(D)(3) Part B Narrative, North Carolina, February 2014 Page 1 of 7 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 Page 2 of 7 • 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 Page 3 of 7 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 Page 4 of 7 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 Page 5 of 7 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 Page 6 of 7 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 Page 7 of 7 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.