PRINCIPALS' MESSAGES 2006

DECEMBER 7, 2006 - Principals' Biweekly Message

The State Board of Education this week signaled its intent to challenge all students to a higher level of achievement in high school. Members approved a proposed framework of 17 core courses that would be required for high school graduation. The core raises the number of math courses for all students to four units and for the first time, would require all students to complete two units of a second language. This change also would include opportunities for students to earn endorsements in select areas such as Career Technical Education, Advanced Placement/IB and JROTC. As part of this proposal developed by the State Board of Education's Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Rigor, Relevance and Relationships, there would be a course substitution opportunity. Complete details of this proposal have not been finalized, as the Board will be holding a series of town hall style meetings later this winter to receive input from you and your colleagues across the state. More information on these meetings will be sent to you as soon as the schedule is finalized. To see the framework approved by the Board, please go to the following NCDPI Web site at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/sbe_meetings/revisions/2006/0612revisions.html and click on the link for HSP05.

Regards,
June Atkinson

In this Biweekly Principals' Message:

1. State Board Meeting Highlights
2. Grant Benefits School Turnaround Initiative
3. Holiday Message from the 2006 Principal Advisor to the State Board
4. NCDPI Test Development Section Seeks Writers/Reviewers
5. Kindertransport Exhibit
6. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Teachers Makes USA Today's Honorable Mention Lis
7. Safe Schools and Character Education Conference to be held in February
8. 2007 Accountability Conference Scheduled for February
9. Free DPI Online Professional Development Courses on LEARN NC
10. Global Lesson Plans Available Online
11. Online Professional Development Opportunity
12. Globalization101.org

State Board Meeting Highlights

At today's Board meeting, members approved a framework for transitioning to a core course of study that will guide high school course requirements beginning in 2008-09, interim academic achievement cut scores for the Grade 3 pretest in mathematics, a proposal that will facilitate the licensing of teachers for world languages, and the 2007-09 Biennial Budget request. Board members also received the 2005-06 Annual Report on School Crime and Violence and discussed calendar waiver requests. Complete Board highlights will be available online late next week at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/sbehighlights by clicking on the appropriate link.

Grant Benefits School Turnaround Initiative

Gov. Mike Easley recently announced that the North Carolina High School Turnaround Initiative will benefit from a $1.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will be used to create a permanent team of experts to support and monitor progress in each of the 37 schools currently in the turnaround process. Grant money also will be used to train the team to implement proven models for school improvement in addition to supporting the deployment of assessment teams to visit other low-performing high schools across the state to fully understand the challenges they face and better develop steps for improving student performance.

Holiday Message from the 2006 Principal Advisor to the State Board

I hope this message finds you well rested after a four-day Thanksgiving Break. This rest should be just what we need to propel us into the holidays and give us the time we need to sustain ourselves for the road ahead. As the holiday season approaches, I am reminded very personally of all the things for which I have to be thankful. This fall has been a real challenge for all of us in communicating the new higher expectations we must have for our students in a 21st century world. However, I am so encouraged by the work of the State Board of Education as they give us the means, through their work on this very important issue, to make our educational system even better for the students of North Carolina. Yesterday, I attended a recognition ceremony for our district's teacher of the year and Wachovia principal of the year. Our new superintendent talked about the wealth that we have in our district and she characterized that wealth as the quality and true richness of the people in that very room, the teachers and administrators who do the important work of teaching our children every day. That wealth is YOU. As I have traveled this fall to similar events in your districts, I have seen the wealth of North Carolina school leaders at every turn. You are embracing the changes and the turn toward ever-higher educational excellence and I am humbled to serve with you. Congratulations to you on what you do every day for every student in your school. As you approach the end of the 2006 school year, I hope that you can find the time for the rest and reflection that we all need to be ready for the challenges of 2007! Meghan S. Doyle, 2006 Principal Advisor to the State Board of Education.

NCDPI Test Development Section Seeks Writers/Reviewers

North Carolina involves teachers in many stages of its test development process from writing and reviewing questions to reviewing test forms. The NCDPI Test Development Section is seeking a diverse group of teachers to participate in this process. Teachers who volunteer and are selected come to Raleigh, usually for one day, to participate. Those who have been involved find it to be excellent professional development as they assist in building high quality tests. For an application form, please go online to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/testing/ and scroll down to "Test Item Writer/Reviewer Interest Form." For more information, please contact Michael Gallagher, Test Development Section, NCDPI, 919.807.3777, or by email, mgallagher@dpi.state.nc.us.

Kindertransport Exhibit

The North Carolina Council on the Holocaust is once again offering the Kindertransport Exhibit free of charge to middle and high schools. This traveling exhibit contains 17 panels of heavily captioned pictures on the Kindertransport or Children's Train, the rescue effort that brought approximately 10,000 Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to safety in Great Britain between 1938 and 1940. Schools requesting the exhibit also get a copy of the award-winning documentary on the Kindertransport, "Into the Arms of Strangers." Teachers and media center coordinators interested in obtaining more information about this exhibit should contact Amy Davis at adavis@wcpss.net.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Teachers Makes USA Today's Honorable Mention List

Congratulations to Myers Park High School (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools) physics teacher Wayne Fisher for being named to USA Today's 2006 All-USA Teacher Team Honorable Mention list. USA Teacher Team members are selected each year from kindergarten through 12th grade teachers nominated nationwide. Education professionals in a two-step judging process consider how well nominees define and meet their students' needs and most importantly, the impact they have on students and student learning. To read more, please go to the USA Today Web site at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/allstars/front.htm?Loc=vanity .

Safe Schools and Character Education Conference to be held in February

The annual Safe Schools and Character Education Conference will be held Feb. 1-2 at the Sheraton Four Seasons/Koury Convention Center, Greensboro. All conference information, including a Call for Proposal, Vendor Registration Form, and the Hotel Reservation Form, are available online at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/charactereducation/conferences/.

2007 Accountability Conference Scheduled for February

The 2007 Accountability Conference, "Accountability: An Essential Building Block for 21st Century Skills," will be held Feb. 14-16 at the Koury Convention Center, Greensboro. US Department of Education (USED) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Data and Information Ross Santy will be the keynote luncheon speaker. Santy comes to USED after serving four years as the co-founder and head of information and operations at Just for the Kids - California, a non-profit organization that maintains and hosts a set of online reports and tools to help school leaders make sense of educational performance data. He will discuss the Education Data Exchange Network (EDEN) and what it will mean to each state's data collection process (information about EDEN is available online at http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2005report/2h/edlite-2h2-plans.html). Thursday's working lunch will feature a presentation from Dr. Tom Welch of Kentucky on 21st Century Skills and Learners and a representative from The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. For more conference information, including registration, please go online to http://www.rep.dpi.state.nc.us/conference.

Free DPI Online Professional Development Courses on LEARN NC

With support from the NC Department of Public Instruction, LEARN NC is offering research-based, online professional development courses at no cost to educators teaching in North Carolina during the 2006-07 school year. LEARN NC has developed six new courses that focus on two critical areas of need in the state: improving the teaching in core areas and closing the achievement gap for minority students. Please note the development of a course especially for beginning teachers to help them achieve success in the classroom. In addition, one of the courses offers free instruction on the Blackboard courseware, allowing the trained participants the opportunity to choose from among a list of shareable courses to offer in their LEA, again at no cost. For detailed descriptions and online registration, visit http://www.learnnc.org/courses/current. You also may download a course schedule from http://www.learnnc.org/media/courses/admin/LEARNNCcourses06-07.pdf. For information on becoming an online instructor, see the NCDPI Train-the-trainer Program for Online Instructors available online at http://www.learnnc.org/courses/DPItrainthetrainer.

Global Lesson Plans Available Online

Twenty-seven global lesson plans, aligned with the NC Standard Course of Study, are available online through the UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for European Studies/EU Center of Excellence. The lesson plans are appropriate for grades 6-12 and cover a variety of subjects, from science to social studies to French and German. The Web site is part of a national effort to eventually include lesson plans from all over the country. For more information, please go online to http://www.unc.edu/euce/resources/education/eu_lesson_plans/

Online Professional Development Opportunity

Enrollment has opened for NC in the World's online professional development course for middle and high school teachers called "North Carolina: Connections to the World." This course is designed to provide teachers with an understanding of global perspectives and the integration of these perspectives into their classrooms. Through this work, learners will identify the global connections and issues that exist in their North Carolina communities and will develop methods for engaging students in viewing their world through multiple channels. The course begins Feb. 7 and lasts six weeks. Teachers must enroll by Jan. 28. The course is free. For more information, please go online to http://www.learnnc.org/courses/ncworld

Globalization101.org

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has introduced Globalization101.org, an online resource for students designed to educate young people both in the United States and abroad about the dilemmas and trade-offs of globalization. For more information, please go online to http://www.globalization101.org