July 2012 ***SPECIAL NOTE: The RttT Weekly Update has become the RttT Monthly Update for June, July and August. Next edition: August 29. Weekly publication will resume in September. 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! ***LINKS: Depending on your device, PC users might need to press the CTRL button when clicking on a hyperlink in this document. Archived Race to the Top Weekly Updates are available here: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/updates/ NEW THIS MONTH • Federal Report Commends NC’s Race to the Top Initiative • NC Receives 2 National Awards for Learning, Outreach • North Carolina Essential Standards Assessment Examples Available for Review • Raising Expectations with the ACT • 2012 Summer Institutes – Certificate Info • Important Announcement Regarding Cloud Hosting Services IN CASE YOU MISSED IT • Future-­‐Ready Core Course of Study Mathematics Graduation Requirements • K-­‐2 Mathematics Assessment • ACT/PLAN Instructional Support Workshops • North Carolina RtI Model Moves to Three-­‐Tier • New Quick Reference Guides Help Educators Plan for New Standards • Instructional Improvement System (IIS) Update • IIS Resource Consortium (IIS RC) NEW THIS MONTH Federal Report Commends NC’s Race to the Top Initiative North Carolina is making great strides as the state approaches the halfway mark of its four-­‐year Race to the Top implementation. A recent federal report commends the state for its strong support of schools as they prepare for both new instructional standards that will better prepare students and the new assessments that will better measure what students know and are able to do. For the full news release on this report, visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/newsroom/news/2012-­‐
13/20120712-­‐01. MORE INFO: Adam Levinson, Adam.Levinson@dpi.nc.gov NC Receives 2 National Awards for Learning, Outreach North Carolina has received two awards from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), a national educational advocacy organization. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction received P21’s Educational Support Systems and Intentional Design Award for its READY Outreach Meetings. These meetings, held in all eight regions across the state in February and March 2012, reached more than 4,000 principals, teachers and superintendents with information on the new Common Core and Essential State Standards and other changes coming to NC public schools this school year. The Recognition of Achievement in 21st Century Education John Wilson Award also was presented to NCDPI, for the Occupational Course of Study Blended Learning Program. This program is a high school Course of Study which has teachers who are highly qualified in specific subject areas working with teachers who are highly qualified in special education to provide instruction. The program has shown great success and is in the process of expanding. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a national organization that advocates for 21st century readiness for every student through support of local, state and federal policies that provide resources for educators. MORE INFO: Michael Yarbrough, Michael.Yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov North Carolina Essential Standards Assessment Examples Available for Review These assessment examples are aligned to new content standards and reinforce teaching the standards to their intended level of deep mastery. The purpose of providing examples is to illustrate ways in which the standards or part(s) of the standards might be assessed in the classroom. Please send feedback to us at feedback@dpi.nc.gov and we will use your input to refine our instructional tool. Social Studies http://ssnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Assessment+Info . Arts http://ances.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Arts+Education+Assessment+Examples Healthful Living http://hlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Healthful+Living+Assessment+Examples World Languages http://wlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/TOPS+Assessment+Examples+Work Science http://scnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/home MORE INFO: Kayla Siler, Kayla.Siler@dpi.nc.gov Raising Expectations with the ACT Among many increased expectations for this school year is the administration of the ACT test to every qualified high school junior. ACT results will be used as part of the new READY school accountability model. The link below describes why we are giving the ACT assessment to every 11th-­‐grader and what educators can expect about the initial results. www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/acre/redesign/act-­‐one-­‐pager.pdf MORE INFO: Mike Martin, Mike.Martin@dpi.nc.gov 2012 Summer Institutes – Certificate Info The 2012 Summer Institutes wrapped up another great season today at SanLee Middle School in Sanford. More than 2,000 lead teachers, principals and other educators have now received a second round of training via blended professional development that focuses on the transition from the current Standard Course of Study to the new Common Core State and NC Essential Standards for all content areas. If you attended the 2012 Summer Institutes you should have received a brief message and link to the post-­‐Institute survey by email at the end of Day 2, or you may have accessed the survey through the QR codes posted around the school. In case you happened NOT to have received an email, the link to the survey is available on the NC Education site. This link allows you to submit feedback on your overall experience and gives you access to your Certificate of Completion. You may take the final survey and download your Certificate of Completion by logging on to NC Education at http://center.ncsu.edu/nc and completing Step 5 in the 2012 Summer Institutes course. Please complete the post-­‐Institute survey within 10 days of your attendance at the Summer Institute. Attendance is taken at every location and your initials are necessary on both days to access the certificate. Thanks for your feedback. MORE INFO: For general questions regarding the Summer Institutes, please contact you school or district’s Race to the Top coordinator, or Yvette Stewart, yvette.stewart@dpi.nc.gov. For questions regarding attendance, please contact Beth Ann Williams, beth.williams@dpi.nc.gov. For issues concerning NC Education, please contact the Help Desk, ncdesk@ncsu.edu. Important Announcement Regarding Cloud Hosting Services NCDPI will announce the details of a major step forward in the modernization of our financial and business systems as part of the Race to the Top (RttT) initiative at the Financial and Business Services Summer Conference, on Thursday July 26. LEAs currently own and maintain IBM iSeries (AS/400) which serve critical business functions. NCDPI and North Carolina State University’s Friday Institute have developed a plan to enable LEAs to save a significant amount of money by eliminating the costs associated with the physical ownership of these devices, while at the same time enabling each LEA to completely control the business operations which are performed by the iSeries servers. The announcement will be conveyed to Superintendents and Chief Financial Officers of local school districts immediately following the conference. MORE INFO: Neill Kimrey, Neill.Kimrey@dpi.nc.gov IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Future-­‐Ready Core Course of Study Mathematics Graduation Requirements There are a number of changes to the Future-­‐Ready Mathematics Graduation Requirements for the 2012-­‐13 school year. The document’s first page provides an overview of these changes. Of particular note is clarification of the lab requirement for MAT courses (#6) and the mathematics credit for CTE courses for students in the substitution pathway (#11). The chart may be found at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Policy+Information. MORE INFO: Barbara Bissell, barbara.bissell@dpi.nc.gov. You may also share your comments at feedback@dpi.nc.gov K-­‐2 Mathematics Assessment In response to North Carolina legislative and State Board requirements, the NC Department of Public Instruction provides Local Education Agencies with state-­‐developed assessments to be implemented for kindergarten, first and second grades. These assessments include documented, ongoing individualized assessments throughout the year and a summative evaluation at the end of the year. Local Education Agencies may use these assessment instruments as presented, or use adaptations of these instruments, or they may adopt unique assessments. The newly revised K-­‐2 Mathematics Formative Assessment Tasks and the K-­‐2 Mathematics Administration Manual are available at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/. A mid-­‐year benchmark assessment and end-­‐of-­‐year summative assessment will be provided to district directors this fall. MORE INFO: Barbara Bissell, at Barbara.bissell@dpi.nc.gov, or Amy Scrinzi, amy.scrinzi@dpi.nc.gov. ACT/PLAN Instructional Support Workshops The ACT Instructional Support Workshops (ISWs) are being offered throughout North Carolina in coordination with ACT, NCDPI and the State RESAs. The workshops will be conducted by ACT staff. Target audiences include ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies teachers, curriculum specialists and school/district level administrators. The focus of these programs is to provide best practices for the use of data from PLAN and ACT assessments to improve student success through teaching and learning tied to ACT's College and Career Readiness Standards. Topics/activities include: • How to best use data from the student and school-­‐based PLAN and ACT reports to improve classroom instruction; • Understanding the structure and content of each assessment in PLAN and the ACT with hands-­‐on activities; and, • Review of resources from ACT to use in developing instructional strategies. Training schedule is as follows: -­‐ Northeast RESA (Region 1): August 10, 8:30 am to 1pm, Washington Convention Center, Washington -­‐ Southeast RESA (Region 2): August 13 & 14, 8:30 am to 1 pm, Lois Britt Agricultural Service Center, Kenansville -­‐ Central Carolina RESA (Region 3): August 8, 8:30 am to 1 pm, Central Carolina RESA, Raleigh -­‐ Sandhills RESA (Region 4): August 15 and 16, 9 am to 1:30 pm, Cumberland County Educational Resource Center -­‐ Piedmont RESA (Region 5): August 7, 8:30 am to 1 pm, Village Inn, Clemmons -­‐ Southwest RESA (Region 6): August 6 and August 17, 8:30 am to 1 pm, UNC-­‐Charlotte -­‐ Northwest RESA (Region 7): August 2, 8:30 am to 1 pm, Holiday Inn Express, Wilkesboro -­‐ Western RESA (Region 8): August 1, 8:30 am to 1 pm, Western RESA, Candler, NC RESA directors will send registration information for this training soon. MORE INFO: Please contact your RESA office, or Johnny Wilson, Johnny.Wilson@dpi.nc.gov North Carolina RtI Model Moves to Three-­‐Tier As announced earlier this year, North Carolina’s Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) Model will transition from that of a four-­‐tier model to a three-­‐tier model. Training begins this summer and will place a stronger emphasis on using data within a problem-­‐solving model to make improved instructional decisions within the foundational core curricula at Tier I. RtI in North Carolina emphasizes a school improvement model that streamlines initiatives and ensures that students are college and career ready. MORE INFO: Dr. Maria Pitre-­‐Martin, Maria.Pitremartin@dpi.nc.gov. For information on upcoming training, please contact Angie Parrish, Angie.Parrish@dpi.nc.gov. New Quick Reference Guides Help Educators Plan for New Standards The Quick Reference Guides for The North Carolina Standard Course of Study, available in sets for K-­‐5 or 6-­‐8, serve as resources for teachers as they plan instruction to implement the North Carolina Standard Course of Study across multiple disciplines. The Reference Guides contain the standards and objectives for all of the Common Core State Standards, North Carolina Essential Standards and North Carolina Extended Content Standards. The inclusion of standards for all subject areas within single, grade-­‐specific documents is intended to make planning for instruction more efficient. This may be particularly useful for grade-­‐level teachers teaching multiple disciplines or teams of teachers collaborating to plan integrated instruction. The order numbers and prices are as follows: IS175, 2012, $25 (K-­‐5); IS176, 2012, $15 (6-­‐8). You may order these publications at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/publications/ MORE INFO: Elaine Darby, Elaine.Darby@dpi.nc.gov Instructional Improvement System (IIS) Update To support the teaching of the new Common Core Standards, NCDPI’s goal is to provide districts with an Instructional Improvement System (IIS) that will improve and personalize student learning. The IIS will facilitate the teaching process by providing all North Carolina districts and schools with increased access to high quality resources and timely and relevant information and data to improve instruction. We have issued a request for proposal (RFP) to hire a vendor to provide an IIS technology solution that aligns to the vision, goals, and specifications that were developed and vetted with stakeholders last year. Proposals have been received and the evaluation process is under way. A pilot of the IIS is scheduled to begin in 2013 with phased rollout during the 2013-­‐14 school year. As a project of Race to the Top, the IIS is slated to be fully deployed by the end of the grant period in August 2014. The IIS is an exciting and innovative move for our state to a “one-­‐stop-­‐shop” solution for improving instruction. MORE INFO: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/improvement/, or send questions/comments to IIS_READY@dpi.nc.gov, or contact Dr. Sarah McManus at Sarah.McManus@dpi.nc.gov. IIS Resource Consortium (IIS RC) To prepare for the Instructional Improvement System, LEAs/charter schools are working together in the IIS Resource Consortium (IIS RC) to gather local resources (e.g., unit plans, assessment items) that can be shared statewide through the IIS. The Consortium comprises members from all eight educational regions, representing small, medium and large LEAs/charter schools. It is focused on resources from the following areas: instruction/learning, assessment, professional development and talent management/educator evaluation. The LEA chair of the consortium is Jason Atkinson of Hoke County Schools. The LEA leads are James Overman of Wake County for Instruction/Learning, Todd Wirt of Mooresville Graded School District for Assessment and Jan Richardson of Charlotte-­‐MecklenburgSchools for Talent Management/Educator Evaluation. The lead for Professional Development will soon be named. The Consortium presently has an additional 25 LEA/charter school members. The IIS RC is currently in its formative stage and is addressing procedures for the group to identify and share resources across the state. Recently, the Consortium has been considering the process of how initial data will be gathered in order to inventory the resources available that might be included in the IIS. Several IIS RC members have suggested processes they follow to collect and vet materials that may be used as a beginning point for the development of procedures. The IIS RC meets monthly. MORE INFO: IIS_READY@dpi.nc.gov, or Dr. LaVerne Weldon, LaVerne.Weldon@dpi.nc.gov.