July 31, 2013 NEW THIS MONTH • 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 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT • Phase III Online Professional Development Modules: Friday Launch • EVAAS FAQs Now Available Online • New Website Explains Common Core and More • History of Measures of Student Learning NEW THIS MONTH 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). IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Phase lll Online Professional Development Modules Online learning modules should be used over time as part of PLCs, during staff meetings or independently (over a series of days). Central office personnel might also use them for district training with specific groups. The modules are designed for in a variety of settings – by individuals or by cohorts, with or without a facilitator, depending on local needs. NCDPI is pleased to announce the recent release of Phase III online professional development modules for the 2013-­‐14 academic year. All are available through the NC Education site at https://center.ncsu.edu/nc/. Please review the updated implementation guide, https://rt3nc.org/. Modules include: Building and Sustaining Professional Development Data Literacy in Action Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, Part 2 NC Principal and Assistant Principal Evaluation: Understanding the Process NC Teacher Evaluation: Understanding the Process Responsibilities of the 21st-­‐Century Educator 21st-­‐Century Mentoring Universal Design for Learning Two additional modules were released earlier this year: Measures of Student Learning: Common Exams, Grades 9–12 Measures of Student Learning: Common Exams, Middle and Elementary Grades MORE INFO: Dr. Lynne Johnson, Director of Educator Effectiveness, lynne.johnson@dpi.nc.gov, or Dr. Geetanjali Soni, Online Module Developer, geetanjali.soni@dpi.nc.gov EVAAS FAQs Now Available Online With the many changes that are occurring in our schools, the NCDPI seeks to provide as much information as possible up front for our teachers, principals and support staff. One of these provisions is a new FAQ feature for the Educator Value-­‐Added Assessment System (EVAAS). It offers answers to the most commonly-­‐asked questions about EVAAS, including the incorporation of EVAAS into the State's accountability and educator effectiveness models. The FAQ feature is now available online at www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-­‐
model/evaas/resources/2013-­‐spring-­‐faq.pdf. New Website Explains Common Core and More North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study includes the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and mathematics. The State Board of Education adopted these standards in 2010; and local districts and charter schools have been implementing them since last fall. Nonetheless, there continue to be questions about the Common Core, what these standards are and are not, and why North Carolina chose to use these multi-­‐state-­‐developed standards as its own. To help your team and you in communicating about the Common Core State Standards, we've launched a new Common Core webpage that gathers in one location many of the information resources that were already on the NCDPI website and some new resources. The link to the Common Core webpage is http://www.ncpublicschools.org/core-­‐explained/; and a direct link also is available under “Highlights” on http://www.ncpublicschools.org. Two specifically helpful features of this site include, “13 Things to Know about Common Core in North Carolina” and “Frequently Asked Questions.” Each of these documents is available as a printable PDF that you can use with parents or others. These documents are available in the left side navigation bar on the page. History of Measures of Student Learning In 2010, when NCDPI staff met with local superintendents, they discussed options for determining student growth as a part of teacher effectiveness. Those options included: 1. That each school district would develop its own valid and reliable tests to determine student growth in state non-­‐tested areas. 2. That the NCDPI, in consultation with teachers and local school districts, would develop valid and reliable measures. 3. Any other strategy superintendents may develop. Local superintendents unanimously voted for Option 2. In 2011-­‐12, superintendents across the state met to give feedback about whether to apply for an ESEA waiver. Again, superintendents agreed that NCDPI staff should apply for a waiver using the teacher effectiveness growth model in exchange for eliminating AYP, supplementary educational services requirements, and school choice. As a part of the process in giving Measures of Student Learning statewide, we have made a commitment to do an item and test analysis. If any items or tests do not perform in a valid way, we will adjust accordingly. MORE INFO: Jennifer Preston, Educator Effectiveness, educatoreffectiveness@dpi.nc.gov 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/