The Instructional Improvement System (IIS)
What is the vision/purpose for the IIS?
North Carolina’s vision for the Instructional Improvement
System (IIS) is to provide teachers and students with tools to
differentiate instruction and learning. The IIS will yield specific,
instructionally relevant data for students, parents, teachers,
principals and district administrators and provide access
to curriculum tools and resources aligned to the new North
Carolina Standard Course of Study. The IIS will provide access
to data and resources to inform decision-making related to
instruction, assessment and career and college goals.
Administrators will use the IIS to:
• view aggregate and individual student performance
reports;
• view aggregate and individual teacher effectiveness
reports; and
• make placement decisions based upon the historical
interaction of student performance and teacher
effectiveness.
How do we know that the resources within
the IIS are high quality?
As a project of Race to the Top, the IIS will need to be fully
deployed by the end of the grant period in August 2014.
We will issue a request for proposal (RFP) to hire a
vendor to provide an IIS technology solution that aligns
to our vision, pilot an initial deployment and roll out the
IIS solution in overlapping phases during the 2012-13 and
2013-14 school years.
All resources in the IIS will go through an evaluation and
approval process before being included. The development
and management of resources must be designed with
role-based security to allow for a workflow in which
submitted materials are moved to a review process
prior to adding to the “official” state, regional or district
curriculum. Once resources are authorized, they will be
available to any teacher for use in his/her instruction
within the appropriate organization.
Who can use the IIS and how will it be used?
What is the role of assessments within the IIS?
What is the timeline for the IIS?
Students will use the IIS to:
• engage in interactive, rich educational resources
aligned to the Common Core State Standards;
• take assessments and receive faster feedback;
• store exemplars of personal academic and/or artistic
work; and
• collaborate with other students on various projects.
Teachers will use the IIS to:
• supplement their teaching with individualized
educational materials;
• see a detailed diagnostic breakdown of each
student’s performance including knowledge and skill
areas that require extra attention; and
• engage in professional development modules according
to personal interests, district goals, and state standards.
Parents will use the IIS to:
• track their student’s performance according to
instructional goals set by the teacher, district and state;
• facilitate at-home enrichment activities recommended
by the teacher and/or system according to the
student’s performance and aptitude; and
• communicate questions and feedback to teachers
and/or administrators.
The IIS will provide educators with tools to create, align,
deliver and manage student assessments on a variety of
levels. The IIS will also provide students and teachers
with formative assessment strategies to facilitate the daily
monitoring of student progress. Statewide summative
assessments (EOG and EOC assessments) will be
delivered through the IIS.
Is there a requirement to use the IIS?
Local flexibility is very important in North Carolina public
schools. At this time, it is important to note that the state
anticipates mandating only that the IIS be used to deliver
the online statewide summative assessments, i.e., the
EOGs and EOCs. Beyond that, the state will offer a variety
of tools and resources to all districts and schools.
Are we working with any other states in
development of the IIS?
North Carolina is one of nine pilot states participating in the
development of a national Shared Learning Infrastructure
(SLI), a joint project of the Gates and Carnegie Foundations.
We are exploring ways in which our IIS will complement
and interact with the SLI in the future.
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
William C. Harrison, State Board of Education Chairman