Number 10

NC Teacher Working Conditions (TWC) Survey Closes Tomorrow, April 5 at 5 p.m.

The 2024 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey is open and will be available to take through Friday, April 5 at 5 p.m. Teachers should have received a direct link to the survey in their school email inbox. 

If you or someone at your school did not receive the survey link on March 1 and think you or they should have, please reach out to Survey Support. 

Number 9

NC Textbook Commission Seeking Instructional Material Evaluators

The North Carolina Textbook Commission is excited to extend an invitation to expert teachers across the state who are passionate about K-12 Science education. We are currently seeking dedicated individuals to assist in the evaluation of Instructional Materials/Textbooks for K-12 Science.

This opportunity is open to current, certified K-12 Science, Exceptional Children (EC), and English Language Learner (ELL) teachers with a minimum of three years of teaching experience. As a participant, they will be provided with comprehensive orientation and training sessions. These sessions are designed to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively review and evaluate the latest textbooks and instructional materials in K-12 Science. 

Learn more here. 

Number 8

National Student Clearinghouse Webinar

The Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR) at NCDPI will be hosting a second series of webinars in the spring for high school principals, district support teams and secondary counselors. This session is a continuation on how to use National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data. As an extension of this work, NCDPI’s OLR has created an external facing dashboard that will support districts and schools in understanding their first-time enrollment outcomes using NSC data.

We are excited to share this dashboard with our district partners! The same webinar will be offered twice to accommodate your schedule. If you cannot make the webinar, it will be recorded and shared with this listserv. If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact: Dr. Erin W. Manuel (erin.manuel@dpi.nc.gov)

Please use this Google Form to register for either (60 minute) session: Thursday April 11th 2024, 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 16th 2024, 1:00 p.m.

Number 7

Toyota's $2M Grant Will Help Guilford, Randolph Students Explore STEM Careers

"Toyota USA Foundation on Tuesday announced it is giving $2 million to prepare students in Guilford and Randolph counties for careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

Toyota is developing a new manufacturing facility for building electric vehicle batteries in the Randolph County town of Liberty, just east of Guilford County.

Gabby Brown, a spokeswoman for Guilford County Schools, said that the district’s $1.5 million portion of the grant will be for initiatives at Jackson Middle School and Southeast Guilford High School. She said the bulk of the money will go toward Jackson Middle School with the remainder for Southeast — the Guilford high school closest to the Liberty site — and the creation of an Advanced Manufacturing Signature Career Academy there.

Guilford County Schools already has one advanced manufacturing academy at Smith High School."

Read the full story here. 

Number 6

NC Governor's School Seeking Teachers for Summer 2024

The Governor’s School of North Carolina is seeking creative, engaging teachers to serve as instructors for the 2024 summer session. Teachers are needed for both Governor’s School East and West campuses, hosted by Greensboro College and Meredith College.

Learn more and apply here.

Number 5

2024 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Teacher of the Year to be Announced and Livestreamed April 5

Join us for a livestream of the 2024 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year Ceremony on Friday, April 5. The livestream begins with a pre-show salute to our sponsors and finalists beginning at 12 p.m., with the ceremony honoring our nine regional and charter school finalists beginning at 12:30 p.m. The event concludes with the announcement of the 2024 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

The event will be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. Read more about the 2024 Teacher of the Year finalists here.

Number 4

A Guide to Help PSUs Sustain Effective Programming Post-ESSER

The Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR) has just released a Grant Sustainability guide that is designed to support districts and schools in navigating the landscape of available funding opportunities following the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program.

This guide aims to empower program leaders by offering insights into various grants that can sustain and bolster initiatives initially funded through ESSER. Through clear, accessible information and curated links to relevant resources, this guide equips educators with the knowledge and tools necessary to identify suitable funding avenues and maximize the impact of their programs. Moreover, it provides practical examples illustrating how these grants can be strategically utilized to ensure the continuity of programming.

If you have questions about how you might apply for any of these grants to sustain ESSER-funded programming in your PSU, please reach out to our team at olr-esser-support@dpi.nc.gov.

Find the OLR Grant Sustainability Guide here.

Number 3

NC Teacher Survey Nearing Conclusion After Surpassing 100,000 Participants

Every two years for nearly the last 20 years, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Teacher Working Conditions Survey has collected data and answers on topics affecting educators in classrooms.

The time to gather that data is once again here, as the 2024 version of the survey ends Friday.

'We try to get data from 100% of the educators in the state,' NCDPI Director of Research and Evaluation Jeni Corn said. 'This is not a sample. My goal was 100,000 educators responding, and we just hit that number [Tuesday]. I’m super excited.'

For almost two decades, the NCDPI has had to answer questions of concern based on some of the poll’s results."

Read the full story and watch the news clip here. Thank you to all of the educators and TWC Coordinators who made this happen! 

Number 2

2022-23 Teacher Attrition Data Indicates Need for More Beginning Teacher Support

"Trends in teacher attrition and vacancy rates in North Carolina public schools indicate a need for targeted and differentiated beginning teacher support, according to the annual State of the Teaching Profession Report presented to the State Board of Education today.

The report, which is mandated by the North Carolina General Assembly, measured attrition and vacancies between March 2022 and March 2023.

Attrition was 11.5% for the 2022-23 school year, up from 7.8% in 2021-22. Beginning teachers, defined as those in their first three years, have a higher attrition rate than their more experienced peers at 15.1%. As shared in today’s presentation, North Carolina’s increase in attrition mirrors national trends yet still remains lower than projections for the national average."

Read the full press release here. 

Number 1

Middle-of-Year Reading Assessment Shows Continued Growth for Early Grades Students

"North Carolina’s kindergarten through third grade students continue to outperform the nation on reading benchmarks, based on the newly released middle-of-year data.

Mirroring the beginning-of-year reading assessment results, new data presented today to the State Board of Education shows that elementary school students improved their reading skills from the beginning- to middle-of-year reading assessment for the 2023-24 school year. There have been steady improvements in elementary students’ reading proficiency since the Excellent Public Schools Act, which called for all K-5 literacy educators to be trained in the science of reading, was signed into law in April 2021."

Read the full press release here.