What’s In This Packet
In this packet you will find:
Handouts:
• Web Resources and Contacts
• NC’s READY Initiative
• NC’s READY Initiative: Key Points for Educators and Parents
• The Common Core and Essential Standards: What’s Important to Know
• Accountability for Students and Schools
• Top 10 Things to Know About Teacher Effectiveness Policies in NC
• Teacher Effectiveness and Evaluation
• Quick Reference for Home Base
• District and School Transformation
• READY Glossary
• READY Usage Guidelines
• Sample Third-Grade PTA Parents Guide
• Elementary Common Core PTA Brochure
A CD that includes:
• Race to the Top Overview Video
• Teachers are the Key Video
• Teacher Effectiveness Video
• Summer Institutes Video
• NC’s READY PowerPoint Presentation
• Word files of all handouts
• An overview brochure of NC Career & College Ready Set Go (CCRSG)
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
Web Resources & Contacts
You can find details updated regularly online regarding all
of the work that is a part of READY and North Carolina’s
Race to the Top grant, as well as other activities to
improve public schools.
District and School Transformation
READY –
NC PTA Brochures
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ready
Basics about READY, the timeline for work and how all the
pieces fit together.
Race to the Top in North Carolina
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/schooltransformation/
See how and where NCDPI’s DST division is intervening to
help in schools of greatest academic need.
http://www.ncpta.org/parent/CommonCoreStandards.html
Find printable brochures on the new Common Core State
Standards for elementary, middle and high schools.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/
North Carolina’s complete Race to the Top plans and all
the technical details, including local RttT contacts.
ACRE –
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/
Details about the changes under way for accountability
and curriculum reform, including the new Common Core
and Essential Standards.
Race to the Top Project Coordinators
Adam Levinson – Race to the Top Director
Adam.Levinson@dpi.nc.gov
Audrey Martin McCoy – State Board of Education
Audrey.MartinMcCoy@dpi.nc.gov
Accountability Redesign
Robin McCoy – Standards and Assessments
Robin.McCoy@dpi.nc.gov
Direct link to accountability redesign details.
Adam Short – RttT Project Coordinator
Adam.Short@dpi.nc.gov
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/redesign/
ACT, PLAN and WorkKeys
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/act/
Latest information and links regarding North Carolina’s
use of the ACT test suite.
Career and College: Ready, Set, Go!
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/readysetgo/
Learn about Gov. Bev Perdue’s initiative to prepare more
North Carolinians for success in careers and college.
This initiative encompasses pre-kindergarten through
employment, including K-12 improvements.
Educator Effectiveness and Evaluation
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/standards/
Updates and technical details about the teacher and principal
evaluation program and its emphasis on developing strong
educators and leaders for North Carolina public schools.
Neill Kimrey – Instructional Technology/NC Education Cloud
Neill.Kimrey@dpi.nc.gov
Mike Martin – Policy Analyst | Mike.Martin@dpi.nc.gov
Sarah McManus – Instructional Improvement System (IIS)
Sarah.McManus@dpi.nc.gov
Donna Miller – District and School Transformation
Donna.Miller@dpi.nc.gov
Eric Moore – IIS | Eric.Moore@dpi.nc.gov
Tina Marcus – Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) Schools
Tina.Marcus@dpi.nc.gov
Jennifer Preston – Educator Effectiveness
Jennifer.Preston@dpi.nc.gov
Elizabeth Colbert – NC Virtual Public School
Eliz.Colbert@ncpublicschools.gov
Educator Online Evaluation System
Kayla Siler – Policy Analyst | Kayla.Siler@dpi.nc.gov
Direct link to the evaluation system details.
Cynthia Martin – Professional Development
Cynthia.Martin@dpi.nc.gov
Instructional Improvement System
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/improvement/
Eric Thanos – RttT Project Coordinator
Eric.Thanos@dpi.nc.gov
See how the IIS will help your school and support
teachers and students.
Michael Yarbrough – Communications and Information
Michael.Yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/training/online-evaluation/
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
NC’s READY Initiative
A little history
In 1995, North Carolina created the state’s first school
accountability model focused on student mastery of
basics in reading and mathematics and on encouraging
and rewarding strong academic growth from one year
to the next. Since that time, state tests have changed,
standards have been increased and federal requirements
have been overlaid on the state’s own model.
In 2007, recognizing that it was time for a fresh review of
student testing and school accountability, the State Board
of Education and the State Superintendent commissioned
a blue ribbon task force to review past practices and to
consider what students currently needed to be successful
after high school for entry-level employment, community
college or technical training or a four-year college or
university. The resulting Framework for Change was
approved in 2008, and work began to accomplish all of the
27 recommendations that were developed.
The recommendations in the Framework for Change
addressed more than student testing and encompassed
a stronger, revised curriculum as a foundation for
better assessments and better learning. Collectively,
the Framework for Change work was called the ACRE
initiative. ACRE stands for Accountability and Curriculum
Reform Effort. ACRE was used as a shorthand term to help
educators at the state level describe the work underway.
What’s ahead
The 2011-12 school year was the final full year for the state’s
current accountability model, the ABCs of Public Education. It
also is the final year for the existing Standard Course of Study.
In 2012-13, North Carolina teachers implemented a new
Standard Course of Study that includes the Common
Core State Standards for English Language Arts and
Mathematics. This marked the first time in at least 30 years
that all curriculum standards are being replaced in each
subject and each grade at one time.
North Carolina piloted a new Accountability model in 2012-13
with complete implementation to follow in 2013-14. The new
model is part of the READY initiative and is focused on student
readiness for education and opportunities after high school
and also on better formative assessments to help teachers
address student learning needs throughout the year.
The General Assembly’s A-F Accountability grades will be
reported for the first time in fall 2014 based on the 2013-14
school year.
Using what we have learned from nearly 20 years of school
accountability experiences and from thorough feedback
from local educators, the new model has some elements in
common with what is in place today. It also features new
elements to better focus on moving all students beyond
basics and toward readiness for the future.
These changes necessitate others: a new School Report
Card for public reporting of results (fall 2014); new
levels of professional development for teachers and
other educators to provide key support for the changes;
better and more technology including an Instructional
Improvement System (IIS) to support teaching and
learning (fully implemented in 2014); and a new evaluation
model for teachers and principals.
How does Race to the Top fit in?
North Carolina’s work to implement the Framework for
Change began in 2008, but the announcement of federal
Race to the Top grants was a welcome opportunity.
Winning a $400 million Race to the Top grant allowed
progress on the new accountability model and other
improvements to move forward more quickly than state
funding alone would have allowed. North Carolina is
among 12 Race to the Top recipients. Other benefits of
the grant include the opportunity to build a North Carolina
education “cloud” to provide computing and software
access statewide and to build an IIS to serve teachers,
students and parents; and the expansion of the NC
Department of Public Instruction’s successful District and
School Transformation work to help schools that have
very low academic performance.
Alongside the classroom changes being developed, North
Carolina also had created and validated a new educator
effectiveness model to improve the evaluation system for
teachers, principals and other educators. A three-year
pilot rollout for the new effectiveness and evaluation
system began in 2008, and the model went statewide in
2011-12. Race to the Top did require the addition of a sixth
element to North Carolina’s educator evaluation model so
that student performance became one of the six measures
considered in evaluating teacher effectiveness.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
NC’s READY Initiative: Key Points for Educators and Parents
• Remodeling education is essential to ensure continued
improvement for the students and teachers of North
Carolina. That is why our state is embarking upon one
of the largest single transformations of teaching and
learning in our history.
• NC began these changes in 2008 with the initial recommendations from a special Blue Ribbon Commission on
Testing and Accountability. Race to the Top funds are
enabling this work to move forward more quickly.
• Fall 2012 saw the implementation of new Common Core
State Standards and new Essential Standards for every
public school in the state. These new standards will
ensure that our students are learning and mastering
what they must know in order to succeed in college,
career and life. This is the heart of our work.
• The Instructional Improvement System (III) in Home
Base is providing very specific and relevant data for
teachers, administrators and parents to be able to
pinpoint student progress during any segment of time.
It will include a detailed diagnostic breakdown of each
student’s performance and indicate skill areas needing
extra attention.
• The improved N.C. Educator Effectiveness System, also
part of Home Base, provides more useful feedback to
improve teaching and leadership, giving teachers a more
active role in their own development. The incorporation of
student growth into the new educator effectiveness model
will enrich the measurement of teacher performance.
Fairness and accuracy are key to this addition.
• North Carolina’s Race to the Top federal funding helps
teachers and principals in the effort to ensure that more
students are graduating and are well prepared to attend
college and pursue relevant and satisfying careers.
• Home Base is part of the NC Education Cloud, a “shared
services” provider that will offer students and teachers
across the state access to a wide array of software
programs and other services that schools otherwise would
have had to purchase on a piecemeal basis.
• More teachers now have access to and are receiving
professional development to heighten their effectiveness
in the classroom through a strengthened statewide
professional development system.
• Stronger leadership with better qualified teachers
and redesigned programs will combine to raise
proficiency levels and graduation rates at currently
lower-achieving schools.
• An updated accountability model will provide more
useful information for educators and parents regarding
the progress of their school, the educational needs of
individual students, and ultimately, higher graduation
and college attendance rates.
• Supporting the READY initiative is a new suite of
technology tools available statewide called Home Base.
The main Home Base components are the Instructional
Improvement System (IIS, which is Schoolnet), the
Student Information System (SIS, which is PowerSchool)
and the NC Educator Effectiveness System (which uses
the Truenorthlogic tools for evaluation, and features
professional development support).
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
The Common Core & Essential Standards: What’s Important to Know
North Carolina adopted the new Common Core State
Standards for K-12 Mathematics and English Language
Arts in June 2010, for implementation in fall 2012. The new
standards – along with Essential Standards for additional
subject areas – will provide stronger, clearer and more
consistent goals for what students should learn and
master in order to be ready for college, career and life.
This is the heart of our work.
The new standards for English Language Arts demonstrate
an integrated model of literacy. The communication skills
of reading, writing, speaking, listening and language
are blended throughout the standards with a balance of
informational and literary text. Other key features of these
standards include the expectation that students will read a
broad range of increasingly complex texts over time. They
also include informational, argumentative and narrative
writing that requires students to use evidence from texts.
The literacy standards for history/social studies, science
and technical subjects support a shared responsibility for
students’ literacy development.
The new standards for Math focus heavily on arithmetic in
grades K-5. Arithmetic as a rehearsal for algebra places
emphasis on how the number system works, the application
of properties in computation and understanding of fractions.
Middle schools move into algebra readiness with building
number theory and the study of proportional reasoning.
In high school, modeling permeates all themes: algebra,
numbers, geometry, functions and statistics and probability.
Why the Common Core?
It is important for educators, parents and supporters to
fully understand why these changes are taking place.
Following are pertinent points about the Common
Core State Standards that everyone involved in public
education in North Carolina should know regarding why
and how we are charting this course:
• North Carolina has traditionally invested in curriculum
updates and revisions at least every five years.
The most recent revision efforts began in 2008, in
response to a state Blue Ribbon Commission on
Testing and Accountability.
• This endeavor began long before North Carolina
pursued and won the Race to the Top (RttT) federal
grant. In other words, the resulting adoption of a new
Common Core and Essential Standards in 2010 was an
important step we were going to take regardless of
whether or not we received RttT funding.
• With RttT funding, North Carolina can develop a more
solid implementation of the new standards, ensuring
that they are well understood and well taught.
• The Common Core State Standards provide clarity for
what students need to know and be able to do to be
college and career ready. Our students must graduate
with a deeper understanding of what they must know
to succeed beyond high school. These new standards
will help to ensure that our students are learning – and
mastering – that which their contemporaries across the
country are learning and mastering.
• The new Common Core State Standards will foster a
more consistent, equitable learning experience for
students. The new standards will foster greater equity
across socioeconomic levels, among races and
ethnicities and regardless of geography. We owe it
to our students to make sure they are competitive not
only with others in their school, community or state,
but also with the rest of the nation and the world.
• Having standards that align with those across the
nation also provides opportunities for sharing of
resources and economies of scale. Teaching to
the same standards offers limitless opportunities
for NC teachers to share creative lesson plans and
innovative supporting activities with their colleagues
in California, Colorado or right next door. Sharing of
instructional resources also can lead to significant
savings for school districts.
• Standards that match those of our counterparts across
the United States means more fluid mobility for our
students. In our transient culture, we want NC’s students
equipped to walk into a classroom anywhere in the
country and be on track. Likewise, teachers in our state
can devote more time to meaningful instruction rather
than remediation for students who have relocated here.
• The Common Core State Standards provide fewer,
yet clearer and higher expectations for students. The
new standards take us from those that were formerly
“a mile wide and an inch deep” to those that are
narrower and more focused. They will delve deeper
and enable teachers and students to have richer and
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
more meaningful instruction, with the end result being
fuller understanding and higher levels of mastery
among students.
Essential Standards
In addition to the Common Core State Standards in English
Language Arts and Mathematics, North Carolina adopted
new Essential Standards in all other subjects including
social studies, science, information and technology, world
languages, health and physical education, arts education,
career technical education and guidance.
The new Essential Standards will dovetail with the new
Common Core to ensure that our students have a greater
understanding of what they are learning. Together, all of our
new standards will provide a much sharper focus on the skills
students must have by the time they graduate, including:
• collaboration skills;
• critical-thinking skills;
• research skills;
• problem-solving skills; and,
• technology skills.
The new Common Core State Standards and the new
Essential Standards will become North Carolina’s new
Standard Course of Study in fall 2012. They have been
crafted in such a way that they will ensure that upon
graduation students will have a deeper understanding of
what they must know to be READY for higher education,
for work – and for life.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William C. Harrison, State Board of Education Chairman
Accountability for Students and Schools
Accountability at the student and school level is important to
educators, parents and the business community. By having
objective and standard measures of growth and performance,
everyone can see how well individual schools are performing.
The new accountability model went into effect for the
2012-13 school year, with reporting on that school year
released in November 2013. In summer 2013, the North
Carolina General Assembly voted to implement an
accountability model that will assign grades (A-F)
to individual schools based on performance. The
implementation of that model will begin August 1, 2014,
with application to the 2013-14 school year.
Principles of the READY Accountability Model
• Measuring student growth is important.
• Reporting the bottom-line performance, i.e., proficiency,
of students by demographic groups is important.
• Student assessments should be fair and meaningful to
students and to their teachers.
• A mixture of state-developed and nationally reported
assessments allows us to measure how well teachers
are covering and students are mastering the Standard
Course of Study. It also provides national comparisons.
K-8
• End-of-grade tests in reading and mathematics in
each grade
• Science tests in grades 5 and 8
9-12
• End-of-course tests in Algebra I/Integrated Math I,
English II and Biology
• Achievement of Benchmarks in English, Math,
Science, Reading and Writing (ACT in Junior Year)
• 4- and 5-year Cohort Graduation Rate
• Graduates passing Algebra II or Integrated Math III
Reporting Features
• Performance on each measure will be reported as it is.
• Both growth and performance will be reported.
• Disaggregate information will be reported to show
how different groups of students perform.
• No index or complex formulas to explain.
• No categories of school performance or school labels.
What is important about these changes?
• The READY accountability model emphasizes the key
indicators for student readiness: how well students
perform on national college readiness/admissions and
workplace readiness tests plus the graduation rate.
• Students will receive test scores that are useful to
them in college admission and in workplace entry.
• Schools will be recognized for academic growth.
• Teachers will receive support to improve formative
assessment, the assessments that occur daily so that
classroom teachers can adjust instruction.
• The new model balances the goals of limited testing,
measuring student performance and outcomes of public
schools and complying with federal requirements for
student testing and school accountability.
How will school performance, growth be reported?
Below are indicators for measuring student performance and
growth. Reporting will be based on these indicators:
High School Indicators
End of Course Assessments – % of students proficient on Algebra I/Integrated Math I, Biology and English II assessments
ACT College Readiness Benchmarks – % of students who
score well enough to have a 75% chance of getting a C or
higher in their first credit-bearing college course
Graduation Rates –
• 4-year: % of students who were freshmen in 2009-10
who graduated in 2012-13
• 5-year: % of students who were freshmen in 2008-09
who graduated by 2012-13
Future-Ready Core Completion – % of graduates who pass
higher-level math classes
WorkKeys – % of graduates achieving the Silver level on
the three WorkKeys assessments
High School Indicators – Optional
Graduation Project – Schools that implement the
Graduation Project.
Elementary and Middle School Indicators
End of Grade Assessments
• % of students proficient on 3-8 Mathematics
• % of students proficient on 3-8 English Language Arts
• % of students proficient on 5th and 8th grade Science
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
Top 10 Things to Know about Teacher Effectiveness Policies in NC
1•
North Carolina knows that teaching is incredibly
challenging work. Being a great teacher – helping all
students gain new knowledge and skills like reading
critically, writing inspiringly or precisely applying math
to real situations – is far from easy. Great teachers work
tirelessly. Great teachers constantly improve and have
to be disciplined thinkers and strong leaders in their
classrooms. North Carolina wants to recognize those
teachers who are constantly moving toward excellence.
6•
North Carolina is engaging all stakeholders. North
Carolina has a Teacher Effectiveness Work Group that
reviews all policies related to teacher effectiveness
and makes policy recommendations to the State Board
of Education. The Work Group consists of teachers,
principals, central office staff, superintendents, research
scholars, North Carolina Association of Educators
representatives, leaders from non-profit organizations
and staff from the Department of Public Instruction.
2•
North Carolina’s goal is to improve the quality of
its teaching force. The new evaluation instrument,
combined with a new standard on student growth,
helps to identify concrete areas for teacher
development. Under Race to the Top, the Department
of Public Instruction is rolling out new face-to-face
and virtual professional development to provide
teachers with opportunities to improve their craft.
7•
North Carolina is moving cautiously with its teacher
effectiveness initiatives. Before a teacher can
receive a rating on the new sixth standard, there
must be three years of student data used to inform
the rating. The use of three years of data safeguards
against the statistical problems with the use of
student data to evaluate teachers.
8•
North Carolina wants to develop an environment in
which students and teachers can grow. Teachers
should work in an environment that promotes growth.
This should include observing and being observed
by other teachers; collaborative problem-solving
with peers; effective professional development;
and meaningful, regular evaluations from someone
whose professional opinion the teacher respects and
whose feedback is honest, insightful and beneficial.
The environment needs to be trustful and grounded
in the belief that students can always learn more and
that teachers and schools can make that happen.
9•
North Carolina believes that all students deserve an
excellent teacher. Teachers who are not proficient
on any of the standards of the teacher evaluation
instrument will be placed on an action plan to work
toward professional growth.
3•
North Carolina expects that all teachers can help
their students grow academically. The new sixth
standard on the teacher evaluation instrument
measures the extent to which each teacher’s
students demonstrate academic growth. Academic
growth is the amount of learning that takes place
during a school year. Even students above or below
grade level can still make one year’s worth of growth
in one year’s worth of classroom instruction.
4•
North Carolina believes that teachers should play
an active role in their own development. Evaluation
is a process in which teachers are deeply engaged.
Teachers will become more skilled educators only if they
reflect on their practice, examine the learning of their
students, identify areas for growth and participate in
dialogue with peers and evaluators on how to improve.
5•
North Carolina values teachers in all grades and
disciplines. All teachers contribute to the learning
of their students, even if this learning is not currently
measured by a standardized assessment. The
Department of Public Instruction is bringing together
groups of teachers to design innovative measures
of student learning in subjects ranging from art to
foreign language.
10 •
North Carolina is exploring multiple measures of
teacher effectiveness. The amount of learning that
students experience as a result of their time in a
teacher’s classroom is an important measure of
that educator’s effectiveness. It is not the only one.
That is why the teacher evaluation instrument also
includes five other measures.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
Teacher Effectiveness and Evaluation
North Carolina teachers have been evaluated on five
standards, according to State Board of Education policy.
These standards are:
• demonstrates leadership
• establishes a respectful environment for a diverse
population of students
• knows the content they teach
• facilitates learning for students
• reflects on practice.
A sixth standard has been added:
• contributes to the academic success of students
This sixth standard requires the use of multiple measures of
student growth over multiple times.
How will teacher performance be described?
Teacher performance will be described for each of the
initial five standards as follows:
• Developing: Teacher demonstrated adequate growth
toward achieving standard(s) during the period of
performance, but did not demonstrate competence on
standard(s) of performance.
• Proficient: Teacher demonstrated basic competence
on standard(s) of performance.
• Accomplished: Teacher exceeded basic competence
on standard(s) of performance most of the time.
• Distinguished: Teacher consistently and
significantly exceeded basic competence on
standard(s) of performance.
• Not Demonstrated: Teacher did not demonstrate
competence on or adequate growth toward achieving
standard(s) of performance. (Note: If the “Not
Demonstrated” rating is used, the Principal/Evaluator
must comment about why it was used.)
On the sixth standard concerning student academic
growth, teachers will be evaluated as effective, highly
effective or in need of improvement.
The performance descriptions are designed to illustrate
the professional growth and development that one
would expect to see in a teacher as he or she enters the
profession and develops their skills throughout their career.
Why evaluate teachers based, in part, on the
academic success of students?
North Carolina teachers want to develop positive outcomes
for all students. With the support of an effective teacher,
each student can make academic growth each year. The
teacher behaviors and characteristics embodied in the first
five standards of the teacher evaluation instrument should
produce academic gains for students if they are practiced
well. That ultimate outcome – student growth – needs to be
a part of the evaluation system so that the state can ensure
that all children have effective educators.
How will teachers be evaluated on
academic success?
Teachers will be evaluated as effective, highly effective or
in need of improvement based on ratings on the previous
five standards used in evaluation and a three-year rolling
average of growth on assessments of the standards through
the end-of-grade and end-of-course exams, VoCATS exams
or the new Measures of Student Learning (Common Exams)
currently being developed. Students will be expected to have
met a year’s worth of academic growth and teachers rated
proficient or higher on all standards for teachers to attain
the effective rating. For teachers to attain the highly effective
designation, students must exceed annual growth targets
based on a three-year average and be rated accomplished or
higher on the remaining five standards. Teachers who attain
a rating of below proficient on any of the standards, including
those whose students fail to meet growth standards on
average over a three-year period, will be rated as in need of
improvement. The three-year average is being used instead
of a single year because the three-year average is a more
reliable estimate of a teacher’s contribution to the academic
success of students.
What about teachers in non-tested subject areas
such as social studies, art or healthful living?
Some 800 teacher volunteers have been assembled in
60 working groups to help develop Measures of Student
Learning, similar to district “common exams” for non-tested
grades and subject areas. When these assessments are in
place, teachers must have three years of test results before
they can be evaluated on this standard.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
Won’t this standard disproportionately benefit
teachers of high achieving students?
When does the new sixth standard (student
growth) take effect?
No. The standard is based on annual academic growth of
students, not overall academic achievement. No matter
the starting point (behind grade level, on grade level, or
above grade level), the intent of the sixth standard is to
measure a student’s academic growth over the course of
a year, with an underlying assumption that all children can
learn and make progress.
All teachers receive a sixth standard rating every year.
For teachers in tested subject areas and grades, the
sixth standard rating is based on student growth as
demonstrated on end-of-grade tests, end-of-course tests,
or VoCATS exams. For teachers in subject areas where
assessments are still being developed, evaluation on the
sixth standard will be based on school-wide data until
the measures are available. Student surveys are being
considered as a potential part of the new sixth standard
and are being piloted as a possible additional data point in
this area for future use.
What are the consequences for teachers who
need improvement?
Teachers whose students fail to meet academic growth
targets over a three-year rolling average will be rated
as “growth fails to meet expectations” on the sixth
standard of the evaluation instrument and thus in need of
improvement. As is the case with a rating of not proficient
on any of the standards, teachers recommended for
continued employment will be required to complete a
mandatory growth plan. The State Board of Education
recommends that the evaluation be considered when
teachers are considered for career status.
How often are teachers evaluated?
Should teachers be concerned about job status in
light of this new standard?
The vast majority of teachers should be rated as “growth
meets expectations” or “growth exceeds expectations” on
the new sixth standard and attain a rating of effective or
highly effective overall. Those who do not will complete a
growth plan aimed at helping them improve their craft, with
the understanding that the ability to guide students toward
significant academic growth is a critical component of
effective instruction.
Teachers are evaluated annually.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William C. Harrison, State Board of Education Chairman
Quick Reference for Home Base
What is the vision/purpose for Home Base?
The Home Base project includes the new Student
Information System (PowerSchool), the Instructional
Improvement System (Schoolnet) and the Educator
Effectiveness System (Truenorthlogic, or TNL – including the
educator evaluation and PD components). North Carolina’s
vision is to provide teachers with tools to differentiate
instruction. Home Base will yield specific, instructionally
relevant data for students, parents, teachers, principals
and district administrators. The system will also provide
access to curriculum tools and resources aligned to the
North Carolina Standard Course of Study (Common Core
State and NC Essential Standards) for all students, parents
and educators statewide. Home Base will provide access
to data and resources to inform decision-making related to
instruction, assessment, and career and college goals.
What is the timeline for Home Base?
Home Base became available across the state in July
2013, starting with year-round schools and then for
all schools by August. Initial components available in
Home Base included the student information system,
instructional improvement system and the educator
evaluation for teachers. In 2013-14, additional components
are being added, including a collaboration tool
(OpenClass) and the professional development system.
For the 2014-15 school year, Home Base will include a new
delivery platform for online summative assessments. For
more information on the timeline and the components of
the system, please reference the website at http://www.
ncpublicschools.org/homebase/.
Who can use Home Base?
Home Base is intended for statewide access by teachers,
students, parents and administrators. Teachers will be
able to use Home Base to access student data and to
access teaching and learning resources to help improve
educational outcomes for students. Students will be able to
access their assignments, grades and learning activities.
Parents will be able to view their child’s attendance and
progress, and administrators can monitor data on students,
teachers and schools. Administrators will have school or
district access to aggregate date to make decisions based
on student performance and educator effectiveness. Not
only does Home Base put data and resources at the users’
fingertips, it does so with single sign-on access to the
integrated system made up of the following components:
Learner Profile and Student Information; Standards &
Curriculum; Instructional Design: Practice & Resources;
Assessment; Data Analysis & Reporting; and Professional
Development & Educator Evaluation.
How do we know that the resources within
Home Base are high quality?
All resources in Home Base go through an evaluation and
approval process before being included in the system.
The development and management of resources must
be designed with role-based security (i.e., teachers have
different privileges than principals). This design ensures
submitted materials are reviewed prior to being added
to the “official” state, regional or district curriculum
resources. Once resources are authorized, they will be
available to any teacher for use in his/her instruction
within the appropriate organization.
What is the role of assessments within Home Base?
In 2014-15, Home Base will be used to deliver the
statewide summative assessments: end-of-grade and
end-of-course tests (EOGs and EOCs). Home Base also
contains assessment tools that can be used for classroom
and benchmark assessments. These assessments can
be created using items that were loaded into the system
from the state level or users can add and create their
own items within the system. The results from these
assessments will be immediately available to the teachers
for making decisions and informing instruction.
Is there a requirement to use Home Base?
There are required components of Home Base for all
schools and districts: the student information system
(PowerSchool), the new tools for educator evaluation
(TNL) and the delivery platform for the online summative
assessments (beginning in 2014-15). All other components
of Home Base are optional, and LEAs/charter schools can
choose to opt-in at a cost of $4/student beginning in the
2014-15 school year (access to the full Home Base system
is free for all users in 2013-14).
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
What happens to Home Base after the
Race to the Top grant?
While the suite of technology tools in Home Base has
been developed with federal Race to the Top funding
in support of the NC READY initiative, we do not want
to spend years developing a system that we will not be
financially sustainable after those grant dollars are used.
To that end, we are working with our local stakeholders
and advisors on a sustainability plan to offer options for
maintaining and enhancing the system in the years to
come. The first step toward that sustainability is the joint
purchasing power that statewide opt-in will provide.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William C. Harrison, State Board of Education Chairman
District and School Transformation
North Carolina has more than a decade of experience
working with low-achieving schools to improve student
achievement. Early efforts focused on school assistance
teams that were assigned to each school for a year. While
this approach offered some benefits and performance
improved while the assistance team was in place,
performance often fell after the team ended involvement
in the school.
In 2008, the NC Department of Public Instruction began
a new method of assisting low-achieving schools when
it was directed to intervene in the state’s persistently
low-achieving high schools. Since that time, this type of
consolidated transformation service has been modified
and extended more broadly.
Race to the Top and DST
With Race to the Top funding, North Carolina now is able
to provide support to:
• 118 schools that are in the lowest 5 percent based on
student achievement;
• Nine high schools with graduation rates below 60
percent; and
• 12 local school districts with aggregate performance
composites of less than 65 percent.
Direct services are being provided to 118 schools to
implement one of four U.S. Department of Education reform
models. In addition, direct services are being provided to
12 districts with clusters of low-achieving schools.
What is provided to the schools in the
transformation process?
• Professional development to support their successful
implementation of the U.S. Department of Education
reform model that the district chose for the school.
• A school transformation coach to support the
principal and school leadership team in successfully
implementing the reform model.
• Instructional coaches to assist teachers with
successful implementation of the reform model, new
standards and new accountability model.
• A Comprehensive Needs Assessment focusing on the
impact of the instructional program on student learning.
What is additionally provided to the partner
school districts in the transformation process?
• A district transformation coach jointly selected
by NCDPI and the district to support the district’s
capacity to implement school reform, the new
Common Core State Standards and Essential
Standards and the new accountability model.
• A districtwide Comprehensive Needs Assessment
focusing on the instructional program of each school
and the capacity of the central office to support those
instructional programs.
Schools and districts that have been involved in
transformation and turnaround activities since 2008
have shown significant improvements and have built
internal capacity to continue the pattern of improvement
even after NCDPI staff have ended their on-the-ground
commitment with the schools or districts.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
READY Glossary
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) – K-12 English
language arts and mathematics standards developed
in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including
states, governors, chief state school officers, content
experts, teachers, school administrators and parents.
The standards establish clear and consistent goals for
learning to prepare students for college and careers. As
of December 2011, the Common Core State Standards
were adopted by 45 States and the District of Columbia.
Home Base – Home Base is a statewide, instructional
improvement system and student information system for
teachers, students, parents and administrators. Teachers
can use Home Base to access student data and to access
teaching and learning resources to help improve educational
outcomes for students. Students are able to access their
assignments, grades and learning activities. Parents will
be able to view their child’s attendance and progress, and
administrators can monitor data on students, teachers and
schools. Not only does Home Base put data and resources at
the users’ fingertips, it does so with single sign-on access to
the integrated system made up of the following components:
Learner Profile and Student Information; Standards &
Curriculum; Instructional Design: Practice & Resources;
Assessment; Data Analysis & Reporting; and Professional
Development & Educator Evaluation.
Instructional Improvement System (IIS) – The IIS will be a
comprehensive system for providing technology tools and
resources to local educators to manage the teaching and
learning process through six major components: Standards
and Curriculum; Instructional Design, Practice, and Delivery;
Assessment and Growth; Professional Development; Data
Analysis and Reporting; and a Learner Profile and Work
Samples. The IIS will include many tools, including sample
lesson plans, storage for students’ digital files, formative
assessments and professional development modules.
NC Education Cloud – The NC Education Cloud
(NCEdCloud) will provide a highly reliable, highly
available, technology server infrastructure supporting
the K-12 education enterprise statewide. The primary
objective of the NCEdCloud is to provide a world-class IT
infrastructure so that schools and districts can easily and
readily access software applications as needed.
North Carolina Educator Evaluation System (NCEES) –
The NCEES is an online system that includes processes
for the evaluation of educators on standards that reflect
their professional performance. There are evaluation
instruments for teachers and administrators, as well as
optional evaluation instruments for instructional central
office staff and superintendents.
NC Essential Standards (NCES) – North Carolina adopted
new Essential Standards for subjects in addition to English
and Math covered by the Common Core. These standards
will become the state’s new Standard Course of Study
in all grades for social studies, science, information and
technology, world languages, health and physical education,
arts education, career technical education and guidance.
NC Teacher Corps (NCTC) – NCTC places new teachers in
school districts not served by Teach for America. It requires
a two-year commitment, and strives to place teachers in
high-need instructional areas such as math, science and
Exceptional Children’s programs.
Race to the Top (RttT) – Race to the Top is a $400 million
federal grant awarded to North Carolina in August 2010.
Its purpose is to support the significant changes in
curriculum and accountability, along with the technology
necessary to ensure that more students graduate from
high school prepared for college and careers.
READY Initiative – The READY initiative replaces the ABCs
nomenclature. The READY Initiative refers to North Carolina’s
new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and North
Carolina Essential Standards (NCES), the new accountability
model, efforts to support in low performing schools and to
provide a stronger technology infrastructure statewide.
Regional Leadership Academies – The State has
launched three Regional Leadership Academies as
an alternative route for principal certification under
Race to the Top. These two-year programs offer initial
licenses, specialty add-on licensure for high-needs
areas and continuing education credits as part of the
State’s strategy for increasing the pool of highly qualified
principals for North Carolina’s lowest achieving schools.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William W. Cobey Jr., State Board of Education Chairman
Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) – A multi-tiered
framework which promotes school improvement through
engaging, high quality instruction by using a team
approach to guide educational practices, using a problem
solving model based on data to address student needs
and maximize growth for all.
Shared Learning Infrastructure (SLI) – SLI is a joint project
of the Gates and Carnegie Foundations and is creating a
national marketplace through which third-party vendors
offer a wide variety of instructional tools and resources.
SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) –
A state-led consortium developing next-generation
assessments aligned to the Common Core State
Standards to measure student progress toward college
and career readiness.
Turnaround of Lowest Achieving Schools (TALAS) –
Turnaround activities are targeted to the schools in the
bottom 5 percent of performance; high schools with a
graduation rate below 60 percent; and local districts with
aggregate performance composites below 65 percent.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William C. Harrison, State Board of Education Chairman