July 30, 2014
NEW THIS MONTH
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K-3 Formative Assessment
2014 Summer Institutes Feature “Implementation Innovation”
GTN Launches with Successful 2-Day Professional Development Sessions
From the Field: New Videos Online Show Home Base, RttT impact
K-3 Formative Assessment
In the field of education, there are different types of assessment used for different
purposes. North Carolina’s Balanced Assessment System is aligned to state content
standards and includes the following:
● Summative Assessments (classroom, school, district, & state)
● Interim/Benchmark Assessments (classroom, school, district, & state)
● Formative Assessment (classroom)
The North Carolina State Board of Education has adopted the Council of Chief State
School Officers’ definition of Formative Assessment: A process used by teachers and
students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and
learning to help students improve the achievement of intended instructional outcomes.
This definition includes teachers and students in a process that is used to adjust teaching
and learning as part of daily instruction. With funding from the Race to the Top-Early
Learning Challenge Grant, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Office of
Early Learning (PreK-Grade 3) is developing a K-3 Formative Assessment process to
support teachers’ instruction and students’ learning.
The definition and process of Formative Assessment will be explored more deeply during
the Office of Early Learning’s August webinar. Please consider joining us for this
opportunity to expand our understandings of the concept, process and benefits of
formative assessment.
The Office of Early Learning K-3 Formative Assessment Webinar focusing on the
formative assessment process will take place on August 13th, 2014. Please check on our
listserv below to register for the webinar.
Please visit the K-3 Formative Assessment wiki:
rtt-elc-k3assessment.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/
Join the Office of Early Learning Listserv:
1. Send an email to the Office of Early Learning PreK-Grade 3 Listserv by cutting and
pasting the following address into your "To" box within your email application:
join-office_of_early_learning_pre-k-grade-3@lists.dpi.state.nc.us
2. Leave the subject line and the body of the message blank.
3. Once you have successfully subscribed, you will receive a confirmation email.
2014 Summer Institutes Feature “Implementation Innovation”
Summer Institutes 2014 were held July 7-10 in all eight regions of the state. Each
institute featured sessions created and presented by districts and charters. These
“Implementation Innovation” sessions included authentic practices from the field that
have proven to be successful in moving districts or charters forward in building local
leadership capacity. Implementation topics included analyzing data, curriculum content,
instructional practices for student differentiation, Home Base resources for classroom
instruction, and local professional development planning time for the year. This institute
series launches the yearly professional development calendar in partnership with our
RESAs.
GTN Launches with Successful 2-Day Professional Development Sessions
Participants who were selected to participate in the Governor’s Teacher Network (GTN)
gathered in the Triangle on June 30 for a two-day training.
Gov. Pat McCrory addressed approximately 450 teachers who came from approximately
375 schools in three-fourths of the state’s local school districts. All eight NCDPI state
regions are represented.
The GTN, funded by the state’s Race to the Top grant, will provide a statewide platform
for teachers to share their best work around instruction and professional development
and to help advance RttT-funded educational remodeling efforts across the state. Each
participating teacher will be paid a total of $10,000 over the course of their work.
More than 1,500 teachers applied to participate, offering proposals to develop
instructional activities that centered around one of two Pathways, described as follows:
Pathway 1: Professional Development
Teachers will create professional development sessions and materials (face-to-face,
webinars and online modules) to address classroom instructional needs and increase the
PD offerings in the state-wide Professional Development system in Home Base.
Pathway 2: Instructional Resources
Teachers will create instructional sequences for Home Base that are aligned to the NC
Standard Course of study and that consist of unit plans, lesson plans that seamlessly
integrate the formative assessment process in daily practice, at least one benchmark
assessment/quiz and a final classroom summative assessment.
Visit www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/gtn for details.
MORE INFO: Theresa Perry, Educator Effectiveness, theresa.perry@dpi.nc.gov
From the Field: New Videos Online Show Home Base, RttT impact
There is great teaching and learning going on all across North Carolina. To help showcase
how local school districts are using Race to the Top (RttT) funding to support school
improvements and elevate instruction, the NCDPI Communications team is compiling a
series of short video clips from the field on new Home Base and READY playlists on the
NC Department of Public Instruction's YouTube Channel
(https://www.youtube.com/user/ncpublicschools).
A few highlights from among the 16 vids posted thus far:
Turning Around Lowest Achieving Schools - Greene County: “Race to the Top has
provided the Greene County School System with a number of different opportunities.
Everything from being able to upgrade your technology to focusing in on building teacher
capacity,” says Greene County Schools Chief Academic Officer Frank Creech. “And I think
that's where the Race to the Top district funding as well as the support of Race to the
Top through District and School Transformation came together at a critical time.”
Race to the Top Bolsters Instruction in Buncombe County Schools: “With the aid of
Race to the Top funds we were able to purchase an online textbook. What's nice about it
is it's constantly growing, evolving, changing, so if the standards change it changes with
it. It's aligned with our standards,” says Buncombe County Middle School science teacher
Brian Maccarelli.
Schoolnet Boosts Math Instruction: This is what math teacher Joe Tricarico, West
Brunswick High School, says, “because it gives us immediate feedback as you see what
students are doing, where they’re struggling, and it really gives us a breakdown for item
analysis. This is something that we really use day in and day out because we need to know
where students are weak and where they’re strong.”
Please check out these and many other videos that take the viewer into the classroom
to see Race to the Top initiatives in action, again, at
(https://www.youtube.com/user/ncpublicschools.
MORE INFO: Michael Yarbrough, Communication and Information Services,
michael.yarbrough@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