Wednesday, September 21, 2011 If you know someone who would like to be on this list, 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. For questions, concerns or technical assistance, please email the appropriate contact(s) directly. Thanks! In this issue 
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Target Audiences for the NCDPI/RESA Partnership Professional Development DSW Approvals Surpass Halfway Mark Abbreviated Evaluation Option Online Assessments Best Practices Guide
Online Writing Instruction Math Unpacking Standards Updated Target Audiences for the NCDPI/RESA Partnership Professional Development Professional Development Leads, PD Contacts and Race to the Top district coordinators can assist you with appropriate teacher‐leader selections for the PD sections in for the remainder of September and through October (schedule is attached). The target audience for the content sessions includes one to two people who attended a Summer Institute. If your RESA has room for more, you may send additional teachers but we ask that you please make Summer Institute content attendees priority as they have a solid understanding of our process.
Teachers comprise the target audience for the Teacher Effectiveness focus group sessions. It is important for teacher‐leaders to understand the teacher effectiveness initiative. If administrative leaders attend, please have them bring several teacher‐leaders with them. You may use Race to the Top funds to provide substitute teachers for participants. RESA Directors and Professional Development Leads have each regional PD calendar. It is also posted on the RESA websites and the NCDPI Professional Development website. PD Leaders (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/directory), your local RttT District/Charter Coordinators (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/lea‐charter/) and the RESA directors coordinate this work and communicate the details to you. Please contact your PD Lead anytime you have a question about this process.
MORE INFO: Eliz Colbert, Elizabeth.Colbert@dpi.nc.gov or Yvette Stewart, Yvette.Stewart@dpi.nc.gov.
DSW Approvals Surpass Halfway Mark Well more than half of our LEAs and participating charter schools have refined and submitted their Race to the Top Detailed Scopes of Work (DSWs) based on feedback provided by NCDPI. Currently, 97 DSWs have been fully approved. We appreciate all the hard work that each district or charter school has dedicated toward strengthening and clarifying their DSW planning documents. We are confident this work will pay valuable dividends as various stakeholders – including State and Federal auditors and the media – examine all of our efforts over the next several years. Please be aware that the sooner you submit a DSW that appropriately addresses the comments provided by the Department, the sooner the DSW will be approved and posted, and the sooner we can then approve your corresponding detailed budget. ***NOTE: The approved DSWs posted on the NCDPI website (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/lea‐charter/) are in an Excel downloadable file. For any future amendments to your LEA or charter school file, please download the Excel file version from this website to make your revisions. Again, thank you for your cooperation and patience during this process. MORE INFO: Adam Levinson, Adam.Levinson@dpi.nc.gov. Abbreviated Evaluation Option The State Board of Education has further clarified the requirements for an abbreviated teacher evaluation. According to Board policy approved in July, principals may decide to conduct an abbreviated evaluation of career‐status teachers who are not in their license renewal year. As part of the abbreviated evaluation, teachers complete a self‐
assessment and a professional development plan. An administrator then conducts a minimum of two informal observations and comments on the teacher’s performance on Standards One and Four during that time. An informal observation consists of a minimum of 20 minutes in the classroom. At the end of the year, the teacher and the evaluator meet for a summary evaluation conference, and the principal completes a summary rating form with ratings for Standards One, Four, and Six. The attached PDF file provides a summary of evaluation requirements. Teachers may request a formal observation if they so desire. Please note that the abbreviated evaluation is only an option. Principals may always elect to complete a full evaluation for any teacher, especially if there are existing performance concerns. McREL, a partner vendor in the evaluation project, is currently making changes to bring the abbreviated evaluation online in the next few weeks. MORE INFO: We know that there are many questions about the new evaluation, so please contact Jennifer Preston, Race to the Top Project Coordinator for Teacher and Leader Effectiveness, at Jennifer.Preston@dpi.nc.gov or (919) 807‐4187 or Dr. Liz Colbert, Lead Professional Development Consultant, at Elizabeth.Colbert@dpi.nc.gov or (919) 807‐4037. Online Assessments Best Practices Guide
Through ACRE and RttT, NCDPI staff have developed and published the Online Assessments Best Practices Guide. The purpose of the guide is to provide support for LEAs and charter schools as they prepare for the transition to online assessments. The Best Practices guide includes case studies of schools and districts already using online assessments. The guide also addresses issues of scheduling, financial planning, and technical requirements in order to move to online assessment and includes first‐
person accounts from schools and LEAs regarding the specific steps taken to plan for and administer online EOC tests. A team of NCDPI staff from Accountability, Instructional Technology, and ACRE worked to interview LEAs and charter schools and wrote the details of the best practices based on these interviews and other research. The Online Assessments Best Practices Guide is available on the website at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/assessment/guide/. MORE INFO: Please send any questions or comments to acre‐feedback@dpi.nc.gov. Online Writing Instruction North Carolina has established resources for Online Writing Instruction that provide students with opportunities to have a variety of experiences with writing across curricula and throughout the school year. There are a few changes for the 2011‐12 school year. The following modifications will be incorporated between September and December:  The on‐demand tasks will be removed from the Moodle design. 
The number of content‐specific writing opportunities available to registered students will range from two to 20. This online portfolio will be available for grades 3 through 12. Currently, the NCDPI consultants in the K‐12 Curriculum and Instruction Division are developing sample content‐specific writing assignments for grades 4 and 7 (ready by early fall), and will soon be developing sample content‐specific writing assignments for grades 3, 5, 6, and 8 through 12 (ready by the end of first semester). 
Content‐specific writing assignments will align to the Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, 6‐12, as well as each specific content area’s NC Essential Standards or the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics or English Language Arts. 
Online Writing Instruction rubrics will be modified to align with the above documents. All additional information regarding Online Writing Instruction will be posted to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/writing/. MORE INFO: Jim Kroening, Jim.Kroening@dpi.nc.gov. Math Unpacking Standards Updated Updated Math Unpacking Standards for Grades 3, 4 and 5 have been added to the Common Core Support Tools page of the Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort (ACRE) website. The unpacked standards are documents for educators that define the knowledge and skills students must master to accomplish specific goals. They list the common core standards for each grade level and subject then provide detailed examples on how to teach a standard. To view the unpacked standards, plus standards for grades K‐12 in English Language Arts and Math, please visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common‐core‐tools/#unmath. MORE INFO: Kitty Rutherford, Kitty.Rutherford@dpi.nc.gov, or Barbara Bissell, Barbara.Bissell@dpi.nc.gov