My Ten Most Popular Blog Posts from 2016

The following is a list of my 10 most popular blog posts composed in 2016, based on blogger page-views.  Listed with each post is the original posting date:

1.  Proud to Lead at LNC
March 3, 2016

2.  E-Learning Day Pilot
February 12, 2016

3.  "Shadowed by the Principal" & #NoOfficeDay
May 11, 2016

4.  New Morning Dual Drop-Off Procedure
August 21, 2016

5.  Beginning of Year Letter to LNC Families
July 28, 2016

6.  E-Learning Day Pilot - Student Survey Data
February 23, 2016

7.  The Year of 'First's'
June 13, 2016

8.  Appreciating Dr. Tulbert's 'Gutsy' Post
January 25, 2016

Change in Policy for Determining Educator Effectiveness Status

In October, the North Carolina State Board of Education approved a change in policy for the determination of the overall educator effectiveness status for both administrators and teachers.  The three categories of effectiveness are effective, highly effective, or in need of improvement.  The change is as follows:

For principals and assistant principals with educator effectiveness school-wide growth values for 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015, the two strongest years of growth data will be used to determine the overall effectiveness status.  This is also the same for teachers with individual growth values.

The change is from the original policy which stated a three-year average of school-wide growth values would determine the overall status, including the same school years previously mentioned.

Beginning in the 2015-2016 school year, the policy will return to the requirement of using the three-year average, rather than the two strongest years of growth data.

The courses included for principals and assistant principals for growth-values are:

EOC: Algebra I (now called Math I), Biology, English II

CTE: Allied Health Sciences I, Biomedical Technology, Career Management, Drafting I, Drafting II - Architectural, Drafting II - Engineering, Foods I, Health Science II, Health Team Relations, Interior Design I, Microsoft Excel and Access, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher, Multimedia and Webpage Design, Personal Finance, Principles of Business and Finance, Sports & Entertainment Marketing II, Teen Living

NC Final Exam (formerly Common Exam): Algebra II/Integrated Math III, Chemistry, Civics and Economics, English Language Arts I, English Language Arts III, Geometry/Math II, Physical Science, Physics, US History, American History I/II, World History

To access the Educator Dashboard to view North Carolina Educator Evaluation System ratings for Standard VI or XIII, click here.

Thanks for reading,

CS

Value-Added Data to be Released Tonight

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and SAS Institute will release value-added data from the 2012-2013 to district administrators and other district-level staff this evening.  School-based EVAAS administrators will have access to value-added data at Midnight on October 21st.  Teachers and other school-level staff will receive the data at Midnight on October 28th.

Thanks for reading, 

CS

Cultivating Capacity Collaborative

Common Exam Changes for Spring

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction recently provided a memorandum of changes with Common Exam (MSL) administration and format for this semester.

Gaston County Schools was one of approximately 40 LEA's that did not apply for a waiver from Common Exam's to be administered in the Fall Semester, as principals and assistant principals provided their own input to Central Office administration.  As a result, these 40 LEA's were able to become familiar with the Common Exam format, procedures, and scoring components, myself included.

These are some of the key changes to the Common Exam administration, as provided by Rebecca B. Garland (Chief Academic Officer) and Angela H. Quick (Deputy CAO):

• The number of multiple-choice items will be decreased to address the issues of many students not having enough time to complete the exams.  This change will be made in the English I, English III, English IV, Physics, Geometry, Algebra II, Advanced Functions and Models, and Pre-calculus assessments.  I believe this is a crucial change, as it will hopefully address the biggest issue we had in the first-round of administering the Common Exam.

• The scoring rubrics are being revised to provide exam scorers (certified teachers in the core area-not necessarily the subject area) more information.  NCDPI is going to be providing training via webinars to prepare teachers on Common Exam grading over the next month.  This will assist our teachers who were required to grade Common Exams for a subject different than what they have taught.  For example, a World History teacher serving as a grader for the Civics and Economics exam.

• Advanced Placement courses (and IB courses) will be exempt from this upcoming administration.  In regards to Standard VI of the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System, fall scores in AP/IB courses will not count in determining the teacher's "rating" in this standard.  If a teacher has all Advanced Placement courses, their Standard VI "rating" will be 100% school-based.  The complexity of AP classes will be that some courses (ex. AP Chemistry), the students will already have an opportunity to take the Common Exam (Chemistry I), where other AP classes (ex. AP English III) serve as the required course.

I am pleased to see DPI making these adjustments, and I'm sure more adjustments will continue after the upcoming testing in May-June.

CS

The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.