February 19, 2014
NEW THIS WEEK
● K-3 Formative Assessment Matters: Legislative Overview
● A Teaching Award: Integrating Current Local and State News and Information into
Instruction
● Transformed Model Performance Indicators (MPIs) for ELL Educators
● Support Materials for the World Language Essential Standards
● Virtual Professional Learning Network: #WLCHATNC
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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ESL Regional Trainings
World Languages Regional Trainings
North Carolina Analysis of Student Work (ASW) Wiki
Analysis of Student Work Pilot Training
NEW THIS WEEK
K-3 Formative Assessment Matters: Legislative Overview
In response to legislation passed by North Carolina’s General Assembly, and to meet
requirements of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant, the NCDPI's Office of Early
Learning is designing a developmentally appropriate, individualized assessment for K-3 children.
The Office of Early Learning has formed a Task Force to accomplish this work. The Task Force
comprises a variety of NC stakeholders, including teachers, parents, district leaders, NCDPI
representatives, community members and higher education faculty. The Task Force is
collaborating with national experts in the fields of formative assessment and implementation
science. In addition, at each stage of the development process, a systematic review of the work
is conducted with NC stakeholders through statewide focus groups consisting of teachers,
parents, and district personnel.
K-3 Formative Assessment is part of the Excellent Public Schools Act. There are two components
of this legislation that guide the development and use of K-3 Formative Assessment:
1. Assessment Instruments for Kindergarten, First, Second and Third Grades.
The State Board of Education shall develop, adopt and provide to the local school administrative
units developmentally appropriate individualized assessment instruments consistent with the
Basic Education Program and Part 1A of Article 8 of this Chapter for the kindergarten, first,
second, and third grades. Local school administrative units shall use these assessment
instruments provided to them by the State Board for kindergarten, first, second, and third grade
students to assess progress, diagnose difficulties, and inform instruction and remediation needs.
Local school administrative units shall not use standardized tests for summative assessment of
kindergarten, first, and second grade students except as required as a condition of receiving
federal grants.
(From Section 7A.1.(e) G.S. 115C-174 (a) of the Excellent Public Schools Act)
2. Developmental screening and kindergarten entry assessment.
(a) The State Board of Education shall ensure that every student entering kindergarten shall be
administered a developmental screening of early language, literacy, and math skills within 30
days of enrollment.
(b) The State Board of Education shall ensure that every student entering kindergarten shall
complete a kindergarten entry assessment within 60 days of enrollment.
(c) The developmental screening instrument may be composed of subsections of the
kindergarten entry assessment.
(d) The kindergarten entry assessment shall address the five essential domains of school
readiness: language and literacy development, cognition and general knowledge, approaches
toward learning, physical well-being and motor development, and social and emotional
development.
(e) The kindergarten entry assessment shall be (i) administered at the classroom level in all local
school administrative units; (ii) aligned to North Carolina's early learning and development
standards and to the standard course of study; and (iii) reliable, valid, and appropriate for use
with all children, including those with disabilities and those who are English language learners.
(f) The results of the developmental screening and the kindergarten entry assessment shall be
used to inform the following:
(1) The status of children's learning at kindergarten entry.
(2) Instruction of each child.
(3) Efforts to reduce the achievement gap at kindergarten entry.
(4) Continuous improvement of the early childhood system.
(From § 115C-83.1E of the Excellent Public Schools Act)
The development of K-3 Formative Assessment responds to legislation passed by North
Carolina’s General Assembly and meets requirements of North Carolina’s Race to the Top Early
Learning Challenge grant with the ultimate goal of supporting teachers’ efforts to improve the
experiences and outcomes for young children.
MORE INFO: Cindy Bagwell, Project Administrator, cindy.bagwell@dpi.nc.gov
A Teaching Award: Integrating Current Local and State News and Information into
Instruction
Teachers who use current events as informational text in K-12 classrooms are eligible for the
2015 Dave Jones Award for the Advancement of Youth Readership. Teachers may access news
through digital or print sources and apply what they learn to multiple subjects, English/Language
Arts, Social Studies, Health, Science, Math, Art Education, Guidance and/or Career Technical
Education.
The recipient receives an honorarium and other recognition. The award’s sponsor, the North
Carolina Press Foundation, also welcomes recommendations from educators who identify
outstanding teachers who use current, relevant news and information to invigorate instruction.
The June 2014 application deadline allows teachers to implement and report on approaches they
use during the 2013-2014 school year. The application is available in two forms (one editable
and one pdf), on the lower left side of this website: http://ncpressfoundation.org/
The pdf can be found here:
http://ncpressfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Dave-Jones-Award-app2014.pdf
The award honors Dave Jones, a retired newspaper executive, who supported multiple
education initiatives. A story about the award-winning teacher Patrick Vernon appears on the
website and ran in his hometown newspaper.
Transformed Model Performance Indicators (MPIs) for ELL Educators
The Common Core State Standards call for teachers to simultaneously provide
academically rigorous content instruction while promoting English language
development. In order to support NC content and ELL educators in this endeavor, NC
DPI Title III/ESL staff have formed the "Common Core and ELL Collaborative Task Force,"
who have worked over the course of the last year to create and write transformed
Model Performance Indicators (MPIs) based on ELA Common Core Standards (Reading
for Literature and Reading for Informational Text) and WIDA Standards (Grades 1, 3, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9-10, and 11-12). The NC DPI is planning to release these resources to the field by
the end of February. The original writers, reviewers and editors will conduct a series of
webinar sessions to go through the development process and to provide some
suggestions on how to utilize these resources.
MORE INFO: Nadja Trez, K-12 Curriculum and Instructional Services,
nadja.trez@dpi.nc.gov.
Support Materials for the World Language Essential Standards
The World Languages Collaborative Team is in the process of crafting additional tools for
teachers and administrators to use as they implement the World Language Essential
Standards. Recently, a set of proficiency outcome posters were posted to the World
Language wiki at http://wlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Proficiency+Posters, which can be
used in classrooms or in communication with stakeholders to illustrate what students
will be able to do with the language being learned once they complete a course. This
spring, a set of Administrator Briefings are being drafted which will include a short
overview of a World Language program paired with an observation form aligned to the
NCEES standards.
MORE INFO: Ann Marie Gunter, World Languages Consultant, ann.gunter@dpi.nc.gov
Virtual Professional Learning Network: #WLCHATNC
The World Languages Collaborative Team is building a network for sharing information
and resources about policies, the World Language Essential Standards, the Analysis of
Student Work process for Standard 6, and general feedback from World Language
colleagues across the state. A monthly Twitter chat is scheduled for the first Monday of
each month from 7:00-8:00 p.m. using the hashtag #WLchatNC. Please see
http://wlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/WLchatNC for more information, including a 5-minute
video on how to join the conversation, a schedule of topics, and links to the archives.
MORE INFO: Ann Marie Gunter, World Languages Consultant, ann.gunter@dpi.nc.gov.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
ESL Regional Trainings
The NCDPI will provide three Regional Education Alliance/Consortia (RESA) trainings for
Local Education Agency (LEA) and Charter School ESL Leaders focused on the local
implementation of the English Language Development Essential Standards. The trainings
will take place in the eastern, central, and western regions of the state, and ESL leaders
are encouraged to attend the session that is most accessible:
● Monday, Feb. 24 (Regions 3, 5 encouraged to attend) McKimmon Center, 1101
Gorman St. Raleigh, NC;
● Thursday, March 13 (Regions 6, 7, 8 encouraged to attend), A-B Tech College,
Enka Campus, 1495 Sand Hill Rd. Candler, NC; and
● Wednesday, March 19 (Regions 1, 2, 4 encouraged to attend, Mad Boar
Restaurant, 111 River Village Place, Wallace, NC.
The first part of the session will focus on "Catching Quality Collaboration with Home
Base." Participants will get an introduction to how to find ESL resources in the
Schoolnet feature of Home Base that will support language development as well as
content knowledge. The session also will give an overview on how to use the English
Language Development standards in conjunction with content standards from the
Common Core and Essential Standards as a common point of reference for collaboration
between language and content area specialists.
The second part of the session will focus on "40 Ways to Read Like a Detective:
Supporting Text-Centered Instruction." During this part of the training, participants will
explore myriad approaches to a text, approaches which are applicable to or adaptable for
learners in all grade levels.
New participants to NCDPI Content Sessions should review previous training materials
linked at http://www.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/ before attending this session.
Registration is handled by the RESA. Please visit:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/calendar/. At the bottom of that page is a list
of all the RESAs and the RESA contact information.
MORE INFO: Lindsey Fultz, ESL Consultant, lindsey.fultz@dpi.nc.gov
World Languages Regional Trainings
The NCDPI will provide eight Regional Education Alliance/Consortia (RESA) trainings for
Local Education Agency (LEA) and Charter School World Language Leaders who lead the
local implementation of the NC World Language Essential Standards. This spring, the
world language training for K-12 classical, dual and heritage, and modern language
programs will focus on assessment strategies and resources. There will be opportunities
for reflection and collaboration, along with time to plan for sharing the materials and
activities from this training in local professional development.
The NCDPI update will include information on the proposed Analysis of Student Work,
the Standard 6 Measure of Learning process for this content area, which will be
implemented in the 2014-15 school year. All new participants to North Carolina
Department of Public Instruction Content Sessions should review previous training
materials linked at http://www.ncdpi.wikispaces.net before attending this session.
Region 1: Tuesday, March 18
Region 2: Wednesday, March 19
Region 3: Monday, Feb. 24
Region 4: Thursday, Feb. 27
Region 5: Tuesday, Feb. 18
Region 6: Thursday, Feb. 20
Region 7: Thursday, March 27
Region 8: Thursday, March 13
Registration is handled by the RESA. Please visit:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/calendar/. At the bottom of that page is a list
of all the RESAs and the RESA contact information.
North Carolina Analysis of Student Work (ASW) Wiki
The ASW wiki includes updates and training materials for the Spring 2014 piloters from
AP/IB, Arts Education, Healthful Living, World Languages, and other designated content
areas.
Any interested stakeholders can access these materials online at:
http://ncasw.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/
**Please note that only Spring 2014 Pilot participants may receive CEU credit from
NCDPI for completing the training modules during the 2013-2014 school year.**
The ASW process will be the way that the measurement of student growth for these
teachers will be linked to teacher effectiveness for Standard 6 of the NC Educator
Evaluation System beginning with the 2014-2015 school year. Questions about the
proposed ASW process can be directed to Educator Effectiveness by sending an email to
educatoreffectiveness@dpi.nc.gov or visiting the Educator Effectiveness Model website
at www.ncpublicschools.org/effectiveness-model.
Analysis of Student Work Pilot Training
The Analysis of Student Work (ASW) RESA session is highly recommended for 2014 ASW
pilot participants who would like to receive face-to-face support. This session will be
offered once at each of the following RESAs:
● Region 6: Friday, Feb. 21, and
● Region 2: Tuesday, March 25.
ASW is the proposed standard 6 process for the North Carolina Educator Evaluation
System and includes teachers from the areas listed below:
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Advanced Placement
Arts Education
Healthful Living
International Baccalaureate
Occupational Course of Study
Social Studies (7th-Grade Social Studies and World History)
World Languages
By the end of the ASW session, participants will be able to:
● Understand the ASW process;
● Access the resources, materials and information available for the ASW pilot
process; and
● Problem-solve using objectives and/or student evidence provided by pilot
participants.
MORE INFO: Contact your local RESA for more information on -- and to register for -the ASW trainings.
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