Wednesday, December 21, 2011
WINTER BREAK: This is the final RttT Weekly Update for 2011. We will resume publication on
1/11/12. Have a fun, safe and restful winter break!
If you know someone who would like to be on this listserv, please send their email address to
Michael.Yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov.
***PLEASE NOTE: Each entry in this Weekly Update features the email address of at least one
contact person, department or website. For questions, concerns or technical assistance, please
email the appropriate contact(s) directly. Thanks!
Archived Race to the Top Weekly Updates are available here:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/updates/
NEW THIS WEEK
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Measures of Student Learning
NC Testing Program
NCDPI Curriculum and Instruction WikiSpaces
NC Diagnostic Instructional Tools (NCDigins)
Text Complexity Resources
NYT Article Offers Text Structure Ideas
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
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Elimination of the Grade 10 Writing Assessment for 2011–12
Next Generation of Assessments: What Will the Assessments Be Like in 2012-13?
Recommended High School Sequencing Site
NEW THIS WEEK
Measures of Student Learning
Measures of Student Learning (MSLs), sometimes called “common exams,” are a shared way to
gauge student growth in all currently non-tested grades and subjects in the Common Core State
Standards for Math and ELA and in the NC Essential Standards. While these measures will be
used statewide, they are not the same as our statewide summative assessments in the NC
Testing Program: the End-of-Grade and End-of-Course assessments. Districts and charter
schools will have flexibility to decide how to use the MSLs as part of students’ grades.
The State Board of Education will NOT collect or publish the results of the MSLs, although the
NCDPI will assist with scoring and data analysis. Eight hundred North Carolina teachers from
more than 100 LEAs and 10 charter schools are involved in the design process for the Measures
of Student Learning. The design group members began their work in October and will continue
to provide feedback for the remainder of 2011-12 school year. NC will implement the MSLs
statewide during the 2012-13 school year.
MORE INFO: Jennifer Preston, Jennifer.Preston@dpi.nc.gov
NC Testing Program
The NC Testing Program will continue delivering statewide summative assessments in grades 38 in Mathematics and English Language Arts, grades 5 and 8 in Science, and at the high school
level for Algebra I, English II, and Biology. Beginning in 2014-15, DPI expects to implement the
assessments developed by the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). The
assessments planned through SBAC will include ELA/Math for grades 3‐8 and one High School
Assessment in ELA and Math (w/ Performance Tasks in grades 9 & 10) and would replace the
current NC developed EOG and EOC assessments in ELA and Math.
MORE INFO: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/assessment/
NCDPI Curriculum and Instruction WikiSpaces
The Curriculum and Instruction Division at NCDPI has created WikiSpaces for the Common Core
and North Carolina Essential Standards. If you were unable to attend the Common Core State
Standards for Math High School 2012 and Beyond webinar on November 17, we invite you to
visit the Math Wiki at www.ncdpi.wikispaces.net. Click on Mathematics in the middle of the
page. Once you’re on the Math site, click on the High School Mathematics link on the left side
of the page. The webinar addresses three key messages:
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Focusing on standards
Ensuring that students entering 9th grade in the 2011-12 school year are proficient in the
Common Core High School Mathematics Standards by the 201415 school year
Launching the Common Core High School Mathematics Standards within the current
course titles.
MORE INFO: Maria Pitre-Martin, Maria.pitremartin@nc.dpi.gov
NC Diagnostic Instructional Tools (NCDigins)
NCDigins, created through a collaborative partnership between the North Carolina Department
of Public Instruction (NCDPI) and Technical Outreach for Public Schools (TOPS) works hand-inhand with the formative assessment process in a balanced assessment system. Formative
assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides
feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students' achievement of
intended instructional outcomes. Formative assessment helps students to continuously answer
three questions:
1. Where am I going?
2. Where am I now? And,
3. How do I close the gap?
To log in to the NCDigins site, go to https://center.ncsu.edu/nc/ Use your Username and
password used when logging into the online modules. Look for NCDigins in the Links Bar on the
right. The site currently features information for Grade 4 Math, Grade 7 Math, and Algebra I.
Additional content areas will be available soon.
MORE INFO: Tammy Howard, Tammy.Howard@dpi.nc.gov
Text Complexity Resources
Standard 10 of the Common Core State Standards focuses on increasing students’ capacity with
complex text across the school years to ensure that they will be able to read the kinds of
necessary texts they will encounter in higher education and in their careers. Below are several
links from TextProject to assist LEAS and charter schools as they begin addressing text
complexity in schools.
http://www.textproject.org/library/presentations/the-common-core-state-standard-of-textcomplexity/
http://www.textproject.org/assets/library/powerpoints/Hiebert_2011-1018_Text%20Complexity-and-How-it-Applies-in-the-Classroom.pdf
http://www.textproject.org/assets/library/papers/Hiebert-2011-Text-Complexity-Lexiles.pdf
MORE INFO: Julie Joslin, Julie.Joslin@dpi.nc.gov
NYT Article Offers Text Structure Ideas
A recent article that appeared in the New York Times Education segment focused on strategies
for helping students understand “text structures” in the Common Core State Standards. To
view this helpful article, visit http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/compare-contrastcause-effect-problem-solution-common-text-types-in-the-times/.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
Elimination of the Grade 10 Writing Assessment for 2011–12
NCDPI has received notification of approval from the United States Department of Education
(USED) to eliminate the Grade 10 writing test for the 2011–12 school year. The continued use of
the North Carolina End-of-Course Test of English I in 2011–12 is sufficient to meet the ESEA
assessment requirements for high school reading/language arts. Please see the attached memo
from the USED for additional information.
Please also note that the NCEXTEND1 Writing Assessment is also eliminated for 2011–12.
Next Generation of Assessments: What Will the Assessments Be Like in 2012-13?
Beginning in the 2012-13 school year the new Common Core State and NC Essential Standards
will be taught and assessed in NC public schools. Schools are currently participating in the
stand-alone field tests for the new assessments in ELA, Math, and Science, and the tests will be
operational next school year, 2012-13. Test specifications are available on the website to
describe the information that will be included in the new assessments (by content area and
grade level). You can find the new assessments specifications on the website at
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/assessment/online/.
Additional information available on the online assessment website includes a quick reference
document about the Next Generation of Assessments. This document describes the benefits of
our new assessments and the timeline for administration, references the alignment with the
SMARTER Balanced Assessments, and provides additional resources for more information about
our plans for the transition to these new assessments. You can find the quick reference
document at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/acre/assessment/assess1pageroct11.pdf.
MORE INFO: Kayla Siler, Kayla.Siler@dpi.nc.gov
Recommended High School Sequencing Site
The State Board of Education’s mission states, “Every public school student will graduate from
high school, globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared for life in
the 21st Century.” To successfully guide students through secondary courses, NCDPI has
created a high school course sequencing site,
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/hs-sequencing/. This site identifies a series of
recommended courses within a content area that bridges secondary and college educational
segments, thus allowing a smooth progression of study without repetition of coursework.
Additional sequencing documents will be posted as they are completed.
MORE INFO: Maria Pitre-Martin, Maria.PitreMartin@dpi.nc.gov, or Tracey Greggs,
Tracey.Greggs@dpi.nc.gov