August 28, 2013 (Due to the Labor Day holiday, the next edition will be Sept. 11) NEW THIS WEEK • Welcome to the 2013-­‐14 School Year! • Home Base Rolls Out • Informing Instructional Improvement through Data Literacy • Updates for Math, Social Studies and ELA • FY 2013-­‐14 RttT Budget Submission – PRC 156 • Race to the Top-­‐District Competition FY 2013 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT • 2013 Summer Institutes Turn It Out with Record Attendance • Feedback Sought on Common Exams and Roster Verification • Resources for Differentiation, Global Awareness and Critical Thinking • District and School Transformation Training for Educators New to RttT • 2013-­‐14 Professional Development Calendar • READYNC YouTube Channel Premieres NEW THIS WEEK Welcome to the 2013-­‐14 School Year! The 2013-­‐14 school year has gotten off to a great start for our traditional schools! We know that this is the year that the hard work from our Race to the Top initiative will begin to show great results for students across the state. State Superintendent June Atkinson has created a welcome back message for our educators across the state. Please visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/statesuperintendent/news/multimedia/video/ and look under Welcome Back Message 2013. Home Base Rolls Out Home Base is here! The NCDPI, working with vendor partners Pearson, Public Consulting Group and Truenorthlogic, has rolled out Home Base for the 2013-­‐14 kick-­‐off year, delivering this large-­‐scale technology project for public schools on time and within budget. Home Base provides digital tools and learning resources for local educators, students and parents at all schools in the 115 local school districts and public charter schools in North Carolina. State funds and federal Race to the Top (RttT) grant funding covered development and implementation costs for this ambitious technology project. Home Base features a new student information system, PowerSchool, that replaces an outdated, decades-­‐old one. PowerSchool, with updated security features, will better connect schools to students and their families and will provide comprehensive reports to help teachers develop more informed instruction. PowerSchool was the first portion of Home Base to go live for local schools. MORE INFO: Visit www.ncpublicschools.org and click on appropriate link under News Releases Informing Instructional Improvement through Data Literacy Wikispace pages provide educators with a five stage, cyclical process for data-­‐driven decision-­‐making. A fillable fishbone diagram is available for download and can be used to identify causes and effects in a classroom, school or district setting based on data analysis. A data action plan template can be downloaded and used to develop a SMART goal, determine specific strategies to be implemented and identify data sources to be used to assess goal achievement. Additional resources related to each of the five stages of the data-­‐driven decision-­‐making process are also available on the wikispace pages. The Informing Instructional Improvement Through Data Literacy web pages can be found here: http://si2013.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Informing+Instructional+Improvement+Through
+Data+Literacy MORE INFO: Dr. Lynne Johnson, lynne.johnson@dpi.nc.gov or Lisa Amerson, lisa.amerson@dpi.nc.gov, Educator Effectiveness Updates for Math, Social Studies and ELA Check out the following links for updated resources in math, social studies and English language arts: Building the Language of Mathematics for Students (Vocabulary) Mathematically proficient students communicate precisely by engaging in discussions about their reasoning using appropriate mathematical language. The terms students should learn to use at each grade level with increasing precision are included in these documents, which can be found out http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Elementary http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Sixth+Grade http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Fourth+Grade K-­‐5 Revised Unpacking Documents can be found at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Elementary 2012-­‐2013 K-­‐2 Mid-­‐Year and Summative Assessments have been released; they are now posted on the Mathematics wiki, which is posted at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Elementary 3-­‐5 Formative Instructional and Assessment Tasks for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics -­‐ now posted on the mathematics wiki at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Elementary The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in partnership with Meredith College developed and delivered the first state-­‐wide professional development on the new high school mathematics sequence: Math I, Math II, and Math III. Resources from that training can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/meredith.edu/ccssm_pd/ The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has also posted a Math I, II, and III Resources List and FAQ at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/High+School Social Studies Update: The Revision of the Cultural Studies Elective Courses The Cultural Studies Writing Team recently completed the revision of three Cultural Studies Electives: African American Studies, American Indian Studies and Latin American Studies. You may access the Essential Standards for each of the courses on the K-­‐12 Social Studies Wiki Site at http://ssnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Essential+Standards These new standards are ready for implementation during the 2013-­‐2014 school year. Unpacking Documents will be released this fall. Common Exam/MSLs for these courses will not be implemented until the 2014-­‐2015 school year. ELA Update: Navigating Text Complexity Educators from 12 states, including NC, came together to create a collection on online tools to navigate text complexity and text selection. This resource includes: text complexity roadmaps, model text sets, support tools for analyzing texts, text-­‐
dependent question resources, and sample lesson videos. This information can be found at http://www.ccsso.org/Navigating_Text_Complexity.html Honors Implementation & Review Reminder There are resources for LEAs to use on the Honors Implementation Wikispace with the development and implementation of honors level courses. LEAs will find the most current information for Honors Implementation and State-­‐level Review at: http://honorsimplementation.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/ MORE INFO: Dr. Robin McCoy, Academic Services and Instructional Support, robin.mccoy@dpi.nc.gov FY 2013-­‐14 RttT Budget Submission – PRC 156 LEAs and Charter Schools must submit their FY 2013-­‐14 RttT budgets in the Budget and Amendment Approval System (BAAS). As of August 22, 73 LEAs/Charter Schools had NOT YET submitted FY 2013-­‐14 RttT budgets. RttT budgets must be submitted and approved through the BAAS before LEAs or charter schools may spend RttT funds for this fiscal year. If you have not submitted the FY 2013-­‐14 RttT budget in BAAS, please do so by Friday, Sept. 6. MORE INFO: Eric Thanos, Race to the Top Project Coordinator, eric.thanos@dpi.nc.gov; Race to the Top-­‐District Competition FY 2013 The US Department of Education (USED) recently announced details for the second round of the Race to the Top District (RttT-­‐D) competition, and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is aware that many LEAs across the state plan to submit applications. As with the first round of RttT-­‐D in 2012, USED requires that each applicant “must provide its state at least 10 business days to comment on the LEA’s application.” As we did in 2012, the NCDPI will assist LEAs in meeting this requirement. The process (described in the attached letter) will be the same as it was in Round 1. If your LEA or charter school is developing an application, the NCDPI requests that you do the following two things: • Submit an email to racetothetop@dpi.nc.gov NO LATER THAN 5 pm on Monday, Aug. 26 indicating you intend to submit an application for the Race to the Top-­‐District Competition; and • Submit an electronic copy of your application and executive summary to racetothetop@dpi.nc.gov NO LATER THAN 5 pm on Monday, Sept. 16 (if you are applying as a part of a consortium of LEAs, you should coordinate and submit only ONE copy of the application). This will allow the NCDPI the time necessary to complete the state review process, and in turn, time for the LEAs to meet the Thursday, Oct. 3 deadline for submission to USED. As in 2012, the NCDPI's review will focus solely on whether or not a district’s plan aligns with the state’s RttT Detailed Scope of Work. MORE INFO: Eric Thanos, Race to the Top Project Coordinator, eric.thanos@dpi.nc.gov; USED RttT-­‐D website, http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-­‐district/index.html) IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 2013 Summer Institutes Turn It Out with Record Attendance It seems that we just can’t get enough of those Summer Institutes! NCDPI officials report that more than 3,000 educators from across North Carolina attended Summer Institutes 2013 – a record number for the professional development extravaganza’s three years! Dynamic design and remodeling sessions were held for all regions in Greenville, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Hope Mills and Hendersonville. NCDPI PD leads, along with officials from Curriculum and Instruction, Educator Effectiveness, Learning Systems and more led Standing Room Only sessions. These sessions equipped teachers and administrators to elevate their craft and engage each other in best practices. Then, in turn, to go back to their schools to share updated info and instructional practices with their teams. “The design studio (sessions) were geared toward lots of different audiences: administrators, instructional coaches, teachers,” said Tima Williams, an elementary school math teacher from McDowell County. “The design studios applied to everyone, and we each were able to get something from them that we could take back and share and provide PD for our districts.” Members of LEA and charter teams attended specific topic sessions, representing statewide initiatives. Teams met on Day 2 to develop deployment plans for continued professional development. The teams focused on ensuring that every teacher is involved in professional development opportunities and has access to instructional resources. See the teams in action by following us on Facebook. Simply search for and “Like” the NC READY Initiative page. Feedback Sought on Common Exams and Roster Verification Two opportunities for feedback on the 2012-­‐13 administering of the Common Exams and the Spring 2013 roster verification process will be offered in September. The NCDPI and the NC Principals and Assistant Principals Association (NCPAPA) will host a webinar to receive feedback from 3:30 -­‐ 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 12. Please register for the webinar here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/640959049. The NCDPI also will co-­‐host a feedback webinar with the NC Association of Educators (NCAE) from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17. Please register for this webinar here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/251489857. Please email educatoreffectiveness@dpi.nc.gov with any questions. Resources for Differentiation, Global Awareness and Critical Thinking Skills that students will need for college and career readiness include global awareness and critical thinking -­‐ with and without technological tools. How widely are these embedded within instructional delivery and learning? How often are teachers using data to differentiate? Visit http://bit.ly/si2013p21 for resources to assist teachers with using the framework for 21st century skills to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners. MORE INFO: Lynne Johnson, Lynne.johnson@dpi.nc.gov or Jessica Garner, Educator Effectiveness, Jessica.garner@dpi.nc.gov District and School Transformation Training for Educators New to RttT The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction District and School Transformation Division will provide Professional Development to 25-­‐30 school administrators new to the Turning Around Lowest-­‐Achieving Schools (TALAS) schools on Thursday, Sept. 19. The training will familiarize school leaders with the Race to the Top grant history, goals, organization, USED models (Turnaround, Transformation and Restart) and requirements. The school leaders “new” to TALAS schools will participate in the ongoing Professional Development for all 118 TALAS School Leaders beginning with session 12 on Oct. 30 and continuing through this school year. MORE INFO: Donna Miller, Race to the Top Coordinator (919) 835-­‐6104, donna.miller@dpi.nc.gov 2013-­‐14 Professional Development Calendar The 2013-­‐2014 comprehensive PD calendar is now accessible from the PD webpage at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/. The link can be found under “Training Opportunities and Featured PD Information.” MORE INFO: Yvette Stewart, Educator Effectiveness, Yvette.stewart@dpi.nc.gov READYNC YouTube Channel Premieres Catch up on Race to the Top-­‐related videos on the new READYNC channel on YouTube. Content includes video segments from the READY Outreach Meetings over the last year, plus podcasts and more. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi9toOqBjQsuo6jTMwhR3aw. And, as always, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, @ncpublicschools, and on Facebook (search NC READY Initiative). RACE TO THE TOP WEEKLY UPDATE INFO If you know someone who would like to be on this list, please send their email address(es) to Michael.Yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov. ***LINKS: 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 online at: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/reports/weekly