Here are some quick North Carolina Education updates you might have missed.

1 – #SchoolChoice Rally in Raleigh on January 23rd as part of National School Choice week which is from January 21 to the 27th.  The event will be hosted by the NC Association of Public Charter Schools (NCAPCS).

Details:

NCAPCS School Choice Rally
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
12:00 – 1:30pm
NC State Legislative Building
300 N. Salisbury St.
Raleigh, NC 27603

You must RSVP for this event at the NCAPCS website by January 22nd.  NC State Superintendent Mark Johnson will be speaking as well as the Charter School Teacher of the Year Deborah Brown.

2 – Regional Teachers of the Year (TOY) were named last week.

• Northeast: Kaley Kiffner, Perquimans County Middle (Perquimans County Schools);
• Southeast: Cameron Gupton, Greene Early College High (Greene County Schools)
• North Central: Kedecia Stewart, Pinkston Street Elementary School (Vance County Schools);
• Sandhills: Lindsey Sise, West Hoke Middle (Hoke County Schools);
• Piedmont-Triad: Bryan McKinney, Walter M. Williams High (Alamance-Burlington Schools);
• Southwest: Samone Graham, Mooresville High (Mooresville Graded School District);
• Northwest: Lisa Wall, Burke Middle College (Burke County Public Schools);
• Western: Julie Pittman, R-S Central High (Rutherford County Schools); and
• Charter Schools: Courtney Samuelson, The Capitol Encore Academy (Fayetteville)

3 – North Carolina ranks #1 nationally in the number of certified teachers.

Via the Dept. of Public Instruction:

North Carolina continues to lead the nation in numbers of teachers who have earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, with 616 additional teachers gaining the endorsement last month from the Arlington, Va., based organization.

Nearly 21,500 teachers in North Carolina have attained national certification, which is based on a rigorous performance-based assessment that typically takes from one to three years to complete and measures what accomplished teachers and counselors should know and be able to do.

Nationally, 5,470 teachers earned certification in 2016-17, raising the total among all states to more than 118,000. In addition, almost 3,957 teachers nationally achieved recertification, including 890 board-certified teachers in North Carolina.

4 – Southside Ashpole Elementary in Robeson County was moved to the Innovative School District (ISD).

Press release via the Department of Public Instruction:

At the school board meeting held Tuesday evening at the City Hall in Lumberton, the Public Schools of Robeson County voted unanimously to transfer Southside Ashpole Elementary to the Innovative School District (ISD). Members of the Rowland community, including Mayor Michelle Shooter, Town Clerk David Townsend, Reverend Thomas Allen, and others–including Ronald Foxworth, Chief Public Defender for Robeson County–showed their support for the transfer. During public comment, Mr. Foxworth expressed heartfelt sentiments about the legacy of the school and its importance to the town of Rowland.

Southside Ashpole Elementary will be transferred into the ISD for a period of 5 years beginning in the 2018-19 school year. At the end of the 5 years, the school will be transferred back into the local district. “This is a real opportunity for Southside Ashpole, the Rowland community and the local school board to work together with the ISD and the school operator to help improve student performance,” said Dr. Eric Hall, Superintendent of the ISD. “The outpouring of community support for this initiative has been incredible and I cannot thank the Rowland community enough for engaging with the ISD. To maximize student success and to ensure that the reforms the ISD will bring to the school are sustainable, that support is welcome and necessary.”

Dr. Eric Hall added, “we can now move forward with identifying and selecting a proven innovative school operator to partner with Southside Ashpole and the Rowland community to develop a school improvement plan that is tailored to the specific needs of the school. Included in the plan will be teacher/staff training; tactics for addressing academic and non-academic barriers to achievement; curriculum that meets NC Standard Course of Study standards to ensure students are prepared to move to the next grade level; as well as details related to resources, staffing needs, support networks, and supplemental programs to assist in improving student performance.”

Southside Ashpole Elementary was selected for inclusion into the ISD based on the following criteria: grade level performance for most recent school year (18.4%), average school performance score over last three years (33%), school performance grades over the last three years (the school received the letter grade of F each year) and overall school district performance (66% of schools in district are considered low performing). This data shows a clear need for an intervention to provide improved educational outcomes for the students in Rowland.