Race to the Top. North Carolina Report. Year 4: School Year 2013-2014. [State-Specific Summary Report]
Author: Department of Education (ED)
Date: 2015-04-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Academic Standards,Accountability,Achievement Gap,Administrator Effectiveness,Alignment (Education),Budgets,Career Readiness,Charter Schools,College Readiness,Core Curriculum,Data,Educational Assessment,Educational Change,Educational Improvement,Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,Federal Aid,Educational Legislation,Federal Programs,Formative Evaluation,Grants,Higher Education,Language Arts,Leadership Effectiveness,Literacy,Low Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Measurement Objectives,Models,Outcomes of Education,Partnerships in Education,Poverty,Principals,Professional Development,Program Effectiveness,Program Implementation,School Districts,School Effectiveness,School Turnaround,State Government,State Standards,STEM Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Student Characteristics,National Competency Tests

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of North Carolina's annual Race to the Top implementation. The Year 4 report for Phase 2 grantees highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2013 through September 2014. In year 4, North Carolina made significant progress in developing and rolling out Home Base in Year 4. Local Education Agencies (LEAs) continued to use new college- and career-ready standards and the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System (NCEES) in Year 4. School Year (SY) 2013-2014 was the second year of full implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and North Carolina Essential Standards and administration of new statewide assessments, which the State updated to align with the new standards. North Carolina made additional progress toward fully implementing the NCEES in Year 4, collecting the second of three years of student growth data needed to provide teachers and principals with educator effectiveness statuses. To support educators and LEAs in effectively carrying out these key reform initiatives, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) continued to provide training, conduct communications and awareness-building sessions, and develop and disseminate supporting materials and resources. North Carolina continued its efforts to improve outcomes in its lowest-achieving schools, with over 70 DPI coaches deployed to support 104 schools and 12 districts in SY 2013-2014. Engagement and communication remained a focus in Year 4, as North Carolina recognized that the understanding and support of stakeholders will be key to the ongoing implementation of the reforms supported through its Race to the Top plan. In Year 4, implementation of major technology initiatives posed significant challenges for North Carolina and limited LEAs' and educators' opportunities to fully experience the intended benefits of these projects. While the State made substantial progress in rolling out Home Base and reported improvements throughout SY 2013-2014, implementation was challenging. Establishing the Cloud infrastructure continued in SY 2013-2014, leaving limited time for the State to expand the services and systems available and to support LEA use. At the end of the four-year grant period, North Carolina's equitable access efforts--those projects designed to ensure that students in low-income and low-achieving districts and schools have access to effective teachers and leaders--had mixed results. While the programs created to develop teacher and leader pipelines and to support new teachers experienced significant increases in participation in Year 4, initial results suggest that these initiatives have not reached the State's lowest-achieving schools and districts to the extent the State initially envisioned. Many of the reform initiatives and projects North Carolina launched through its Race to the Top plan will continue after the end of the four-year grant period. While Race to the Top funding will no longer directly support the implementation of all initiatives, both the progress made and the resources developed during the grant period will support ongoing implementation. Educators will also continue to implement North Carolina's college- and career-ready standards in SY 2014-2015. Additionally, the State will continue work in selected initiatives during a no-cost extension period of its Race to the Top grant in SY 2014-2015. While North Carolina made significant progress in Years 1 through 4, this additional time will allow the State to fully realize certain projects, further refine implementation in some initiative areas, and build LEA capacity for continuing initiatives with less support from DPI. Another focus in SY 2014-2015 will be providing ongoing professional development to ensure that educators in the State have the training and information needed to continue carrying out major reform initiatives. Additionally, members of the Governor's Teacher Network plan to create professional development and instructional resources intended to build local capacity to sustain reform efforts related to college- and career-ready standards. The State's efforts to promote equitable access to effective teachers and leaders and to improve lowest-achieving schools will continue in Year 5. The Race to the Top Evaluation Team will conclude its work, using SY 2013-2014 data (e.g., student outcomes, project results, LEA expenditures) to inform summative reports and findings on Race to the Top. In addition to the State-led projects that will continue in Year 5, North Carolina approved 68 LEAs to continue local activities using approximately $11,000,000 in Race to the Top funds until June 30, 2015. A glossary is included [For &quot;Race to the Top. North Carolina Report. Year 3: School Year 2012-2013. [State-Specific Summary Report],&quot; see ED580337.