May 28, 2014
NEW THIS WEEK
● GTN Teachers to Receive Selection Notification
● K-3 Formative Assessment Matters
● District and School Transformation to be Featured in Upcoming RttT
Videos
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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Teacher Working Conditions Survey Results
Great PD in Buncombe County
Race to the Top No-Cost Extension Info Online
Home Base Opt-In Form - The Process Is Simple
NCEdCloud IAM Service Is Fully Deployed
NEW THIS WEEK
GTN Teachers to Receive Selection Notification
Approximately 450 outstanding teachers from across North Carolina are to be notified by
the end of the week of their selection to serve one year as instructional and professional
development experts and facilitators.
The Governor’s Teacher Network (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 have been paid a total of $10,000
by the completion of their work.
Nearly 1,500 teachers from across North Carolina applied for the GTN. Initial training for
selected teachers will be held on June 30 and July 1.
Visit www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/gtn for details.
MORE INFO: Theresa Perry, Educator Effectiveness, theresa.perry@dpi.nc.gov
District and School Transformation to be Featured in Upcoming RttT Videos
“The role of a school transformation coach really varies quite a bit,” said Laurie Carr
recently at Spring Valley Elementary School in Durham. “The primary function is
supporting the school principal and the administrative team and that takes a bunch of
different approaches.”
Those approaches have paid off for Carr and her colleagues. She is a consultant provided
by Race to the Top to work with instructional coaches and teams in Durham Public
Schools. Spring Valley is but one of many schools across the state that were formerly
low-achieving schools. Instructional coaching teams have worked with administrators and
teachers to turn Spring Valley and many others around toward high achievement.
Spring Valley will be featured beginning this summer in a series of videos being produced
by the NCDPI. These informative vignettes will outline the progress of the Race to the
Top initiative, including the components of Home Base. We’ll let you know when they are
available!
K-3 Formative Assessment Matters
The Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) and the K-3 Formative Assessment currently in
development will assess the five essential domains of learning. For assessment to be a
seamless process of assessing-and-instructing, best teaching practices must be
implemented in the classroom. This month we will unpack the National Association for
the Education of Young Children’s Three Core Considerations of developmentally
appropriate practice (DAP).
Developmentally appropriate practices are critical in promoting optimal learning and
development in children from birth through 8 years old. DAP means teaching children
where they are and helping each child to reach both developmental and learning goals.
NAEYC’s Three Core Considerations of developmentally appropriate practices are:
1. Knowing about child development and learning. Teachers know child
development and age-appropriate milestones, and these are a starting point for
instruction. Teachers know what strategies and approaches will most likely support
children in their development.
2. Knowing what is individually appropriate. Teachers must know each child well.
Teachers observe (formally and informally) and are able to make adjustments to meet a
child’s learning and developmental differences.
3. Knowing what is culturally important. Teachers learn about a child’s social and
cultural context in a variety of ways (talking with family, home visits, etc.) to help
promote meaningful and respectful learning experiences.
The teacher makes decisions based on these core considerations to plan activities,
routines, interactions and data collection. When teachers understand DAP, the methods
used in assessment match the child’s development.
Developmentally appropriate practice aligns with the vision for K-3 Formative
Assessment: formative in nature, embedded in daily instruction, addresses all five
domains, collects data in multiple ways, and guides teaching and learning.
Additional information on the Three Core Considerations and DAP can be found at
www.naeyc.org.
Please visit our 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.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Teacher Working Conditions Survey Results
The 2014 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey results are available at
www.ncteachingconditions.org. This year's NC TWC Survey tied our all-time state
participation record of 89 percent.
The number of respondents totaled 93,179 teachers and administrators. A total of 2,548
schools (98 percent) met or exceeded the minimum 40 percent threshold required for
access to their own results for use in school improvement planning.
As in previous years, each school that met or exceeded the minimum 40 percent
threshold and all districts will be able to view the results on the website in "Detailed" or
"Summary" views, which may be downloaded from the website in Excel.
The New Teacher Center will present the statewide Preliminary Findings at the June State
Board of Education meeting. If you have any questions, please use the Question or
Comments icon on the www.ncteachingconditions.org website.
Thank you for helping to make this year's NC TWC Survey such a success!
Great PD in Buncombe County!
Race to the Top made meaningful and sustained professional development a firm reality
for more than 1,800 teachers in Buncombe County.
“The Race to the Top initiative allowed us the opportunity to put together lead teams of
lead teachers … who had sustained professional development,” said PD Lead Marta
Garcia. “So they became very familiar with the standards and they also gave us an
opportunity to see the new unfolding of the standards through the eyes of the teachers
who would be implementing them.”
Garcia and colleague Millie Stubbs share how their experiences at the Summer Institutes,
which began in 2011, helped them to replicate great PD among their colleagues
throughout Buncombe County over the last three years.
Garcia and Stubbs will be featured beginning this summer in a series of videos being
produced by the NCDPI. These informative vignettes will outline the progress of the Race
to the Top initiative, including the components of Home Base. We’ll let you know when
they are available!
Race to the Top No-Cost Extension Info Online
The US Department of Education has awarded a no-cost extension for North Carolina's
Race to the Top grant. The Race to the Top team has developed a quick "Points of Note"
sheet that features fingertip information about what this means for the state, along with
local districts and charter schools.
The document can be accessed by visiting the RttT Frequently Asked Questions page,
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/faq/, and clicking on the pdf link under Race to the
Top Year 5 No Cost Extension Points of Note.
For those of you seeking greater detail around the no-cost extension, your questions
may be addressed by listening to a webinar recorded last month. It can be found at
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/webinars/
MORE INFO: Michael Yarbrough, Communication and Information Services,
michael.yarbrough@dpi.nc.gov
Home Base Opt-In Form - The Process Is Simple
Beginning next school year, some components of Home Base will continue to be
available to all districts and charter schools at no additional cost. These include
PowerSchool, TestNav, Educator Evaluation and state-level professional development. If
your district or school wishes to continue to have access to the remaining components
of Home Base, you will need to opt in at a cost. An information sheet on how to opt in
to certain Home Base features has been shared with each school district and charter via
email from State Superintendent June Atkinson.
So what all do you get when you opt in?
1. The Instructional Improvement System (Schoolnet): With Schoolnet, you will have
access to curriculum and instructional tools, assessment tools, and reporting tools. You
can find or create resources, group students for differentiated instruction, and schedule
lessons, units and materials. You can find or create assessment items and create
assessments that are aligned to the NC Standard Course of Study, run reports to create
views of data that suit your specific needs, and view Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
to see data about your students, schools and district.
2. Instructional Resources: Currently, there are more than 16,300 state-vetted
instructional resources, 1,100+ SAS Curriculum Pathways instructional resources, 8,600+
Online Learning Exchange (OLE) science and social studies instructional resources and
2,000+ instructional resources from the NC Department of Cultural Resources. There are
also more than 25,400 state-created assessment items and 9,100+ state-purchased
assessment items available in Home Base. The work to enhance the content continues
so the number of items will continue to grow in each grade level and content area and
items will be kept up to date. In addition to these state-provided resources, districts,
schools and teachers can upload or create their own.
3. OpenClass: You will also be able to utilize the OpenClass platform, Home Base’s
collaboration and course management system. OpenClass is a place for teachers to
manage and deliver instruction and for students to engage collaboratively with each
other and their teachers, to get homework assignments and submit their work and to
have threaded discussions. Students, teachers and classes will be set up in OpenClass
through an automated interface with PowerSchool.
4. Local Professional Development: You will be able to create and administer local
professional development courses as well as track and report Continuing Education
credits at a local level in the same system your educators will be using for the state-level
professional development offerings.
MORE INFO: Here is the direct link to the quick-and-easy opt-in form:
http://forms.ncpublicschools.gov/home-base/home-base-opt-in.
NCEdCloud IAM Service Is Fully Deployed
The NCEdCloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) Service has been fully deployed
in production and is now open for general availability to all LEAs and charters statewide.
The NCEdCloud team notes that the IAM Service has been its focus for more than three
years and that during the past year, many teams have worked diligently to set up,
configure and test the new service. We have run pilots for the new service with early
adopters and continuously updated our internal processes to ensure a successful
deployment.
What is the NCEdCloud IAM Service?
The Identity and Access Management (IAM) Service is one of the NCEdCloud initiatives
for the K-12 community of North Carolina, funded by Race to the Top (RttT) and led by
the Friday Institute. It is based on the principle that strong identity management is a
foundational component for the ongoing shift toward Internet-based (cloud)
technologies in today’s schools. As more services move to the cloud, a centralized and
standardized way to manage user accounts, roles, and permissions for these
technologies is required for success. The IAM Service is an enabler to help LEAs and
charter schools manage the full identity life cycle with current and future cloud
applications.
What does it do for me?
The service will provide LEAs and charters a tool to manage the authentication and
authorization needs for their students, employees, parents, and guests accessing
"cloud" or hosted services. It provides self-service capabilities to all end-users and
delegates administrative capabilities to LEA and charter school technology leaders. As
users move around among different schools and districts, changes to their student or
employee source system records are automatically reflected in the IAM Service and
access is updated accordingly for target applications. The Central Directory Local Replica
(CDLR), a local Active Directory option, allows services/applications inside LEAs and
charters to receive these automatic data flows and utilize the centralized self-service
capabilities.
What does general availability mean?
General availability means that any LEA or charter school can submit a request to have
any of the currently integrated applications below integrated for its district and be
managed by the new automated processes of the IAM Service. The IAM Service is fully
available for all users in a district to claim their accounts.
Where can I learn more?
Please visit our website to learn how to get your district started and to claim your
account today: http://iam.ncedcloud.org.
Applications now available for integration include:
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MCNC Zscaler
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Central Directory Local Replica (CDLR)
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Follett Destiny
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Discovery Education
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Google Apps for Education
Upcoming Target Applications available for integration (over the next year) are:
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Home Base Applications Integration:
- Student Information System (based on Pearson PowerSchool)
- Instructional Improvement System (based on Pearson Schoolnet)
- The Educator Effectiveness System (based on Truenorthlogic software)
- Educator Evaluation System module
- Professional Development System module
- Classroom Collaboration tools (based on Pearson OpenClass)
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NCEdCloud LMS RFP Winner
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SAS EVAAS for K-12
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Edmodo
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MS Student Advantage
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mClass
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Microsoft Office 365
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