February 12, 2014
NEW THIS WEEK
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ESL Regional Trainings
World Languages Regional Trainings
North Carolina Analysis of Student Work (ASW) Wiki
Analysis of Student Work Pilot Training
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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READY IV Coming This Spring!
Summer Institutes 2014: Sustaining Success!
Arts and the Common Core Seminar
Home Base Symposium Feb. 17-19
NEW THIS WEEK
ESL Regional Trainings
The NCDPI will provide three Regional Education Alliance/Consortia (RESA) trainings for
Local Education Agency (LEA) and Charter School ESL Leaders focused on the local
implementation of the English Language Development Essential Standards. The trainings
will take place in the eastern, central, and western regions of the state, and ESL leaders
are encouraged to attend the session that is most accessible:
● Monday, Feb. 24 (Region 3 RESA);
● Thursday, March 13 (Region 8 RESA); and
● Wednesday, March 19 (Region 2 RESA).
The first part of the session will focus on "Catching Quality Collaboration with Home
Base." Participants will get an introduction to how to find ESL resources in the
Schoolnet feature of Home Base that will support language development as well as
content knowledge. The session also will give an overview on how to use the English
Language Development standards in conjunction with content standards from the
Common Core and Essential Standards as a common point of reference for collaboration
between language and content area specialists.
The second part of the session will focus on "40 Ways to Read Like a Detective:
Supporting Text-Centered Instruction." During this part of the training, participants will
explore myriad approaches to a text, approaches which are applicable to or adaptable for
learners in all grade levels.
New participants to NCDPI Content Sessions should review previous training materials
linked at http://www.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/ before attending this session.
Registration is handled by the RESA. Please visit:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/calendar/. At the bottom of that page is a list
of all the RESAs and the RESA contact information.
MORE INFO: Lindsey Fults, ESL Consultant, lindsey.fults@dpi.nc.gov
World Languages Regional Trainings
The NCDPI will provide eight Regional Education Alliance/Consortia (RESA) trainings for
Local Education Agency (LEA) and Charter School World Language Leaders who lead the
local implementation of the NC World Language Essential Standards. This spring, the
world language training for K-12 classical, dual and heritage, and modern language
programs will focus on assessment strategies and resources. There will be opportunities
for reflection and collaboration, along with time to plan for sharing the materials and
activities from this training in local professional development.
The NCDPI update will include information on the proposed Analysis of Student Work,
the Standard 6 Measure of Learning process for this content area, which will be
implemented in the 2014-15 school year. All new participants to North Carolina
Department of Public Instruction Content Sessions should review previous training
materials linked at http://www.ncdpi.wikispaces.net before attending this session.
Region 1: Tuesday, March 18
Region 2: Wednesday, March 19
Region 3: Monday, Feb. 24
Region 4: Thursday, Feb. 27
Region 5: Tuesday, Feb. 18
Region 6: Thursday, Feb. 20
Region 7: Thursday, March 27
Region 8: Thursday, March 13
Registration is handled by the RESA. Please visit:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/calendar/. At the bottom of that page is a list
of all the RESAs and the RESA contact information.
North Carolina Analysis of Student Work (ASW) Wiki
The ASW wiki includes updates and training materials for the Spring 2014 piloters from
AP/IB, Arts Education, Healthful Living, World Languages, and other designated content
areas.
Any interested stakeholders can access these materials online at:
http://ncasw.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/
**Please note that only Spring 2014 Pilot participants may receive CEU credit from
NCDPI for completing the training modules during the 2013-2014 school year.**
The ASW process will be the way that the measurement of student growth for these
teachers will be linked to teacher effectiveness for Standard 6 of the NC Educator
Evaluation System beginning with the 2014-2015 school year. Questions about the
proposed ASW process can be directed to Educator Effectiveness by sending an email to
educatoreffectiveness@dpi.nc.gov or visiting the Educator Effectiveness Model website
at www.ncpublicschools.org/effectiveness-model.
Analysis of Student Work Pilot Training
The Analysis of Student Work (ASW) RESA session is highly recommended for 2014 ASW
pilot participants who would like to receive face-to-face support. This session will be
offered once at each of the following RESAs:
● Region 6: Friday, Feb. 21, and
● Region 2: Tuesday, March 25.
ASW is the proposed standard 6 process for the North Carolina Educator Evaluation
System and includes teachers from the areas listed below:
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Advanced Placement
Arts Education
Healthful Living
International Baccalaureate
Occupational Course of Study
Social Studies (7th-Grade Social Studies and World History)
World Languages
By the end of the ASW session, participants will be able to:
● Understand the ASW process;
● Access the resources, materials and information available for the ASW pilot
process; and
● Problem-solve using objectives and/or student evidence provided by pilot
participants.
MORE INFO: Contact your local RESA for more information on -- and to register for -the ASW trainings.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
READY IV Coming This Spring!
As we enter the homestretch of the Race to the Top (RttT) grant, NCDPI leadership has
invited Superintendents and key local district leadership to a fourth round of READY
Regional Outreach Meetings in March and April 2014. The purpose of these gatherings is
to provide updates on the priority activities of the READY initiative work and look toward
the future after the RttT grant is over.
Key topics for these meetings are:
• Home Base – where we are to date, what it means to opt-in to the non-required
parts, and more;
• educator effectiveness; and
• the General Assembly’s A-F Accountability Model, which will be reported out for the
first time in fall 2014.
Superintendents were notified this week of the central office personnel to accompany
them to the meetings. They include:
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Curriculum and Instruction Director
Human Resources Director
Technology Director
Finance Director
Data Manager
Parent Representative, such as a PTA President
Superintendents are notifying the NCDPI their intent to attend and bring colleagues.
MORE INFO: Michael Yarbrough, Communication and Information Services,
michael.yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov
Summer Institutes 2014: Sustaining Success!
Summer is only four months away! And after four years, we all know what that means:
Summer Institutes 2014 will once again be held in all eight regions across the state of
North Carolina. Regions 1, 2, 5 and 7 will experience this myriad of professional
development experiences simultaneously on July 7-8, 2014, while Regions 3, 4, 6 and 8
will participate simultaneously during July 9-10, 2014.
This year’s theme is “Sustaining Success: Building on Achievement,” and we aim to do
just that for educators from across the state. The overarching goal of the 2014 Summer
Institutes is to provide educators across the state with meaningful professional
development that will take them to the next level in READY implementation (Common
Core, New Assessments, Educator Effectiveness, Home Base and more). We will
accomplish this by:
● Strengthening relationships among local school districts as they continue to plan
and execute specific activities and initiatives around Race to the Top work;
● Assisting local school districts in assessing progress with their PD plans;
pinpointing challenges that remain; and refining goals that will keep them moving
forward in this effort;
● Identifying how the NCDPI can provide resources to address the needs of local
school districts in taking the lead and crafting their plans for sustainability as Year 5
of RttT approaches; and,
● Effectively capturing and sharing new knowledge derived from best practices
among colleagues statewide.
Registration opens on April 1, but we wanted our partners across the state to mark your
calendars now!
ALSO, we are asking for proposals from those who would like to present. The application
for this, along with more information and a new video, is available at the Summer
Institutes website, at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/summerinstitutes/2014/
MORE INFO: Dr. Cynthia Martin, Educator Effectiveness, cynthia.martin@dpi.nc.gov
Arts and the Common Core Seminar
Presented by the A+ Schools Program of the North Carolina Arts Council, “Arts and
the Common Core : Integrating with Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts” is a hands-on seminar will help K-8 Educators to: Imagine the
possibilities when you bring the arts - visual arts, dance, theatre and music - together
with Common Core State Standards for English-Language Arts.
Investigate strategies for engaging your students in deep and meaningful processes as
they creatively explore connections between the arts and the non-arts content.
Construct lesson plans and gather ideas and resources for enhancing your language arts
instruction. Reflect on your comfort with the arts and build your tool box of
instructional strategies that support arts integration. Since 1995, schools in the A+
Network have been using the arts as a catalyst for creating connections and making
schools engaging, meaningful and enjoyable places to teach and learn.
This session is open to all K-8th Grade NC Educators and Leaders (all disciplines). A
certificate of participation (which may be used for CEU credit with prior approval from
the school system) will be provided. The sessions take place as follows:
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Region 3 - February 26th from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., lunch included
Region 7 - March 28th from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., lunch included
MORE INFO: For more information and to register, please visit
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/calendar/.
Home Base Symposium Feb. 17-19
From a PowerSchool Cafe to wireless for $5 a day, you won’t want to miss a minute of
the first-ever Home Base Symposium set for Feb. 17-19 at the Koury Convention Center
in Greensboro.
There will be 59 distinct sessions with more than 100 presenters and guest speakers
from LEAs, the NCDPI, Pearson and other vendors who support the Home Base
implementation.
Roughly 20 percent of the sessions offered support the PowerSchool SIS foundational
sessions (meaning they tie in, but are focused on data, policy, integrated applications
and IIS). There are 21 sessions on PowerSchool functions plus eight hands-on sessions.
There’s a special session for Tech Directors and for Superintendents on the last day of
the conference, Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The PowerSchool Cafe premieres this year, where LEAs are invited to join forces and
create a report to share at conference closing with all attendees. The “cafe” room will be
available four times during the conference to these LEA/school staff to work in groups
for about eight total hours. During the last session, these cafe-goers will
share/demonstrate their reports. The goal of these collaborative work sessions is to
create reports that can be shared throughout the state.
The host hotel is offering wireless to those not staying at the hotel for $5 a day. We are
encouraging users to take advantage of this offer in order to minimize cell phone “hot
spots” that negatively impact everyone’s wireless experience in the hotel. Please see
hotel staff for information.
MORE INFO: For the full course list and descriptions and more about registration, visit
http://www.nc-sis.org/symposium14.html.
RACE TO THE TOP WEEKLY UPDATE INFO
If you know someone who would like to be on this list, please send their email
address(es) to Michael.Yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov.
***LINKS: PC users might need to press the CTRL button when clicking on a
hyperlink in this document.
Archived Race to the Top Weekly Updates are available online at:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/reports/weekly