as resources to help with the concentrator validation process and using the CTE Concentrator Calculation Report. 
• Concentrator validation and override requests should be completed by June 24, 2022.

Questions? Please contact Nancy Cross or Misty Wolfe.

Learning.com Summer PD 2022

Educators,

Dive into Learning.com’s 30 minute videos to help plan for your 2022-2023 school year!  Topics include:

• Lesson Planning Using the EasyTech Learning Cycle
• Redesign Your PD Approach with Online Training Center
• Implementation Models:  Finding Your Fit
• What’s New and What’s Coming - Learn All the Secrets

Click on the Summer PD 2022 link for more details and registration.

Reminder:  Seeking Hosting Sites for Face to Face HBMU Meetings

The Home Base Team will be hosting two face-to-face rounds of Home Base Meet Ups for the 2022-2023 school year (September 26-30 and May 1-5).  If you would like to be a host site for a face-to-face meet up, please complete the HBMU Hosting Form. 

The calendar of HBMU events has been provided below.  Please mark your calendars accordingly and make note of the format (virtual or face-to-face).

Reminder:  OCR/CRDC - Action Required - Section 504 Designation in PowerSchool by June 29

The Office of Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a mandatory federal report covering a wide variety of previous year data, including counts based on students with a Section 504 designation.

The CRDC SY2021-22 collection will begin in SY2022-23.  It is important to record the Section 504 designation in PowerSchool before EOY. 

How a Section 504 designation is documented and monitored is a local level decision, however; in order for the PowerSchool CRDC Preview report to calculate Section 504 survey questions, there must be Special Program record '504' associated to the student.  There is a quick reference document located at https://www.dpi.nc.gov/documents/student_info/ps-qrd-recording-section-504-in-powerschool-20141009.

If no data exist in PowerSchool regarding Section 504 status for students, PSUs will be required to update CRDC survey questions after NCDPI uploads data on behalf of the state. PSUs who wish to avoid the burdensome manual updates to the CRDC should ensure that all 504 students have been identified in PowerSchool no later than June 29.

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.

New Home Base Admin Course 

Feedback from PSUs identified a need for resource hubs for the Home Base products. The product managers have created Admin Resource Courses for each area. These resource courses are located in the NCDPI Canvas instance.

Please visit these courses.  Below are the steps to enroll in these courses:

How to access these resources:

• Sign in to the Blue Canvas icon within NCEdCloud
• Using the Global Navigation (on the left), click the Home Base Resources button
• On the menu that opens, select the course(s) you would like to enroll into
• After enrolling, the course will appear on your Canvas Dashboard

Other Information:

• Feel free to provide feedback on these courses. They all contain a feedback button on their homepage.
• We will continue to update these courses as more product information becomes available

Access to NCDPI Canvas for Home Base Resource Hubs

Any PSU PowerSchool SIS admin who does not have access to the NCDPI “Blue” Canvas located in the NCEdCloud portal and would like to have access or grant access to data managers within their PSU, please complete the form below.  In this form, you can enter up to 5 accounts manually or upload a CSV/Excel file if you have more than 5 account requests.

 If you have any questions, please get in touch with Corey McNeill.  

Link to Form

NC PSU Staff Self-Paced PD Courses 

For any NC PSU Staff who need CEU credits, DTL now has a database of all current asynchronous NCEES PD opportunities for staff. Find the PD that you need: NC PSU Staff Self-Paced PD Courses.

The listing includes free DPI courses published in NCEES and a resource for retired or on-leave staff currently not active in NCEES.
 

Looking for DLCs? Courses are also sorted by credit type.

Note: The acquiring of CEUs and contact hours is subject to LEA/Charter approval. Staff should follow local guidelines on pre-approvals, completed course approvals or requests to apply for approval of a different credit type on completed PD.

June Canvas Statewide Call

As a reminder, please be sure to register for our upcoming statewide call on Monday, June 6, 2022, at 2 PM. Use THIS registration link to sign up for the webinar.

We hope to see you there!

InstructureCon 2022

Canvas has announced that InstructureCon 2022 will be an online and FREE event again this year. The one day conference will be held on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

Check out this page to learn more and sign up to receive updates for registration.

Reminder:  Math Teacher Guides for 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Now on GoOpenNC

New Resource Alert! Math Teacher Guides for 6th, 7th and 8th grade are now live on GoOpenNC. These guides support the use of Rethink Education's courses available on Canvas Commons or GoOpenNC with tips and curricular resources to meet the needs of all students.

View the new middle school grades' math guides and more resources here.

NCBOLD Registration is Now Open!

Digital Teaching and Learning is hittin’ the road again this summer! The NCBOLD 2022 Summer Roadshow will bring high energy, interactive sessions facilitated and led by NC educators to each region of the state.

Coaching Cohort

In alignment with the North Carolina Digital Learning Plan, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Digital Teaching and Learning Division will be providing a year long professional learning opportunity for coaches. The intention is to have two cohorts of 50 participants each, one Eastern cohort and one Western cohort. This application is for anyone who is interested in being either a participant or coaching ambassador. Due to the nature of the Ambassadors’ work, they will be compensated $1000 for the additional duties as described below...see more

Follow Us on Social Media!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and begin receiving "Did You Know" tips featuring each Home Base product. 

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.

Instagram:  @nchomebase         Facebook:  @nchomebase       Twitter:  @nchomebase