NCAE SBE Review North Carolina Association of Educators December 2013
Model Teacher Contract Approved In response to recent legislation approved by the North Carolina General Assembly, the State Board of Education (SBE) approved the contract template for local school boards. This template can be added to based on local school board decisions. The SBE also approved policy language that now goes forward to the APA hearing process (which mirrors what is in the contract). NCAE suggested several changes, a few of which were made. The one change we wanted deals with item four regarding teacher duties, which was not addressed at the December SBE meeting. We will try for language changes during the hearing process.
Goals Discussed for New State Board Strategic Plan 1. Every student in the NC Public School System graduates from high school prepared for work, further education and citizenship. 2. Every student has the opportunity for a personalized education. 3. Every student, every day has access to excellent educators. 4. Every school district will have up-to-date financial, business, and technology systems to serve its students, parents and educators. The discussion around these draft goals and the specific metrics led to issues surrounding teacher respect, salaries, and learning and working conditions. Policy impact on conditions such as calendar flexibility, mastery of learning vs. seat time, all students having a personalized education plan and removing barriers to allow students to cross LEA lines or attend both traditional and charter schools if their PEP calls for a specific program.
December 2013
Quick Notes Supt. Atkinson was congratulated for being elected the president of the CCSSO (state superintendents). Onslow County is implementing global education initiatives and the positive impact it has had on student achievement was shared. Teachers are participating in 21st Century Global professional development and sharing best practices within PLC and other team configurations. Schools are celebrating diversity and students have choices for language immersion. Carolina Pines Elementary just became a P21 School and has support from LEGO and Crayola.
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Items Discussed Program approvals for cooperative innovative high schools in the following LEAs:
Buncombe, Charlotte Mecklenburg, Northampton, Pender and Wake. The SBE will vote in January on the proposed projects and funding. CTE revisions to essential standards—will be somewhat of a different approach from other curriculum areas, as CTE courses have industry standards that must also be included. Testing and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium was a very intense discussion with no consensus. NC has been a developing partner with the consortium to help create common assessments for the 26 states that might use Smarter Balanced tests for the Common Core State Standards. NC does not have to continue with SB, but could go with PARRC or another route; members of the SBE asked the DPI to come back in January with more options, a menu of options for LEAs, and ways in which our state can test smarter and not more. A major concern SBE members hear when talking with teachers and principals is there is too much testing and not enough time to teach. CTE student credentials data was shared: 104,375 students have earned a credential that affords them to graduate from high school and begin work immediately in an industry. Narrowing the procedures for seeking extensions for earning a license to emergency health issues. Plans for digital learning in public schools based on recent legislation and funding formulas. Allotment formulas for Summer Reading Camps based on the Read to Achieve legislation. The SBE discovered during this presentation that the $15.5 million will not be enough for LEAs to implement a quality summer program.
Annual Teacher Turnover Report The 2012-13 NC Teacher Turnover Report was approved to be shared with the Education Oversight Committee. The calculations data shows 13,616 out of 95,028 teachers left their position for a 14.33 percent rate, an increase from last year. Of the teachers who left, 49.3 percent had career status, an increase from last year. 887 teachers left NC to teach in other states. The systems with the highest turnover rates include: Surry County had the lowest rate of 7.3 percent. The SBE has asked the DPI to review the types of questions and to find other data to supplement why teachers may leave the profession. Other data to add to the report might include the percentage of teacher credentials, NC TWC Survey data for example.
December 2013
Northampton
35.9 percent
Halifax
31.27 percent
Washington
27.91 percent
Hoke
27.39 percent
Bertie
26.63 percent
Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and Communication
Preparing Students for the World The SBE Task Force on Global Education presented a report that includes six recommendations. The Board also heard from three partners that have assisted schools and LEAs in preparing students and teachers in being more globally aware.
VIF: has created a professional development protocol for its teachers where they
can earn “badges� for demonstrating skills sets that can be used as evidence for professional growth. VIF has over the last 10 years had teachers from 75 different countries with more than 10,000 teachers assisting in dual language efforts across the state.
World View: is based within the UNC System and is student-centered with free resources for teachers. The resources assist teachers in making the world more interconnected. Currently, there are 100 partners across the state within the university system and several community colleges. The work crosses all content areas and not just the humanities as one might expect. The professional development support system is a week-long intense summer leadership program where no more than 50 educators learn how to be change agents in our global world. The participants are to go back to their school communities and conduct sessions to impact the school.
Center of International Understanding: its goal is to empower others for global aware-
ness. The center works with the Teacher of the Year program to provide international travel experiences, assist with Chamber of Commerce and Legislative travel to find trips and support for the Confucius Classroom for students and communities that want to learn Chinese.
Teacher-Level Value-Added Analysis for
2012-13
SBE heard a presentation regarding 2012-13 scores and the EVAAS analysis of those scores. More than 75 percent of teachers met or exceeded their expected growth. For the school year 2013-14, nearly 41,000 teachers will receive Standard 6 ratings based on their individual growth value. There is a flex waiver each LEA can adopt (read the NCAE News Bulletin for details) as the waiver allows for school data to be used for teachers without a standard assessment. You can find the distribution of scores and effectiveness ratings across courses here. A revised report was presented to the SBE on the Distribution of Value Added and page 33 has the five quintiles of where LEA teachers currently fall.
Credit by Demonstration of Mastery Approved! After years of discussion and feedback, the SBE approved the policy to allow students to earn credit by demonstrating mastery using multiple measures to show
December 2013
Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and Communication
Perquimans An update by Dr. Stallings In honor of outgoing Board Advisor Wallace Nelson of the Perquimans County School Board
Perquimans County Schools is a low-wealth system surrounded by water on three sides. Their professional goal is serving students: a job we take pride in. This year the graduation rate was 89 percent. The students earned more than $1.5 million in scholarships. One program that is credited to the students’ success is the GEAR UP grant, which provides funding for seventhgrade students to visit college campuses and find out what it takes to be successful and find a pathway to attend college. Perquimans County has been fortunate to have the state IMPACT grants over the last six years to assist with the technology needs for all classrooms. IMPACT and other grants have allowed them to purchase a Nook for every second and ninth grader, for a summer reading program to ensure the students don’t fall backwards over the summer with skill sets. This literacy program has helped third and 10th graders to do well on the EOC/G assessments. There are 211 licensed staff in Perquimans County and Dr. Stallings said they are all life-long learners who are very responsible for their own professional development. Of the staff, 18 percent have earned NBCT status, 27 percent have advanced degrees, and 15 percent are AIG certified. He has excellent staff and they all deserve four-year contracts.
A new business item was shared with the Board on the Evaluation
Validation Studies for School Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Instructional Facilitators and Library Media Coordinators. The results show that the process for these educators, similar to the evaluation of administrators and teachers, is fair, valid and reliable. The method our state has implemented is a growth model for all educators that can be measured and connected to standards.
December 2013
Center for Instructional Advocacy, Membership Organizing and Communication