November 2014 SBE Review

NCAE SBE Review I NS T RU CT I O NAL P O L I CY U P DA TE S

OF INTEREST:

received the Model Recognition.

The following received the Prepared STEM recognition: Brunswick Early College, Contentnea –Savannah in Lenoir, Green Central High School, Brentwood Elementary in Wake, Wayne High School of Engineering, Elkin Middle School, JN Fries Magnet in Cabarrus, STEM Early College in Guilford and Hanes Middle School, J Sam Gentry Middle School and Atkins

Academy all in Winston Salem.

Placed Charter Day, INC on Financial Probation because this For-profit company has not provided financial data as requested by NCDPI. All other charter schools and charter companies provided the data requested on teacher salaries working in NC charter schools.

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Impact of the ACA

SPECIAL POINTS

Recognized schools meeting the eleven standards of a STEM school. Exploris Charter School in Wake

N O V E M B E R

ACA Requirements – Coverage of Full-time Employees

Shared Employer Responsibility Provisions To avoid tax penalties under section 4980H of the Internal Revenue Code large employers must offer health coverage that is affordable and at least “minimal value” to all full-time employees.

Employees are considered full-time, and thus required to be offered employer-sponsored health care, if they are reasonably expected to work 30 hours per week.

The requirement extends health benefit eligibility to nonpermanent full-time employees, who traditionally have not been eligible for coverage under the State Health Plan.

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Treasurer Cowell provided information pertaining to the ACA to help clarify the issues facing LEAs when hiring substitute teachers, or using retired educators who return to work, based on questions received. Employers have flexibility in determining an employee’s status through a safe harbor that allows the employer to select “measurement” and “stability” periods for determining eligibility and offering coverage. If the safe harbor is not used, then employee

status is determined every month.

The alternative NC health insurance plan being offered to meet the ACA guidelines and legislation passed to meet the “permanent part-time” employees now considered full-time at 30 hours per week will cost the employer $117.62 and the employee $92.38 per month. This new plan goes into effect January 1, 2015.

G.S. 135-48.41(j) specifies that during the time of their full-time employment, re-hired State retirees are not eligible for retiree health benefit coverage.

This provision is consistent with prior law requiring employing units to cover re-hired retirees employed in permanent positions on a recurring basis and working 30 or more hours per week for nine or more months in a calendar year. If a re-hired retiree meets the eligibility requirements, employing units must offer the retiree the alternative coverage. While the retiree is not required to enroll in the alternative plan (which provides different coverage) they are not eligible for the State Health Insurance Plan retiree group coverage under the Retirement Systems as required by state law.

Once the retied employee stops working, they have 30 days to re-enroll in the State Health Group Insurance plan.

If the 30-day window is missed they can’t enroll until a new calendar year.

Teacher Turnover Report Discussed The following link will take you to the full report discussed during the SBE meeting in November http://goo.gl/ KWD4QE. Please remember that the data is based from March to March of a year. Teachers who left for personal reasons: 5,030 responses, included teachers who resigned due to a career change, family circumstances, health issues, to teach in another state, dissatisfaction with teaching, seeking a career change or decided to retire with reduced benefits.

Teachers who left the district but remained in education: 4,093 responses, included teachers who resigned to teach in another district, charter school or non-public school, or moved to a non-teaching position within the district or at another district or agency. Teachers who left for reasons beyond district control: 2,353 responses, included teachers who retired with full benefits, moved due to military orders, resigned because their Visiting International Faculty term or Teach for America term expired, or left due to reduction in force. Teachers who were terminated by the local school district: 1,123 responses , included teachers who resigned in lieu of non-renewal or dismissal, did not obtain or maintain their license, were not rehired when their probationary contract ended or were dismissed. Teachers who left for other reasons: 958 responses, included teachers who either resigned for reasons not listed in the survey or did not give a reason.

When asked about teachers remaining in or coming to North Carolina public school classrooms, State Superintendent June Atkinson said, "A number of the reasons why teachers leave their district or the profession can be addressed by just giving their profession the respect it deserves. We have high expectations for teachers and their pay and classroom support need to reflect that."

NCAE SBE Review November 2014

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Waivers regarding NC Final Exams As the state continues to revamp curriculum/essential standards and create new assessments pursuant to the Board’s policy, DPI have provided Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and charters with the opportunity to request waivers from the NC Final Exam process for the 2014-15 school year. LEAs are to provide waiver requests to the agency with documentation of the education rationale and communication plan to teachers.

The following LEA/charter schools have been granted a wavier for local

flexibility from the North Carolina Final Exams and CTE assessment process: Stokes County Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Ashe County Schools, Franklin Academy, Union Academy Charter, Alexander County Schools and Mount Airy Schools.

What does this mean for teachers and populating standard six with student growth data?

It means the teachers working in these LEAs will have system-wide data based on other tests with standardized scores. This does not mean that teachers do not make their own exams for students.

Local Options in CTE Courses for Measuring Student Growth Last year, 16 Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and charter schools applied for and were granted waivers from administering middle-school Career and Technical Education (CTE) Assessments. Due to issues with not having enough data, DPI was not able to include middle-school CTE in the student-growth analyses for the 2013-14 school year. DPI is working to provide the data to

SAS as quickly as possible for the purpose of conducting a feasibility study for estimating student growth in this area for the 2014-15 school year. The waiver granted last year will remain in force until the LEA rescinds or modifies their request, the North Carolina State Board of Education changes its policy, or the waiver guidelines from the federal government change.

The SBE approved the following local option measures for Middle School CTE courses: Allow a pilot year for vendors like Paxton-Patterson, Pittsco, and STEM 101 to administer assessments and collect validity and reliability data.

Continue with current system of modules and assessments with LEAs required to use SchoolNet for administering assessments and data collection

Grant to support Exceptional Children Teachers NCSU and UNC-Pembroke University received grants to establish and implement staff development and program support services to significantly improve the performance and success of students with disabilities in North Carolina. The five major goals of the NC SIP project are:

performance (in reading and math) for students with disabilities of qualified teachers of students with disabilities and decrease dropout rates of students with disabilities

school services for students with disabilities teachers’ instructional competencies The federal funds for 2014-15 amount to $20,000 per University.

tion with, and support of NCAE

SBE

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Paperwork Reduction Act Report Session Law 2013-226 [SB 168, Part IX Section 9.(f)] requires that the State Board shall report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee each year on the reports identified that are required at the State level, the evaluation and determination for continuing individual reports, including the consideration of whether those reports exceed what is required by State and federal law, and any reports that it

has consolidated or eliminated for the upcoming school year.

There are 130 reports required of each LEA over the course of a year.

Seventy nine of the reports meet federal requirements

The type of reports vary from AIG data, 21st Century Grants, other grants, Exceptional Children reports and plans, free and reduced lunch, head count for ADM, to bus transportation routes.

Fifty one reports are required by State Board Policy.

In 2011 the number of required reports was 150.

How is HB 588 Impacting American History?

There is some concern over how and when the “founding principles of America” are taught. HB 588 passed in 2011 calls for a “semester” course where the founding principles are taught.

In 2011 the SBE also approved the four social studies courses required for graduation and created an outline of possible options for schools to follow to ensure founding principles were taught and not in isolation.

One issue that has surfaced regarding the founding principles connects to the framework of AP American History and what and how the founding

principles are taught. The new AP framework does not leave out the founding principles and has actually enhanced that aspect of American History.

entire semester on the founding principles. The founding principles are covered in elementary school, as well as Civics & Economics, American History I and American History II.

The SBE and NC DPI were one of three presenters to the Education Oversight Committee in early November. The Committee asked what the recommendation was in regards to how HB 588 was being followed during the courses of social studies taught in NC.

No changes have taken place within the scope and sequence of social studies courses. In December recommendations will be discussed.

Presenters from the AP College Board and several IB teachers noted that there was no need for an

Several NCAE members are gathering information to share with policy makers regarding how and when the founding principles are taught. If you have concerns or issues, let NCAE know or the NC Teacher of the Year, James Ford.

Grading Issues Updates As most are now aware, the State Board and NC DPI have new policies in place impacting high school grading practices. Courses that are weighted will have different values beginning with the 2015-16 Freshman class: Honors courses will be .5 quality points, AP and IB courses will be worth 1 quality point for an A. Beginning next year as well, NC will implement the 10-point grading scale as most every other state has to ensure fairness for GPA and College Entrance. Students currently enrolled in high school are not impacted by this new weighting system for GPA calculations.

Staff at NC DPI noted that a transition period is needed so as not to negatively impact current students and to ensure the new processes impact 9th graders and beyond beginning next school year.

NCAE SBE Review November 2014

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SBE Testing Task Force Update

In the short term, there are some areas where immediate improvement would be beneficial for our students.

Teachers must have time to teach.

Assessment programs should: Minimize intrusion on the instruction day Be developed with extensive input from teachers Ensure quality over quantity We must have a greater focus on targeted professional development.

Opportunities on using assessment data to make decisions in the classroom.

Relevant and timely data can help educators with: Differentiation Creating Goals for Students Alternate Lesson Plans to Optimize Student Learning NCAE strongly supports using multiple, well-crafted accountability measures that gauge and promote real achievement.

We need smarter not more tests that provide students and schools the tools they need to succeed.

Can’t have a One Size Fits all Approach Multiple measures could include student work, formative assessments conducting by teachers using curriculum guides, team projects, teacher made tests and professional judgment.

One other shorter range change that needs immediate attention is having test data back to teachers in a timely manner so decisions made on how and what to teach is relevant.

NCAE Vice President Mark Jewell sharing short and long term goals for the state testing program based on current state and federal parameters, as part of his remarks on November 7.

We also appreciate the work of the following NCAE members serving on this important task force: Frank Till, Superintendent of Cumberland Robert Taylor, Superintendent of Bladen Larry Obeda, Principal of Lumberton High School Michael Landers, Teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in Cabarrus

Timely Testing data from the previous year doesn’t come back generally until the end of the first quarter.

It’s extremely difficult to know how teaching affected learning from the previous year Teachers have not yet been given access to their EVAAS Data that populates standard six and is part of their professional development growth plan.

Relevant Teachers do not get data broken down by objective, so they have no way of knowing which areas our students perform well, and which need improvement.

One area of a longer range study can be the impact of school wide assessment results similar to the 1990s ABC model. For school effectiveness, multiple indicators like: dropout rates absenteeism number of students taking advanced placement courses or completing graduation projects parental and community involvement These could along with other local options help guide progress toward becoming an excellent school.

Test scores give little data on how to improve school operations. In addition, all students should have the opportunity to demonstrate their achievement on state standards.

The testing of exceptional children should not look the same as students who are following regular curriculum. Again, the one-size fits all approach doesn’t work here, alternative methods of assessment should be available.

And lastly, I encourage your policy team and researchers to keep an eye on the discussion going on in some other states right now about alternative testing solutions. There has been some discussion of a model similar to NAEP assessments where random sampling is used.

I just want to bring those conversations to your attention as you are in the early stages of collecting information.

The bottom line is we should ALL be held accountable for the success of our students.

Teachers and education support professionals must work to reach and motivate every student. Parents and families need to instill values of respect, responsibility and a love for learning. Students must be respectful and come to school ready to learn And policymakers must give our students and teachers the tools and resources to be successful.

NCAE SBE Review November 2014