November 2013 Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and Communication

NCAE SBE Review North Carolina Association of Educators

November 2013

Model Teacher Contracts Discussed Quick Notes

Supt. Atkinson shared

with SBE information

about the organization

and functions of the

Department of Public

Instruction, noting a

marked decrease in

the number of full-time

DPI staff.

SBE heard a report

from the Executive

Director of the NC

Virtual Public School.

Enrollment continues

to increase.

Heard a special

presentation from

Union County Schools

called ‘My Size Fits

Me,’ a program which

aligned public policy

to build learning

through the use of

technology; program

components include

flex-scheduling, and

re-claiming students

who have poor attend-

ance.

In response to recent legislation passed by the North

Carolina General Assembly, the State Board of Education has begun the process of developing a model teacher contract for

use by school systems across the state. This model will be built to be adaptable by school systems as needed for the var-ious levels of contracts school systems will be able to offer

(one, two, or four year contracts). Several stakeholders had input into the process of developing the model reviewed by SBE this month.

The model contract was brought forward for discussion only this month. Discussion will continue next month. If

you would like to offer input on this model contract, now is the time to reach out to your SBE member. (If you don’t know who represents your Education Region on SBE, you

can find out by clicking here.) To see the model contract, click here. You can also share feedback with Angela Farthing

(angela.farthing@ncae.org), who will share that feedback with SBE members.

READY Scores ReleasedREADY Scores ReleasedREADY Scores Released

Scores for assessments given in 2012-13 were released

this month. Scores were widely expected to drop significantly due to the change in assessments, and the deeper rigor, as

was noted several times during the score release presenta-tion. These new assessments connect better with NAEP and the ACT. It was also noted that the scores are not an anoma-

ly, as North Carolina’s first-year scores are in line with other states that have realigned their assessments. Data will be listed on the DPI website (you can find it here and here), and

parents will be given a guide to the scores on the reverse on

November 2013 Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and Communication

TeacherTeacher --Level Value Added Analysis for Level Value Added Analysis for 20122012 --1313

SBE heard a presentation regarding 2012-13 scores and the EVAAS analysis of those scores. Over 75% of teachers met or exceeded their expected

growth. For the school year 2012-13, nearly 41,000 teachers will receive Standard 6 ratings based on their individual growth value. It is important to remember that there must be three years of valid data before a Standard 6 rating can be given. You can find the distribution of scores and effectiveness

ratings across courses here; and the presentation given to the State Board of Education here.

Other Actions

Several challenges have been noted with the components of HomeBase, in

particular PowerSchool and truenorthlogic. One major issue is the input and correction of information found in HomeBase on teachers and students; information being loaded by payroll officers, but not being connected to the

active/inactive teacher trigger in truenorthlogic. These issues have been and are being corrected as they arise.

The use of Schoolnet is on the rise. Due to the need to get the school year up and

running, the use of Schoolnet was very low; however, it is much higher now due to people finding interest in loading and reviewing lessons found on Schoolnet. The full integration of all components of HomeBase will assist with this need. There

are over 40,000 items found in Schoolnet currently for use by teachers.

It was noted that the training wasn’t as effective as DPI had hoped; however, additional support/training is rolling out on a regular basis.

Heard a presentation on Grading Scales and Course Weighting. It was noted that if LEAs moved to a 10 point grading scale (from the current 7 point grading scale), that 47,000 stu-dents who received between a 60-69 as a final score for a core curriculum course would not have failed; also, over 440,000 students would have had a GPA impact (as they scored be-tween 80-84, 90-93, etc.). A working group has been created to review course weighting (such as weighting a community college-level course higher than a traditional high school course).

HomeBase Update

November 2013 Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and Communication

Other Items Discussed, ContinuedOther Items Discussed, ContinuedOther Items Discussed, Continued

Heard a presentation/report on the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teach-ing. (You can read the report here.)

Adopted the report of the CTE Textbook Commission, and CTE textbooks.

Approved a grant for a Coaching Collaborative with state personnel.

Approved the members of the North Carolina Drivers Education Advisory Committee. (You can find the list here).

Heard a report on CTE course credentialing (such as becoming certified on Microsoft prod-ucts). If the State funded every student’s credentialing through CTE courses, there would be a need of almost $6 million; however, the budget from the State is only $1.2 million,

half of which is spent on Microsoft products.

SBE discussed changes to the policy granting credit for demonstrated mastery for certain courses at the high school level. The change was necessary because the US Department of Education does not allow End of Grade tests to be given off-grade (which would create a problem for 7th graders taking an 8th grade EOG), but allows End of Course tests to be given whenever needed. The change made was to allow granting of credit for demonstrat-ed mastery for grades 6-8 (as opposed to require). The discussion item was then moved to Action on First Read, and approved.

Great discussion (and frustration) was noted around the Teacher Turnover Report, which was held until December.

Approved the report on the four-year cohort graduation rate to be sent to the General As-sembly. You can read the report here.

Modified the policy regarding the use of End of Course tests for use in the Teacher Evalua-tion Process, to account for the modification of the percentage that the assessments can be used for student grading. The policy change moves the percentage from 25% to 20%.

Added K-3 Checkpoints to the assessments that will be used in the rating of Standard 6.

Approved reports on the first year of the NC Teacher Corps, the second year of the Distin-guished Leadership in Practice program, LEA weather-related calendar waiver requests, the Voluntary Shared Leave program, and approved the nomination of Kevin Bringewatt to the Governor’s School Board of Governors.

Regional Learning Academies

SBE heard a report on the Regional Learning Academies (RLAs), which are local consortia-based opportunities to grow school administrators with mentoring, coaching, and more intensive training than a traditional school administrator’s Master’s program. While acceptance rates in the RLAs are much lower than traditional programs, the placement rate of leaders into leadership roles is 90%. An alumnus from each of the three RLA consortia spoke to the components of the program that most impacted their work—personalized coaching, staying local, individualized leadership training, among others.