User:Cduren/Definitions

North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS)
The NCVPS provides middle and high school students the opportunity to take high quality, online courses regardless of their where they live or what courses their school district offers. NCVPS offers students expanded course offerings in addition to credit recovery, test preparation and career planning services. Currently NCVPS offers 108 courses including Advanced Placement, general studies and honors, and credit recovery. All NCVPS teachers are highly qualified and use video, interactive whiteboards, wikis, active worlds, and online discussion tools to engage students.

NC Public Schools’ Budget Facts
38% of the state’s 2008-09 (latest information) budget or $8.19 billion went to public schools. Although public school funding has increased over the years, public schools’ share of the general fund has decreased. 90% of public school funds are tied to salaries and benefits. Source of expenditures (child nutrition included): State 68.8%, Federal 7.3*% and Local 23.9%. *this number increased due to receipt of ARRA funds. The state funds schools with three basic types of allotments: position, dollar and categorical.

Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort (ACRE)
ACRE, a five-year project that began in 2008, is the state's comprehensive initiative to redefine the K-12 Standard Course of Study, the testing program and the school accountability model. This work will identify “essential standards” students need to learn, create new assessments that use more open-ended questions and real-world applications, and provide a new model for measuring school success based on how well students are prepared for college and work. Math, Science, English 10 composition will be operational in 2011-12 and English Language Arts/Social Studies in 2012-13.

North Carolina School Report Cards
The North Carolina School Report Cards, produced annually since 2001, provide the most comprehensive and comparative information on schools, districts and the state. This online resource, available at www.ncreportcards.org, provides a district or school profile, and data on student and school performance; school safety and access to technology; and teacher experience, qualifications and working conditions. Report cards are provided for all public, charter, and alternative schools.

Retesting
Students' first EOC/EOG retest can be used in ABCs/AYP calculations. This was enacted for end-of-grade tests in 2009 and will be in effect for grades 3-8 and end-of-course results for 2009-10.

Principal and Teacher evaluation
Under NCLB, only teachers meeting Highly Qualified criteria can teach core subjects.

Race to the Top
North Carolina's application to receive $469.5 million in federal funding over four years through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's "Race to the Top" education initiative includes participation from all of the school districts in the state. North Carolina's application addresses plans to improve student outcomes through internationally benchmarked standards, new data systems to measure success and improve instruction, support for effective teachers and by turning around low-performing schools.

NAEP
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP),also known as the “Nation's Report Card,” assesses the educational achievement of elementary and secondary students in various subject areas. It provides data for comparing the performance of students in North Carolina to that of their peers in the nation.

NCLB
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Authorization Act of 1965. The reauthorized law added strict new student accountability standards (Adequate Yearly Progress) and Highly Qualified teacher requirements. The law emphasizes consequences for Title I schools that do not meet student achievement standards. The law's major goal is for every school to be proficient in reading/language arts and mathematics by 2013-14 as measured by state tests. Although the law was up for reauthorization in 2007, it remains unclear when it will be reauthorized.

AYP
Adequate Yearly Progress measures the yearly progress of different groups of students at the school, district, and state levels against yearly target goals in reading/language arts and mathematics. All public schools, in North Carolina and throughout the country, must measure and report AYP. If a school, district, or state misses one target goal, it does not make AYP. Title I schools and districts are especially affected if they do not make AYP.

Sanctions for not making AYP
Sanctions is the term often used to describe the consequences for Title I schools in various levels of Title I School Improvement. The more years a school does not meet its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) target goals in the same subject, the more severe sanctions become. If a Title I school does not make AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years, the school enters Title I School Improvement and must offer parents the option to transfer their children to another school designated by the district until it exits Improvement. Sanctions escalate each year a school continues to not make AYP to making supplemental educational services (SES) available to economically disadvantaged students, being identified for corrective action, and restructuring.

DST and Schools receiving services
District and School Transformation efforts target low-performing schools to implement school improvement plans so that student achievement will increase.Districts and schools are identified for the Transformation program by student academic achievement and growth and district capacity as measured by state, federal and judicial standards. The bottom-line measure of success for the program is increased student achievement and graduation rates.

Essential Standards
are content standards that focus on big, powerful ideas and enduring understandings. Essential Standards are assessed in the classroom via formative [ANCHOR], benchmark [ANCHOR], and summative [ANCHOR] assessments. Essential Standards replace, clarify and simplify the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for a new generation of students, teachers, administrators, schools, and school districts.

Accountability model
The ACRE project is developing a revising growth model which will accurately predict what is challenging and attainable for every student and which will hold schools accountable for achieving those results. Measures will include graduation rates, rigor of courses taken and measures of readiness for college and the workplace. The Accountability model must ensure a balanced approach that accounts for these combined measures but remains grounded in student achievement and growth. The new accountability model will push schools to perform at higher levels every year and will provide comparable data over time.

Assessments
ACRE's comprehensive assessment model, aligned to the essential standards, will include improved and more authentic summative assessments (end-of-grade and end-of-course tests) and a new focus on assessments that help students learn. Online formative assessment modules will train teachers to diagnose learning needs and use data to meet the needs of every student. Classroom teachers will be given a benchmarking assessment tool to use at key points throughout the year to make sure students are on track. All three assessment categories are important. Classroom formative assessment is important for changing outcomes, benchmarking for following incremental progress and statewide summative for school and district accountability.

restructuring - could get tricky here

school improvement - state vs. federal - 1003(g)

ARRA

SSOS

Highly Qualified

EOG/EOC

OAI

SES