February 6, 2012
TO
Superintendents
FRO M
Philip W. Price
H O M E B ASE : I NST RU C T I O N A L I M PR O V E M E N T SYST E M
Many of you have delayed signing contracts to purchase curriculum content and
instructional and assessment tools until you have more information about the North
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(IIS)/Home Base projects. With the E-Rate Form 471 filing season underway, we
recognize that you need to be making decisions now, so we want to share with you as
much information as possible about the NCDPI direction.
NCDPI signed a contract on December 31, 2012, for Pearson to deliver the Core IIS
components and some initial content. This move marks the beginning of an exciting new
initiative that promises to revolutionize the way that teachers deliver instruction in the
classroom. Below is a description of what tools are coming your way and what you can
expect in the future.
Tools and Resources
The State will cover the full costs of the development and licensing, and as much as
possible of the annual support of all the tools and content within the Home Base platform
(PowerSchool, Pearson IIS components, and the upcoming Professional
Development/Educator Evaluation IIS components). The remainder of the cost for the
system and content will be funded through a cost-share with the LEAs and charters.
Specifically, Pearson will be providing the following IIS components:
x The Schoolnet instructional management suite, including curriculum
management, classroom and benchmark assessment administration, and reporting
tools
x The TestNav high-stakes online assessment delivery platform
x The OpenClass learning management system (LMS)
x Integration between each of these platforms and with Pearson PowerSchool
(student information system) and Pearson Equella (Learning object repository)
platforms, which are being deployed under separate procurements
x User Training
O F F I C E O F F I N A N C I A L , B USIN ESS, A N D T E C H N O L O G Y SE R V I C ES
Philip W. Price, Chief F inancial Officer | Philip.Price@dpi.nc.gov
6326 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6326 | (919) 807-3600 | Fax (919) 807-3604
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER
Home Base: IIS
February 6, 2013
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Instructional Resources
o Learning objects and content libraries that are typically sold with the
Online Learning Exchange products for Science and Social Studies for
grades K-12
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item bank for English/Language Arts and Math for grades K-12
o Assessment items that are typically sold with NWEA Formative
Assessment item bank for Science and Social Studies
o Open Education Resources (OER) for English/Language Arts, Math,
Science, and Social Studies
In addition to the content from Pearson, NCDPI will be integrating curriculum,
instruction, and assessment resources from various content/focus areas including World
Languages, Arts, Healthful Living, Career and Technical Education (CTE), English as a
Second Language (ESL), Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM),
Exceptional Children (EC), and Academically Gifted (AIG) education. Included in these
resources will be those shared from the LEAs and charter schools participating in the
Home Base Resource Consortium. Additionally, resources from institutions and
organizations such as: The National Archives, The Library of Congress, Britannica
Online, SAS Curriculum Pathways, and Intel that have been recommended by the Home
Base User Group will be tagged to North Carolina Essential and Common Core
Standards, and included in Home Base.
NCDPI is in the final stages of negotiations with a second vendor to provide the Educator
Evaluation and Professional Development tools and resources.
Integration
In moving forward, there will be some costs that LEAs and charters will incur if they
decide to integrate third-party applications with Home Base.
For LEAs and charters that choose to migrate from an existing LMS platform (e.g.
Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas), the Cloud Team will assist LEAs with the migration from
their LMS to the OpenClass platform that is supported as part of the standard Home Base
configuration. Cloud Team assistance will include gap analysis, migration planning, and
coordination with the Pearson implementation team. Pearson also has the capability to
integrate the Home Base tools with other LMS platforms. Should an LEA/Charter decide
to deviate from the standard Home Base configuration and continue using its existing
LMS, the Cloud Team will provide the LEA/Charter with information related to the
integration between the LMS platform and Home Base components, where possible.
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charter.
Home Base: IIS
February 6, 2013
Page 3
There is also a variety of third-party applications that LEAs and charters may want to
integrate with the Home Base platform. NCDPI will be collecting data on the prevalence
of those applications in the State and will work with the vendors to minimize the costs to
integrate. However, there will likely still be some costs incurred at the local level for
LEAs and charters choosing this option.
Looking Forward
NCDPI will roll out PowerSchool, the student information system portion of Home Base,
statewide at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. NCDPI will pilot the Curriculum
and Instruction and the Educator Evaluation functionality in late spring/early summer
2013, and will begin rolling out the functionality to LEAs and charter schools beginning
July 2013. NCDPI will pilot the remainder of the Home Base components in the fall and
winter of the 2013-14 school year and will have all Home Base components rolled out to
LEAs by the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.
For more information, please send inquiries to homebase.incidents@its.nc.gov.
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