September 13, 2012
Dear Superintendents:
When we met in July, you requested that we give each school district flexibility in administering the
common exams for non-tested areas. After our meeting with you, we began reviewing the decision
points and logistics that you will need to consider. We are meeting with a team from your LEA next
Thursday, September 20, in order to talk through common exam implementation and local flexibility.
We will provide a template for LEAs to use to guide the development of a local plan. We will not
collect those plans, but do think that the complexity of this process deserves serious conversation and
local planning.
We have given much thought to the time you will need to work through these local decisions. Even
though we would like to meet our own timeline for initial implementation of the common exams, we
want you to have time to think through your decision points and solicit input from your own staff as to
the best decision for your implementation policies. Some of you may even require two months for local
policies to be enacted - similar to the process that our State Board requires. Realizing that our mountain
counties would be compressed in the time to pay due diligence to the issue, we are announcing that
initial common exam implementation will occur in the spring for everyone involved with a common
exam in 2012-13.
The exams that were to be administered in the fall are completed and are being proofed. We are
reviewing the files to see if we have any extra sample items that we can share. Remember that we are
only creating one form per year so items are somewhat limited. In the next few weeks we definitely will
be sending test specifications to inform teachers about the percentage of each test allotted to each
particular concept.
We strongly encourage you to continue to communicate locally about the common exams. We will be
conducting webinars for teachers and principals throughout the year. We also will be working with
systems about scoring processes.
Teacher evaluation is an important and time-consuming process for school principals and HR directors.
Race to the Top and our waiver from No Child Left Behind have made the process even more complex
with the requirement to add student growth. Our General Assembly also is interested in a foundation for
pay for performance so developing this model well is crucial. Let's not lose sight of the fact that
research suggests that including student growth makes the evaluation even more effective. We will
continue to work with you to ensure that you have the tools to complete this important task.
Sincerely,
June St. Clair Atkinson
OFFICE OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT
June St. Clair Atkinson, Ed.D., State Superintendent | june.atkinson@dpi.nc.gov
6301 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6301 | (919) 807-3430 | Fax (919) 807-3445
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER