PRINCIPALS' MESSAGES 2009
PRINCIPALS' MESSAGES 2009JULY 1, 2009 - Principals' Biweekly Message
The General Assembly's July 1 deadline for completing a new biennial budget has passed with only a continuing resolution in place. Students of the General Assembly say it may be several weeks before a budget officially is in place for the 2009-10 year. In the meantime, please continue to let your legislators know how important K-12 education is and how important teaching positions are to our state. We can find ways to adapt to many kinds of belt-tightening, but it would be very difficult to absorb heavy cuts in teacher allotments and in school leadership. You and your faculty members are the staff who make a difference every day for every child in our state.
Regards,
June Atkinson
In this Biweekly Principals' Message:
State Board Meets Next Week
The State Board of Education will meet next Thursday, July 9, from 1:30-3 p.m., via conference call. All items on the agenda are action items including approval of the Academic Scholars Program, AIG program standards, standardization of the waivers/exemption list for the Cooperative Innovative High School program application and preliminary approval of new charter schools. Individuals may come to the 7th Floor Board Room, Education Building, Raleigh to listen in or pick up the meeting on their computer via audiostream (www.ncpublicschools.org/stateboard/meetings/ and scroll to the Live Audio Stream links). The complete agenda is available online at www.ncpublicschools.org/stateboard/meetings.
Second Draft of Essential Standards Available Online
The Essential Standards writing teams would like to thank the over 10,000 people in the public school community who provided feedback on the first draft (1.0) of the Essential Standards. Feedback is critical to ensuring that we reach our goals of a narrowed and deepened curriculum that will prepare every student for life in the 21st century. Essential Standards writing teams have received feedback from key stakeholders including parents, the business community, educational organizations, institutes of higher education and LEA teachers and staff. Writing teams are currently analyzing, responding to and incorporating this feedback. Draft 2.0 of the NC Essential Standards is now posted online at www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/ . These updated drafts are based on continued refinement since the posting of 1.0 as well as an initial response to the 1.0 feedback. Draft 2.0 is not final as refinement is still in process. An analysis of the trends from the public comment as well as a 3.0 draft will be available later this summer and will be presented to North Carolina State Board of Education for discussion at its August Board Meeting. If you have additional input on these latest revisions you'd like to be considered, please send it via email to feedback@dpi.state.nc.us
NC Writing Assessment Pilot Recognized as National Best Practice
North Carolina recently received the "21st Century Skills Practice of the Year Award" for its new Writing Instruction System Pilot project. The NCDPI developed and piloted the initiative in the fall of 2008 to replace the 4th and 7th grades writing assessments with a more comprehensive K-12 writing system. The new initiative represents a major step away from traditional assessments where certain groups of students are prepared for a one-day test. The system also gives all educators, not just English and language arts teachers, more flexibility to work across subject areas throughout the school year to improve students' writing skills. Superintendent June Atkinson accepted the award North Carolina at "Institute.21," an annual event held to showcase the progress states have made in infusing 21st century skills into core subject areas.
Free Summer Professional Development Opportunities Continue
Response to no-cost professional development this summer from United Star Distance Learning Consortium (USDLC) has been outstanding! Making our library of online, video-based courses (many filmed in NC classrooms) available at no cost through Sept. 1 is our way of showing appreciation for almost 20 years of partnering with the NCDPI to produce quality professional development. Learn all the details at www.ncpublicschools.org/distancelearning/professional/usdlc.html or contact Sandy LaPlante at info@usdlc.org or 888.828.7352.
Biotechnology Education Enhancement Grants Available
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is offering education enhancement grants to assist in the development of activities, programs, resources and personnel necessary for biotechnology education and workforce training. Projects must be strongly related to biotechnology and the basic sciences that most closely support it. For more information, including application instructions and guidelines, please visit www.ncbiotech.org/eeg or contact the Biotechnology Center's Core Programs Director Ginny DeLuca at 919.549.8842. Submission of pre-proposals is strongly encouraged but not required. All proposals must be submitted electronically by noon Aug. 19. Notification will occur by Feb. 5, 2010.
If you'd like to review past Principals' Biweekly Messages sent to the listserv
group, just go online to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/principalsarchive/.