NCAE SBE Review North Carolina Association of Educators October 2013
New Cut Scores and Standard Setting Approved!
Special points of interest:
placement. The 2012-13 assessment results are not comparable to
The SBE held their annual retreat prior to the regular State Board of Education meeting. There was discussion on revising their mission and connecting it to a broader perspective in alignment with the Education Cabinet. Their document, NC Public Schools: Vision, Status and Indicators can be found:
prior years' scores. The tests are different and measure new con-
http://goo.gl/wYrh9N
New standards were approved by the State Board of Education to bring expectations for student performance in line with current career and college expectations. On November 7, the SBE will release the 2012-13 test results, and we will see drops as high as 30 to 40 percentage points in terms of the percentage of students scoring proficient or above. For students, these scores will not affect their grades or their current
tent standards. North Carolina's revised Standard Course of
Study/Essential Standards including CCSS were implemented for the first time in 2012-13 with new assessments. The 2012-13 school year is considered a transition or baseline year for these new assessments and the state's new accountability model. The process of establishing cut scores came after weeks of analysis and work with classroom teachers to identify standard
Superintendent Atkinson shared a brief on the “History of Teacher Salary/ Increases�. The document can be found: http://goo.gl/dLHxxT
levels. The goal is to sharpen the focus on what students need to be successful after high school graduation. In the past, North Carolina's achievement levels were more focused on what students needed to be successful at the next grade level. The anticipated statewide impact of the new proficiency standards is illustrated in this chart (xls, 55kb).
October 2013
Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and
Testing Policy Connecting to Teacher Evaluation The State Board of Education in 2011 voted to require an annual evaluation for every teacher in North Carolina. SBE policy TCP-C-004 states “the intended purpose of the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process is to assess the teacher’s performance in relation to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards and to design a plan for professional growth.” Annual evaluation is required as all districts accepted funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and all districts and charter schools accepted funding from Race to the Top. Standard 6 is the student growth component for the teacher evaluation process. To populate Standard 6, the following assessments are used to measure the amount of growth students make as the result of a teacher’s instruction: End-of-Grade (EOG) English Language Arts/ Reading grades 3-8, EOG Mathematics grades 3-8, EOG Science grades 5 and 8; End-of-Course (EOC) Math I, EOC Biology, EOC English II; NC Final Exams (formerly called Measures of Student Learning: NCs Common Exams); Career and Technical Education Post Assessments, and Analysis of Student Work for Performance-Based Courses. The SBE will vote in November on the recommendations that all assessments used to measure student growth for Standard 6 of the teacher evaluation process follow administrative policy and procedures that are in line with those of the EOG and EOC state-designated assessments. This policy change means all assessments will count a percent of the student’s final grade, are given during the “exam/testing window” and the NC Testing Code of Ethics are to be adhered to by all educators and students. The Department also recommends that the Measures of Student Learning: NCs Common Exams are renamed NC Final Exams and replace the teacher made exams.
Other Actions 1. On September 12, 2013 the Compliance Commission met to address LEAs seeking an appeal not to participate in a specific field test. The Compliance Commission and the SBE are denying all requests. 2. The North Carolina General Assembly’s Read to Achieve Program being implemented this school year has the goal of ensuring that every student read at or above grade level by the end of third grade and continue to progress in reading proficiency so that he or she can read, comprehend, integrate, and apply complex texts needed for secondary education and career success. There are seven major components of this program that include; a comprehensive plan for reading achievement, a developmental screening and kindergarten entry assessment, the facilitation of early grade reading proficiency, the elimination of social promotion, the successful reading development for retained students, notification requirements to parents and guardians, and accountability measures. Under the component that addresses the elimination of social promotion, there are five Good Cause Exemptions from retention if a student is not proficient on the third-grade EOG reading test. One of the exemptions is the completion of a Student Reading Portfolio. The law requires that the State Board of Education establish the Student Reading Portfolio and the review process. The portfolio can be used to show proficiency after the first administration of the third-grade reading EOG, after participation in a summer reading camp, or at mid-year promotion of the school year following summer reading camps. A copy of the Read to Achieve Portfolio can be found here; http://goo.gl/401SfI
October 2013
Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and
Educator Evaluation Policy Changes
Educators under current TCP-C-006 policy are to have three years of rolling data based on student growth to populate Standard VI for teachers and Standard VIII for administrators. Based on feedback from teachers, administrators, central office staff members, superintendents, and other stakeholders, the recommended revisions to TCP-C-006 require the use of only the best two of three years of student growth data from 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15 to assign an overall status to educators in the fall of 2015. This policy revision acknowledges that the State implemented new standards in school year 2012-13, and that, as a result, teachers and school executives have requested additional time to adjust to these more rigorous expectations. At the same time, there are teachers and school executives who exceeded expectations for student growth in 2012-13, and these data can be used as one of the best two of three years. The State Board approved the following changes to TCP-C-006: If a district is determining Standard 6 with statewide assessments, teachers with individual student growth values for the 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15 school years will receive a status in the fall of 2015 based on their summative ratings on Standards 1 – 5 in 2014-15 and a Standard 6 rating based on the average of the highest two of three student growth values from those years. After the first statuses awarded in the fall of 2015, a three-year rolling average will be used to assign the Standard 6 rating used to determine a status. If a district has elected to determine Standard 6 with a local option plan approved by the State Board of Education, the district will determine the measures and the data required for an effectiveness status. Any State Board of Education-mandated steps for improvement based on a teacher’s status of “in need of improvement” are delayed until a status is assigned in the fall of 2016. For Standard 8, school systems using the state effectiveness model, only student growth values based on the students taught in a school executive’s specific school will be used to determine the three-year rolling average for that administrator. A three-year rolling average of student growth values generates the eighth standard rating used to determine school executive effectiveness, with the exception of the first statuses awarded to administrators in the fall of 2015. Administrators with school-specific student growth values for the 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15 school years will receive a status in the fall of 2015 based on their summative ratings on Standards 1 – 7 in 2014-15 and a Standard 8 rating based on the average of the highest two of three student growth values from those years. After the first statuses awarded in the fall of 2015, a three-year rolling average will be used to assign the Standard 8 rating used to determine a status. If a district has elected to determine Standard 8 with a local option plan approved by the State Board of Education, the district will determine the measures and the data required for an effectiveness status. At a minimum, the school administrator’s evaluation must include data generated from student growth values determined through End-of-Grade assessments and End-ofCourse assessments administered in his/her school. Any State Board of Education-mandated steps for improvement based on an administrator’s status of “in need of improvement” are delayed until a status is assigned in the fall of 2016.
October 2013
Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and