Weekly Message + State Superintendent June Atkinson
North Carolina Public Schools <NCPublicSchools@public.govdelivery.com>
Tue 5/10/2016 8:43 AM
Inbox
To: Lynda
Fuller <Lynda.Fuller@dpi.nc.gov>;
Weekly message containing items of interest to local superintendents from State Superintendent June Atkinson
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May 9, 2016
Between now and the June State Board of Education meeting, I
hope you will provide feedback to State Board of Education
members regarding the proposed Digital Learning Competencies
for classroom teachers and school administrators.
These competencies are intended to help North Carolina meet the
Board’s goal of every student in North Carolina having a
personalized education. Our NC Digital Learning Plan addresses
this goal; and the State Board of Education’s 2016-17 supplemental
budget request includes substantial support for digital learning. The
competencies are available on the State Board’s website (scroll to
and click on SCDL 1).
Please use these forms below to provide feedback:
• Draft Digital Learning Competencies for School Administrators.
Feedback Form
• Draft Digital Learning Competencies for Classroom Teachers. Feedback Form
North Carolina has been making progress in the area of digital learning. Some highlights of our
accomplishments to date include the recent release of the new Digital Learning and Media Inventory,
the development of an RFP to establish contracts that districts may use to procure devices such as
Chromebooks, as well as the aforementioined development of Digital Learning Competencies for
School Administrators and Classroom Teachers.
If you have specific questions about moving digital learning forward in your district, please feel free to
reach out to the Department’s Director for Digital Teaching and Learning Verna Lalbeharie. Verna and
her staff are available to provide guidance and support.
State Board of Education
Meeting Highlights
At last Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting, members
approved School Reform Models to be applied to five schools in
four districts, FY 2015-16 Final Allotment adjustments, Long-Range
Facility Plans (Five-Year Report), requests for local flexibility in the
Analysis of Student Work, and a number of consent agenda items
including the Middle School Athletics Manual update.
Members also discussed Digital Learning Competencies/Digital Learning Plan, Math I, II and III Draft
Standards Revisions, and Career and Technical Education Licensure revisions and heard a presentation
on the Military and Education Connection.
The complete list of this month’s Board actions is available on the Board’s website. The Board’s May
agenda as well as supporting executive summaries also are available online by clicking on the SBE
Meetings tab.
Comment Now on Proposed Revisions to
High School Math Standards
As you know, the State Board of Education heard discussion on the
high school math review and revision process at the May meeting.
As a part of this process, your Curriculum & Instruction leaders will
be receiving a draft implementation plan and very short survey this week. This draft plan is being
developed in preparation for the June SBE meeting where action may be taken. Please also review the
message below that is being shared with your teachers this week in the teacher newsletter:
For the past year, the Department of Public Instruction has been in the five-year review process for the
mathematics content standards, involving local district teachers, curriculum leaders, higher education
representatives and others. Also, information from other resources, including the Academic Standards
Review Commission’s December recommendations, was included in the process.
As a result of this feedback, modifications to the sequencing of standards as well as revisions for clarity
of the standards have been proposed to Math I, II and III (high school levels). K-12 English Language
Arts review will begin this summer and Mathematics in grades K-8 and the fourth level math courses,
AFM, Discrete and Pre-Calculus, will be under review beginning this fall.
Educators, parents and other interested citizens are invited to provide feedback regarding proposed
revisions to the content standards for high school math courses Math I, II and III via an online survey.
The survey will be available through May 20. You may access the background information on each set
of math standards’ changes by clicking on the links below.
*
*
*
*
NC Math 1 Draft Standards
NC Math 2 Draft Standards
NC Math 3 Draft Standards
Summary, Overview and Rationale
If you are a mathematics teacher, please consider taking the survey and sharing your feedback. The
State Board of Education could act on these revisions as early as June 2 when it holds its next monthly
meeting.
New Schools Closure
The following was included in last week’s Superintendents’
Weekly Message
I know that many of you were concerned to hear that New Schools has closed its doors after 13 years
of service. Of special concern are those of you who have Cooperative and Innovative Schools. While we
are still evaluating how we can support North Carolina schools that had been working with New
Schools, please know that there will be no change with funding for the Cooperative and Innovative
schools.
There are four NCDPI-funded staff at New Schools who will be returning to the Department to work, and
we expect them to continue their support of the schools that they were serving all along. As we obtain
more information during this transition time, we will let you know as soon as possible.
NCVPS Summer Session
Begins June 20
Please have your district’s e-learning coordinator identify who your summer NCVPS contacts will be via
the NCVPS Summer 2016 ELA Contact Information link. We need a contact for each school. Some
districts will elect to have one contact for all schools in the summer, and that is fine. This information is
essential for NCVPS teachers.
Registration is still open and will remain open until the fifth day of class, June 24. Please have your
advisors register as soon as possible, however. Seating may become limited in certain courses as the
start date approaches. Additionally, students who are able to start on the first day of class are more
successful in their summer courses.
Also note that the allotments for summer enrollments are part of your 2016-17 allotment totals. Please
visit NCVPS’ Summer School Guide for more details.
Multi-Tiered System of Support:
Cohorts 3 and 4
Since January 2014, 97 percent of school districts in North Carolina
have submitted an MTSS Readiness Instrument. There are 57
school districts and charter schools currently involved in Cohorts 1
and 2. Participation includes enrollment in modules housed in
NCEES.
Last month, an additional 119 districts and charter teams were invited to join MTSS in Cohorts 3 and 4.
The invited school district and charter school teams have been asked to submit a Partnership
Agreement by May 20 to initiate strategic involvement in the MTSS Professional Development and
Coaching support. School district and charter school teams that submit this agreement will begin the
face-to-face and online support in August 2016.
For suggestions on membership within the district teams supporting and facilitating school
implementation, please review Selection criteria for District MTSS Team/District Leadership Team. If
you have additional questions, please contact Amy Jablonski.
Spring 2016 Principal READY
Resources Available
Approximately 700 principals across North Carolina participated in
the Spring Principal READY series. The series, designed based on
participants’ feedback, featured over 22 sessions on how to
empower principals to be instructional leaders.
Principals in the field as well as NCDPI consultants facilitated
discussions on improving Professional Learning Communities, using
NCStar for school improvement planning, implementing data teams,
understanding digital learning competencies for school
administrators, and other customized topics in each area of the state. Principals also had the
opportunity to ask questions about the 2014-15 educator effectiveness data and changes concerning
licensure requirements.
Materials and resources from all eight Principal READY sessions are still available on the NCEES wiki.
Check out this wonderful resource today!
And the 2016 NC TWCS
Winners are…
NCDPI staff would like to thank the over 101,800
educators who participated in the 2016 North
Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey (NC TWCS). Almost 1,100 NC schools met our statewide
goal of 100 percent participation.
In order to recognize the effort of this accomplishment, we have partnered with the North Carolina
Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) and the North Carolina Association for Educators (NCAE)
to award those schools with prizes and monetary incentives. On May 9, the Department organized a live
drawing to randomly select six schools to recognize those schools and districts that led the state with
participation.
The following schools were selected “firsts” in our state:
* First Elementary School in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
Allenbrook Elementary (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools)
* First Middle School in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
East Rutherford Middle (Rutherford County Schools)
* First High School in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
Creswell High (Washington County Schools)
* First School District in state to reach 100 percent response rate:
Edenton-Chowan Public Schools
* “Nick of Time” School (final school in state to reach 100 percent response rate):
Plain View Primary (Bladen County Schools)
All schools that reached 100 percent participation can be found here. Thank you to all of our gracious
sponsors: BB&T, California Casualty, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Duke Energy and Lenovo.
The DPI Prize Patrol will travel the state to hand-deliver prizes to these schools. Stay tuned … they may
be arriving at your school during the month of June!
Latest Messages Online
May 5, 2016 Principals’ Biweekly Message
May 5, 2016 Home Base Biweekly Update
May 6, 2016 Finance Officers’ Newsletter
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