Weekly Message - State Superintendent June Atkinson - Lynda Fuller
Mon 3/28/2016 2:14 PM
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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3/28/16 2:23 PM
March 28, 2016
Reading in the summer is essential for elementary school students to keep their reading skills sharp. That’s why we launched the fourth annual Give Five – Read Five book drive this week to help put at least five books in the hands of elementary school children at the end of the school year.
We launched the first Give Five – Read Five campaign in 2013 as research from Harvard revealed that reading just five books over the summer can reduce students’ learning loss. As a part of this effort, districts, schools, businesses, nonprofits, churches and other community partners conduct local 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.
Teachers, principals and others report book collection totals to Diane Dulaney with NCDPI by June 17 . The top four schools that collect the most books receive a free one-year schoolwide license to online literacy tools provided by campaign partners Achieve3000, Reading Horizons and myON. Other Give Five – Read Five partners and supporters include MetaMetrics, the North Carolina Campus Compact, Book Harvest and Communities
In Schools of North Carolina.
This year, thanks to a new partnership between NCDPI and myON, a division of Capstone, students will https://outlook.office.com/OWA/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID…bVDaoQShvuEAAJZLuV9AAA%3D&IsPrintView=1&wid=18&ispopout=1&path= Page 1 of 6

Weekly Message - State Superintendent June Atkinson - Lynda Fuller receive books from local drives and they will have access to thousands of digital book titles that can be downloaded for free over the summer through the myON Reader online literacy tool. Districts may register with myON to ensure students in all schools have access to this tool.
For last year’s book collection totals by school and resources to help you and your partners conduct book drives, visit NCDPI’s Give Five – Read Five website. I hope your school district and community organizations will participate in this year’s program to help ensure that your students have books to read this summer.
3/28/16 2:23 PM
Two webinars are scheduled for recurring low-performing schools:
* Tuesday, March 29 , 4 – 5 p.m., please register here
* Monday, April 4 , 4 – 5 p.m., please register here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Questions regarding the webinars may be directed to NCDPI District and School Transformation
Director Nancy Barbour.
Due to several LEAs and charters on or with upcoming
Spring Breaks, the NC Teacher Working Conditions (NC TWC) Survey window has been extended to
Friday, April 1 . Please continue to encourage educators in your LEA to participate. Our statewide goal is 100 percent participation. We are currently at 82.7 percent.
A few key reminders:
- Principals must review and confirm their school headcount before the survey window closes. Once the survey closes, information cannot be changed. Please visit the NC TWC website and click on
RESPONSE RATE to verify the number listed for your school.
- A school must have a 40 percent response rate in order to receive survey results in May.
- You may check real-time participation rates for your school, district, or statewide by visiting the NC
TWC website.
Contact your Regional Education Facilitator if you have any questions or need further assistance.
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Weekly Message - State Superintendent June Atkinson - Lynda Fuller
NCDPI’s Licensure section beat their weekly goal for processing for the week that ended on March 25, processing 1,869 applications, 369 more than the weekly goal of 1,500. A total of 1,055 new applications (generated applications) were received. This brings the “pending” pool to 5,388 down from
6,108. A total of 2,496 applications are pending from teachers who are currently employed. This figure also is lower than the prior total of 2,935.
The numbers give a good picture of activity in Licensure. Here are some other important facts. A school district or an individual may begin an application in the online licensure system and it is noted as a new application even if the applicant has not completed all the elements, including submitting payment, to allow NCDPI staff to finish the license decision.
Currently, staff have 1,141 pending educator licenses that have been started but not completed. A total of 602 applications are pending payment. Until the application fee is paid, the license cannot be issued.
Here are other “pending” situations:
• Pending Institution of Higher Education (IHE) action (230 are in this status). The application requires some action by the university/college of record for the applicant.
• Pending Legal Review (75 are in this status). The application indicated a legal issue related to the applicant (self-reported).
• Rejected by IHE (39 are in this status). The IHE states that the application should not move forward. These applications will be closed.
• Pending LEA Review (one is in this status). The application requires action by the hiring entity.
In total, staff have 7,476 applications that are not closed in the system. Of those, 5,388 are in the licensure specialists’ queue. The other 2,088 are listed above.
3/28/16 2:23 PM
When it comes to the Home Base suite of software applications and other resources, we know that reliability is critical to you and your schools’ faculty and students. That’s why we are beginning a regular newsletter item to give you performance highlights.
For the week ending March 25 , 289 of the PowerSchool instances were up without outages; two
PowerSchool instances had some issues and outages. (Each local school district and charter school is its own PowerSchool instance.)
Schoolnet reached a new high in terms of classroom assessments given through the system. On March
23 , North Carolina set another record for online assessments given in a single day – 90,000, up from the previous high of 70,000 approximately 18 months ago. Approximately half of these assessments were district benchmarks and the other half were divided among school, classroom and shared classroom assessments.
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Weekly Message - State Superintendent June Atkinson - Lynda Fuller
April 3-9 is NC Advanced Manufacturing and STEM Careers Awareness Week in North Carolina.
Advanced Manufacturing and STEM careers are modern, sophisticated and use cutting-edge technology to create products and services in fields such as aviation, communication, biotechnology and healthcare. Students are encouraged to visit their local community college or meet with business and industry representatives to learn more about education opportunities in this career field.
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NCDPI is making available its annual State Application for receiving grant award under Part B of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as amended in 2004 for Federal Fiscal Year 2016.
A copy of the State Application is available for public review on the NCDPI Exceptional Children website under Hot Topics. Also, each local school district’s central office received a copy for public review.
Comments will be accepted through April 22 .The review period ends May 6 .
Interested citizens may submit comments via email or by U.S. mail to North Carolina Department of
Public Instruction, Exceptional Children Division, ATTN: Tracy Riddle/Carol Ann Hudgens, 6356 Mail
Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-6356
North Carolina Virtual Public School staff have sent the 2016-17 projected NCVPS allotment to your district’s e-learning coordinator. NCDPI’s Financial and Business Services staff calculated your allotment by using its statistical projection model.
If you anticipate needing more enrollments than your allotment covers, you may request an increase in your projections. To request an increase in your projections, please complete this online form.
Districts have until April 15 , to submit the form. If you have any questions, please contact NCVPS Chief
Operations Officer Rachel McBroom.
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) https://outlook.office.com/OWA/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID…bVDaoQShvuEAAJZLuV9AAA%3D&IsPrintView=1&wid=18&ispopout=1&path= Page 4 of 6

Weekly Message - State Superintendent June Atkinson - Lynda Fuller 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.
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Due to demand, NCDPI staff 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 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 as soon as site capacity is reached.
For more information, please visit the NCStar website. Questions regarding the training may be directed to Alessandro Montanari.
The North Carolina Chamber Foundation serves as the final certifying body for North Carolina counties taking part in the NCWorks Certified Work Ready Communities program. The program, which is a collaborative effort between workforce development partners in both the public and private sectors, aims to align local leadership around shared economic development goals and send a message that
North Carolina counties are prepared to support new business investment from day one.
Earlier this month, partners of the Work Ready Communities initiative met to review the program’s progress and discuss next steps. To date, 30 North Carolina counties are participating in the program,
1,286 employers have signed on to support, and more than 300,000 National Career Readiness
Certificates have been awarded! Still, large pockets of the state have not yet applied. As leaders in your local communities, you can help lead the charge to get your home county certified as a Work Ready
Community.
For more information on how you can support or how you can help get the application process started, visit the NCWorks Certified Work Ready Communities page on the NC Chamber website or contact
NCDPI CTE Director Jo Anne Honeycutt.
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Weekly Message - State Superintendent June Atkinson - Lynda Fuller
The Union County Board of Education is seeking a superintendent to lead the school system in its continuing pursuit of excellence. Candidates must have or be qualified to hold a North Carolina superintendent license. Central office and building-level experience are preferred. A doctorate degree or progress toward a doctorate degree is preferred but not required. The individual chosen will be required to live in the Union County Schools District. The application deadline is May 17 .
An electronic version of the application is available by going to the N.C. School Board Association's website and clicking on the appropriate link. Inquiries and requests for applications also can be directed to Allison Schafer, Legal Counsel/Director of Policy, North Carolina School Boards Association, PO Box
97877, Raleigh NC 27624-7877, telephone 919/841-4040, fax 919/841-4020, email. All inquiries will be kept confidential.
3/28/16 2:23 PM
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