(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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Race to the Top Progress Update
Sub-criterion (D)(3)
Part B: In preparation for monthly calls, States must submit written responses to the following
questions for two application sub-criteria (e.g. (A)(2) and (D)(4)). 1 All responses in this section
should be tailored to the goals and projects associated with this sub-criterion.
Application sub-criterion:2
(D)(3): Ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals
•
Ensure the equitable distribution of teachers and principals by developing a plan,
informed by reviews of prior actions and data, to ensure that students in high-poverty
and/or high-minority schools (both as defined in this notice) have equitable access to
highly effective teachers and principals (both as defined in this notice) and are not
served by ineffective teachers and principals at higher rates than other students; and
•
Increase the number and percentage of effective teachers (as defined in this notice)
teaching hard-to-staff subjects and specialty areas including mathematics, science,
and special education; teaching in language instruction educational programs (as
defined under Title III of the ESEA); and teaching in other areas as identified by the
State or LEA.
STATE’s goals for this sub-criterion:
•
Increase the percentage (and number) of teachers in schools that are high-poverty,
high-minority, or both who are highly effective.
•
Increase the percentage (and number) of teachers in schools that are low-poverty,
low-minority or both who are highly effective.
•
Decrease the percentage (and number) of teachers in schools that are high-poverty,
high-minority, or both who are ineffective.
•
Decrease the percentage (and number) of teachers in schools that are low-poverty,
low-minority, or both who are ineffective.
•
Increase the percentage (and number) of principals leading in schools that are highpoverty, high-minority, or both who are highly effective.
•
Increase the percentage (and number) of principals leading in schools that are lowpoverty, low-minority or both who are highly effective.
•
Decrease the percentage (and number) of principals leading schools that are highpoverty, high-minority, or both who are ineffective.
1
2
On each monthly call, program officers and states should work together to select two sub-criteria for the following month.
All highlighted fields will be pre-populated by the Department Program Officer prior to State completion.
(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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•
Decrease the percentage (and number) of principals leading schools that are lowpoverty, low-minority, or both who are ineffective.
•
Increase the percentage of mathematics teachers who were evaluated as effective or
better.
•
Increase the percentage of science teachers who were evaluated as effective or better.
•
Increase the percentage of special education teachers who were evaluated as effective
or better.
•
Increase the percentage of teachers in language instruction educational programs who
were evaluated as effective or better.
•
Increase the number of highly effective teachers in low-income rural areas and lowperforming urban schools.
Relevant projects:
•
Continue existing and launch new Regional Leadership Academies to prepare
effective school leaders to serve in low-achieving schools.
•
Start an NC Teacher Corps to provide effective teachers in high-need areas to lowachieving schools.
•
Expand Teach for America in the rural northeastern region of the State.
•
Provide intensive support and mentoring for new teachers in low-achieving schools
through the New Teacher Support Program.
•
Assist LEAs with strategic staffing through support from an outside vendor and
recruitment vouchers to bring effective, experienced teachers to low-achieving
schools.
1. Is the State on-track to implement the activities and meet the goals and performance
measures that are included in its approved scope of work for this sub-criterion? If so,
explain why. If not, explain why not.
The State has made strong progress toward meeting the goals and performance measures
listed above and in its Race to the Top application. An update on each project within the (D)
(3) sub-criterion appears below.
(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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Continue existing and launch new Regional Leadership Academies to prepare effective
school leaders to serve in low-achieving schools.
Through RttT, the state has been able to open three regional leadership academies to provide
leaders to help turnaround low-achieving schools in the state. Table 1 provides a brief
comparison of the three academies:
Table 1: Regional Leadership Academy (RLA) Program Details
Administrative
Unit
Program
Duration
Education/
Licensure
Cohort 3
Participants
# of
Districts
Served
Northeast
Leadership
Academy (NELA)
NC State
University
2 Years
Master in School
Administration
(MSA) Program
20
14
Sandhills
Leadership
Academy (SLA)
Sandhills Regional
Education
Consortium (with
UNC-P, FSU,
NCCAT)
1 Year
Alternative
Licensure
20
12
Piedmont Triad
Leadership
Academy (PTLA)
UNC-Greensboro
1 Year
Alternative
Licensure
22
4
Since the July 2013 deep dive, each Regional Leadership Academy has continued to provide
coaching and professional development to its cohorts as they go through their internships.
PTLA and SLA cohort members continue to receive coursework and training over the course
of the 2013-14 school year as they complete their administrative internship experiences, and
NELA’s third cohort is participating in their administrative internships for the 2013-14
school year.
In addition to continuing to provide services to the current cohort, the directors of all three
RLAs are working on sustainability plans to continue the programs after the end of the RttT
grant. They have conducted stakeholder meetings with business leaders, non-profit
foundations, IHE representatives, legislative members and local school system leaders to
discuss blended funding streams to continue operation. In addition, the directors of the
Piedmont-Triad Leadership Academy (PTLA) and the Northeast Leadership Academy
(NELA) each submitted a grant proposal to USDE’s Office of Innovation and Improvement’s
School Leadership Program to continue operation and serve as a national model. NELA was
awarded the 5-year, $4.7 million grant to continue operating, and add a summer intensive
principal academy focused on instructional leadership for digital learning communities for
current principals in NELA districts. The RLAs have also made two presentations to the NC
State Board of Education (SBE) to demonstrate the need for the continuation of each of the
academies.
Start a NC Teacher Corps (NCTC) to provide effective teachers in high-need subject
areas to low-achieving schools.
(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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The NCTC was established in January 2012 and is in its third year of operation.
Eighty-nine individuals completed the NCTC Summer Institute conducted in two local
school systems (Cumberland and Durham) between July 15 and August 2, 2013 and sought
teaching positions in the 2013-14 school year. NCTC worked with these individuals and
partner districts to find placements for the participants, and as of February 2014, 75 of the 89
had found teaching positions; this is in addition to the 19 participants in the first NCTC
cohort who returned to teach for a second year in the 2013-14 school year.
NCTC has provided support to Cohort I and II participants through ongoing, monthly
professional development that is conducted on Saturdays. Additionally, NCTC continues to
provide instructional coaching and mentoring to Cohort I and II members. NCDPI has hired
four additional part-time (.5 FTE) instructional coaches to assist the three current staff
providing coaching. NCDPI has also established a partnership with three UNC system
universities (East Carolina, UNC-Charlotte and Appalachian State) to provide the required
coursework for corps member to meet their individualized licensure requirements for their
teaching areas. Corps members’ university application fees, student fees, tuition and books
are being paid through RttT funds.
NCTC staff members have met with Teach For America (TFA) staff to offer assistance to
them in the transition of the program to TFA in the spring of 2014 (as mandated by the NC
General Assembly). Moving forward, TFA will assume responsibility for all aspects of the
continued operation of NCTC and as mandated by the NC General Assembly, and will
recruit, train and coach all future corps members of the program replacing NCTC.
Provide intensive support and mentoring for new teachers in low-achieving schools
through the New Teacher Support Program.
The University of North Carolina – General Administration (UNC-GA) launched the New
Teacher Support Program (NTSP) in August 2011. The program provides a summer
training prior to new teachers beginning work in the fall that includes sessions on setting
goals and a classroom vision, unpacking the curriculum, creating and using daily objectives,
unit planning and assessment, classroom management, discipline and behavior management,
lesson planning, communication in the school and community, professional ethics, and time
management. Participating teachers then receive support through classroom observations,
instructional coaching and debriefing meetings with mentor teachers, and additional
professional development sessions on workdays or weekends during the ensuing school year.
New teachers hired after the summer training program join the program as they are hired.
As of February 17, 2014, the NTSP induction coaches had provided instructional support for
1,190 teachers in 129 schools and 29 school districts. Typically, induction coaches meet onsite with the new teachers once every two weeks to provide mentoring and support. The
NTSP conducted eight, 2-day Regional Summer 2013 Institutes for first year teachers
enrolled in the NTSP. The institutes were conducted in Charlotte (two institutes), Roanoke
Rapids, Durham, Greensboro, Wadesboro, Pembroke and Greenville, NC. NTSP staff also
conducted a 3-day Statewide Training Institute (September 21-23, 2013) at UNC-Chapel
Hill for all new beginning teachers that were receiving induction support services during the
2013-14 school year.
(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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Expand Teach For America (TFA) in the rural northeastern region of the State.
Through RttT, the State’s partnership with TFA Eastern North Carolina has expanded to
include additional Corps members above what the organization would have otherwise
brought to that region of the State. TFA is using its traditional recruitment, training, and
support processes for these new corps members.
The TFA 2012 cohort (currently second-year corps members) has 100 members and the 2013
cohort (currently first-year corps members) has 177 members for a total of 277 corps
members (3 resigned) serving 15 school districts and 5 charter schools in eastern North
Carolina. Prior to the partnership with RttT funds, the typical corps size for TFA in eastern
NC was between 50-60 teachers annually.
As of February 18, 2014 TFA had successfully recruited, interviewed and inducted 115 new
corps members for the 2014 cohort group. There is one more application deadline this spring
for the 2014 cohort group and the number of corps members should increase. TFA tentatively
plans to conduct the 2014 Summer Institute for new corps members from mid-June thru midJuly 2014.
Assist LEAs with strategic staffing through support from an outside vendor and
recruitment vouchers to bring effective, experienced teachers to low-achieving schools.
NCDPI contracted with MarStrats to provide intensive, customized support to the twelve
low-achieving districts in partnership with NCDPI’s District and School Transformation
Division. MarStrats conducted economic research, analysis of teacher recruitment and
retention data, and completed interviews with local school district superintendents, districtlevel human resources staff, parents, and community stakeholders. MarStrats used these
interviews to identify patterns and themes across the school districts. The data was then used
to complete district-specific recruitment and retention plans, which were presented, to LEAs
in the fall of 2012. MarStrats conducted four, regionally based workshops focused on
teacher retention and recruitment for all school districts having one or more schools
identified as TALAS schools. Topics included were developing recruitment plans and pools,
marketing tactics, social media use, interview protocols and learning from research. As another part of this initiative, recruitment vouchers are available to highly effective
teachers who re-locate to low performing schools. These vouchers have been available for
the past three years, though the number of teachers qualifying to receive these vouchers has
been limited. During the 2013-14 school year, 16 teachers in two local school systems
(Halifax and Rowan-Salisbury) took advantage of the vouchers. This is an increase from the
2012-13 school year when nine teachers, from four school systems received vouchers. The
RttT evaluation cited several reasons for the low number of teachers accessing the vouchers,
which can be reviewed in detail at the following link: http://cerenc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/10/FINAL-State-Strategic-Staffing-8-29-13.pdf.
2. Does the State have evidence indicating the quality of implementation for this subcriterion? What is/has the State doing/done as a result of this information?
(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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After experiencing some initial delays in implementation (for the hiring of the strategic
staffing vendor, UNC-GA Teacher Support Program Director, and launch of NC Teacher
Corps), the initiatives in subsection D(3) have been implemented with high quality.
For the Regional Leadership Academies, Teach for America expansion, NC Teacher Corps,
and New Teacher Support Program, formative data include progress toward recruitment
goals, retention through the training component of the program, movement of the participants
into either a teaching or school leadership position, and participant reflections on how well
they are being supported during the transition. All programs are also tracking progress
through the results of formal observations completed during the year, and continued
participant feedback.
For example, since their inception, there have been 127 graduates of the three leadership
academies, who will be prepared to assume full-time educational leadership positions in lowachieving schools. Table 2 below provides the number of RLA graduates who had found
employment as school leaders as of February 2014. This number will change as members of
the most recent cohorts continue to interview for open positions (the figures for PTLA and
SLA include members of cohort three who have found employment prior to the end of their
intern year). For PTLA, one cohort three participant is included in the number for assistant
principals and one in the number for central office staff. For SLA, two cohort three
participants are included in the assistant principal number.
Table 2: Positions Held by Graduates of the Regional Leadership Academies (February 17, 2014)
Principals
Assistant
Principals
Central
Office Staff
Other
Total
Northeast Leadership
Academy (NELA)
6
27
4
4
41
Sandhills Leadership
Academy (SLA)
10
24
1
6
44
Piedmont Triad
Leadership Academy
(PTLA)
2
29
2
9
42
Additionally, reports from the RttT team provide evidence about the quality of
implementation for these initiatives. The initial evaluation reports for the D (3) initiatives
cited above have been reviewed and overall results have indicated a high level of fidelity of
implementation. Where recommendations for improvement were given, NCDPI staff
members have met to determine what actions need to be taken to implement the proposed
recommendations. One exception to this is the recruitment voucher program included as a
part of the state’s strategic staffing work. The formative evaluation results indicated that the
program’s low uptake among qualifying LEAs resulted largely from communication issues
(confusion about which teachers qualified, concerned about upsetting staff chemistry or
poaching teachers from other districts, confusion about how the program differed from
performance bonuses or other programs). By the time this particular report came out, the
state had moved into the last year of the program and there was not time to make changes and
(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014
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improve communication around the voucher program (though the lessons learned will be of
use to NCDPI and the State Board of Education if they consider similar programs in the
future). Future reports will attempt to include as much summative data for these programs as
possible, including the growth of students in a teacher’s classroom or an administrator’s
school.
3. What obstacles and/or risks could impact the State’s ability to meet its goals and
performance measures related to this sub-criterion?
Feedback from Strategic Staffing evaluation report indicates that there has been little use of
the Teacher Recruitment Incentives and that this under-utilization is due to a variety of
reasons. If the state were to continue the initiative post RttT funding, major revisions to the
policy would need to be made with input from local school system HR directors and
principals.
In contrast, the General Assembly did allocate funding to contract with TFA to operate the
NCTC under a new name. The smooth transition of the NCTC from a state agency to a
private entity following conclusion of the 2013-14 fiscal year may present challenges as it
must be done while simultaneously recruiting a new cohort group and coaching existing
corps members from prior cohorts.
Evaluation: Based on the responses to the previous question, evaluate the State’s
performance and progress to date for this sub-criterion (choose one)
Red (1)
Orange (2)
Yellow (3)
Green (4)3 3
Red – substantially off-track and/or has significant quality concerns; urgent and decisive action is required; Orange –off-track
and/or there are quality concerns; many aspects require significant attention; Yellow –generally on-track and of high or good
quality; only a few aspects require additional attention; Green – on-track with high quality.