April 7, 2016 Principals' Biweekly Message
North Carolina Public Schools <NCPublicSchools@public.govdelivery.com>
Thu 4/7/2016 6:59 PM
To: Lynda
Fuller <Lynda.Fuller@dpi.nc.gov>;
Biweekly message to North Carolina public school principals from State Superintendent June Atkinson
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April 7, 2016
The first round of regional public comment sessions regarding the
Every Student Succeeds Act and North Carolina’s plan that is under
development will begin on April 13 in Wilmington at 4 p.m. That first
session will be held at Ashley High School, 555 Halyburton
Memorial Parkway, from 4-6 p.m. Other dates and locations are
April 21, Green Hope High School/Wake; April 26, Mallard Creek
High School/Charlotte-Mecklenburg; April 27, North Pitt High
School/Pitt; May 17, East Forsyth High School/WinstonSalem/Forsyth; and May 18, Charles D. Owen High
School/Buncombe.
People who wish to speak during the session are asked to sign in
by 4:15 p.m. Each speaker will have up to 3 minutes to provide
comments, and written copies of comments also are welcomed.
Individuals interested in speaking may want to consider the following questions when formulating their
comments:
- What do you expect from our schools?
- What school characteristics are most important?
- How should we measure school success?
- How do we ensure that all schools are successful?
- How should we celebrate school success?
As we develop our state’s plan, it is important to hear from educators, parents, business people,
students and other community members. Please feel free to distribute the news release with more
information in your community. I want to say a special thank you to the high schools and school
districts that are hosting these for us.
State Board of Education
Meeting Highlights
The State Board of Education held a planning and work session on
Tuesday and Wednesday prior to today’s regular monthly meeting.
Issues discussed at the planning and work session included the
Every Student Succeeds Act, standards review and revisions, the
state assessment system, criminal background checks and the
Board’s legislative agenda for the General Assembly’s short
session.
At this morning’s Board meeting, in addition to a number of consent agenda items, members approved
policies on general licensure requirements, beginning teacher support program, standards and criteria
for evaluation of professional school employees and the teacher performance appraisal process;
applications from reform models; technical changes to the recurring low-performing schools’ policy;
and an equipment assistance grant for school nutrition.
Board members also discussed several charter schools’ issues, the Joint Legislative Education
Oversight Committee Dropout Prevention Pilot Report; Annual Measurable Objectives/Annual
Measurable Achievement Objectives policy revisions; middle school athletics manual updates; and an
update on the teacher licensure system.
The complete list of this month’s Board actions is available on the Board’s website.
Examining the Multi-Tiered System of
Support as a School Improvement
Framework
Intentional implementation of a school improvement framework is
necessary for change to occur. However, systematically determining
where you are and where you want to be can be difficult for teams. NCDPI staff have designed a selfreport and guide that examines evidences around:
●
Leadership
●
Building Capacity/Infrastructure for Implementation
●
Data and Evaluation
●
Problem Solving
●
Instruction/Intervention
●
Communication and Collaboration
The Self-Assessment of MTSS Implementation (SAM) will be available to all MTSS Cohorts to assist
with identifying and prioritizing implementation steps. As district teams and charter schools participate
in MTSS professional development modules, they will be supported in how to facilitate administration of
this tool with school-based teams. The SAM is not an evaluative measure, but a way to operationalize
installation of a MTSS.
Additional information on the SAM is available online. The quarterly MTSS Principal Brief also provides
information on communicating about MTSS within your school, as well as utilization of resources.
Digital Learning & Media Inventory
The new NC Digital Learning & Media Inventory (NC DLMI) goes live on April 11. The NC DLMI collects
data for state and national reporting, to inform state and local budgets, and to assist in planning state
and local digital learning efforts. Inventory questions are streamlined and align to the NC Digital
Learning Progress Rubric. This inventory replaces the Annual Media & Technology Report. Modernizing
this tool is a critical component of moving NC’s Digital Learning Plan forward. To read more, please visit
the NC DLMI website.
Spring 2016 Principal READY Heads East
Spring 2016 Principal READY is headed east during the month of April with
invaluable information concerning 2014-15 Educator Effectiveness data,
EVAAS and ASW updates, and State Board of Education highlights
concerning student growth.
Principals also will have the opportunity to choose from a slate of sessions
based on their feedback to area Service Support Teams. EVAAS (Education
Value Added Assessment System) Conversations: Helping Teachers Make Instructional Improvements;
Effective PLCs (Professional Learning Community) for Growth and Improvement; and Leadership
Matters: Creating a Culture of Learning are just a few learning opportunities designed to meet the
diverse needs of principals across the state.
Interested in attending? Please visit the NCEES wiki homepage and register for the location nearest
you.
Professional Development Series
for School Leaders Continues
On April 20, NCDPI District and School Transformation
in partnership with NCSU Northeast Leadership
Academy (NELA) continues the Professional Development for School Leaders Series: The Connected
Educator. The featured speaker, Principal Baruti Kafele, will guide participants through best practices
for engaging the community and building meaningful partnerships to improve student learning. Kafele is
the author of The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence,
Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success and Motivating Black
Males to Achieve in School & in Life.
Please join us for this exciting opportunity to connect with practitioners from across North Carolina.
Registration is open and may be accessed here. The April event will be held at the Hilton North Raleigh
from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (on-site registration begins at 8:30 a.m.).
There is a 200 participant limit so register early. There is no registration fee for this event. A block of
rooms has been reserved at a discounted rate at the Hilton North Raleigh. For more information, please
contact Amelia McLeod.
Additional NCStar Trainings Scheduled
Due to demand, NCDPI staff have decided to hold an additional three sessions in April for educators
who might be interested in learning more about the free NCStar tool that helps schools manage their
school improvement process.
With NCStar being a requirement for Priority and Focus schools, staff have already trained
approximately 700 educators. It is recommended that in schools that experience high turnover, more
than one person participate in this initial training. If your school has not sent at least two representatives,
please consider these April sessions.
The three sessions will be held in Lincolnton (April 19), Asheboro (April 21) and Wilson (April 25). They
are open to any school or district in the state. Please make sure to register soon as registration will close
once site capacity is reached.
Questions regarding the training may be directed to Allesandro Montanari.
Give Five – Read Five Underway
On March 23, DPI kicked off the fourth annual statewide Give Five – Read
Five campaign at Winding Springs Elementary School in Charlotte. As a
part of this initiative, first launched in 2013, districts, schools, businesses,
nonprofits, churches and other community partners conduct book drives
from April to early June. Books from these local drives are then distributed
to students to provide them with quality reading material over the summer
and reduce summer learning loss.
Since the campaign’s beginning, more than 946,000 new and gently-used books have been sent home
with students as a part of Give Five – Read Five and similar efforts. Once again in 2016, the four schools
that collect the most books will receive a free one-year schoolwide license to online literacy tools
provided by Achieve3000, Reading Horizons and myON.
As a part of this year’s campaign and thanks to a new partnership with myON, a division of Capstone,
DPI is offering every school district in the state access to the personalized literacy tool myON Reader.
Students at every grade level in participating schools will be able to use this tool during the summer
months to select from thousands of titles and download free books well-matched to their reading levels
and personal interests. As an added bonus, parents can use the tool to track how many pages and
hours students spend reading and even measure their literacy growth while they are away from the
classroom.
Visit the myOn website for more information. To learn more and access resources to help schools and
community partners conduct their own book drives, visit NCDPI’s Give Five – Read Five website.
Gaston County Schools’ Teacher is
2016 NC Teacher of the Year
Congratulations to South Point High School English and Journalism
teacher Bobbie Cavnar who today was named the 2016 Burroughs
Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. The Gaston County
Public Schools’ teacher succeeds Keana Triplett, an English teacher at
Ashe County High School (Ashe County Schools).
In announcing this year’s recipient, State Superintendent June Atkinson
said Cavnar is a champion of public education and the opportunities it
provides students. “Bobbie sees public education as the one thing that
is equal and fair in a child’s life, and he sees teachers as the equalizers,
the keeper’s of America’s promise of equal opportunity.”
As Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year,
Cavnar will spend the next school year traveling the state as an ambassador for the teaching
profession. He also will serve as an advisor to the State Board of Education for two years and as a
board member for the NC Public School Forum for one year.
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