Number 10

NC Virtual Public School Offering Free Summer School Classes

The NC State board has extended special funding for NC Virtual Public School (NCVPS) summer classes. Be sure your school maximizes its funding! Enrollment opens April 1 and classes begin June 25.

Learn more on NCVPS' Summer 2024 webpage.

Number 9

Registration Open for Growing Success for Multilingual Learners (MLs) 2024 Summer Conference

The NCDPI ML/Title III Team invites all educators to the 2024 Growing Success for MLs Conference. The 2024 summer conference will focus on empowering NC teachers and staff to create educational experiences that help multilingual students succeed academically.

The conference will be hosted in two in-person locations and one virtual setting:

• Buncombe County - June 25-27
• Pender County - July 23-25
• Virtual - July 29 - August 1

Learn more and register here.

Number 8

North Carolina Symphony Announces 2024 Western Residency with Musical Outreach for Students and Free Community Concerts

"The North Carolina Symphony (NCS) and Music Director Carlos Miguel Prieto recently announced the 2024 North Carolina Western Residency in six North Carolina counties, with free evening performances as well as musical outreach in a variety of settings for preschoolers and students of all ages.

The NCS will present three free concerts featuring pops and classical favorites for residents in Lincoln, Swain, and Cabarrus counties. The program for these concerts includes music by John Williams, Copland’s 'Appalachian Spring,' selections from Grieg’s 'Peer Gynt,' and more.

Students in Lincoln and Haywood counties will attend the Symphony’s flagship music education program 'What Makes Music, Music,' which uses a range of musical repertoire to teach core musical concepts in support of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction learning priorities. In a performance designed to engage elementary school students, the musical concepts include rhythm, melody, tempo, and dynamics.

In addition to education concerts, NCS musicians will perform several interactive curriculum-based programs including 'Ensembles in the Schools,' which introduces students to the fundamentals of music and demonstrates the teamwork involved in music making, and 'PNC Grow Up Great Music Discovery,' which combines music and literacy for preschoolers and their families."

Learn more, and learn how to get free tickets, here. 

Number 7

NC State Leading Research on Rare Study on Animal Behavior, Response During Solar Eclipse

"During the total solar eclipse on April 8, several NC State University professors and dozens of students will travel to Texas to conduct rare research on how animals respond to the celestial event.

Dr. Adam Hartstone-Rose is a Professor of Biological Sciences at NCSU leading the study. During the 2017 eclipse, Hartstone-Rose was at the University of South Carolina and conducted a study watching 17 different species at a zoo in the path of totality. His findings in 2017 were groundbreaking since the only broad study of animal behavior during a solar eclipse had been conducted in New England in 1932.

'It was the most comprehensive study in almost 100 years,' Hartstone-Rose said.

For the 2024 eclipse, Hartstone-Rose, colleagues, and students will head to a zoo in the path of totality in Fort. Worth, Texas. The researchers will gather more data to build on their past study in 2017, which found odd behavior from animals during the eclipse, such as nocturnal activities, anxiety, and mating."

Read more here. 

Number 6

NC Teaching Fellows Program Announces Record 462 Award Recipients for 2024-25

"The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission has selected 462 award recipients for the 2024-25 academic year, the highest number since the program’s return in 2017.

The Teaching Fellows program is a competitive, merit-based forgivable loan program providing tuition assistance of up to $10,000 per year for qualified students committed to teaching elementary education, special education, science, technology, engineering, or math in a North Carolina public school. The purpose of the program is to recruit, prepare and support future teachers who attend institutions of higher education in North Carolina. ...

The commission received a total of 640 completed applications and considered applicants’ grade point average, leadership and experience, awards and honors, written essays and educator recommendations. Of the total, 113 awards were already announced as part of an early decision process in December.

The 462 awards represent a 250% increase from the 132 awards offered last year. The awardees feature 223 college transfer students, 213 high school seniors, and 26 licensure-only students. Overall, the recipients represent 82 counties in North Carolina and more than a quarter in the class of 2024 are minority candidates. Finally, 300 of the recipients intend to study elementary education, 66 are to study special education, and 96 are pursuing licensure in the areas of STEM education."

Read the full press release here. 

Number 5

Superintendent Truitt's Parent Newsletter

The next edition of Superintendent Truitt's newsletter for parents, Coffee with Catherine, will go out next week!

To sign up for the newsletter, click here and enter your email address. When prompted, select "Superintendent Truitt's Parent Newsletter."

Check out the most recent edition of the newsletter here.

Number 4

SUN Bucks/Summer EBT Resource Toolkit

The USDA has launched a new, permanent program to provide food assistance to children and families during the summer. The SUN Bucks program will officially launch in summer 2024! SUN Bucks will provide grocery-buying benefits to qualifying families with school-aged children during the summer months when schools are on summer break. SUN Bucks is sometimes referred to as Summer EBT.

SUN Bucks benefits are issued to debit-like cards (EBT cards) that families can use to purchase nutritious food. Beginning in summer 2024, families will receive $120 per eligible child for the summer period.

Find the SUN Bucks resource toolkit, with materials in English and Spanish, here. Learn more about SUN Bucks here. 

Number 3

Ten North Carolina Schools Highlighted for Innovative Approaches to Learning

"'Across the country, novel and unconventional approaches to school are changing how students engage in learning,' according to a press release announcing that the Canopy Project has added 189 schools to its national database, bringing the total to 319 schools — including 10 from North Carolina.

The Canopy Project is a collaborative effort by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Transcend Education to surface and share diverse, innovative learning environments designed to advance equity and student-centered learning, the press release says.

Launched in 2018 by the Christensen Institute, the hope was the project would allow 'education leaders, school designers, and researchers to see both the ‘trees’ — individual schools — and the whole ‘forest’ of schools that are innovating.'

There are currently 10 schools in North Carolina profiled in the Canopy Project:

• N.C. A&T Aggie Academy
• Charlotte Lab School
• Crossroads FLEX in the Wake County Public School System
• David H. Petree Elementary in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
• Evergreen Community Charter School
• Lucama Elementary in Wilson County Schools
• Margaret Hearne Elementary in Wilson County Schools
• Maureen Joy Charter School
• Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies (NEAAAT)
• Southeast Area Technical High School (SEA-TECH)"

Read more here. Congratulations to these ten schools for being recognized for their innovative learning approaches! 

Number 2

North Carolina Wins March Math-ness - "Game-Changing Automatic Enrollment Policies Win Our March Math-ness Bracket"

"Millions of college sports fans have filled out their NCAA March Madness brackets. They’ve calculated their favorite team’s chance of claiming the championship. They’ve weighed statistics and track records to determine no-brainers and upsets. And many have celebrated or lamented as they’ve been met with early wins or losses that either validated or busted their data-informed brackets.

In short, America is doing a lot of math — at a time when math achievement is experiencing historic challenges.

Enter the March Mathness tournament, an NCAA-style competition hosted by the Collaborative for Student Success to spotlight state and district initiatives that are helping kids catch up and accelerating learning in math. ...

'Automatic enrollment policies in advanced math courses represent a sea change in the way we think about math opportunities for students. After decades of requiring students to opt themselves into higher-level courses, widespread adoption of this kind of policy would represent a raising of expectations for students, rather than treating advanced math as a ‘nice-to-have’ for only some kids,' the pair said.

Ultimately, the judges decided, the relative simplicity of automatic enrollment — and the ease with which other states could adopt this for their K-12 systems — catapulted Texas and North Carolina to a winning slam-dunk."

Read the full story and learn more here. We are so proud to be recognized for automatic enrollment policies!

Number 1

Haywood County Math Teacher Named 2024 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year

"Heather Smith, a Haywood County Schools math teacher, is the 2024 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. The announcement was made at a ceremony honoring Smith and eight other regional finalists today at the Umstead Hotel in Cary.

'Heather is a change agent for public education—both for her colleagues and for her students. I’m so impressed with how she values the importance of real-world application in day-to-day instruction and how she’s made it a priority to help students see it too,' said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt.

Smith has spent her entire career teaching in Haywood County Schools. She’s taught sixth and eighth grade math at Waynesville Middle School since 2019. Prior to that, she taught at Canton Middle School and Clyde Elementary School. Smith is a graduate of Western Carolina University and is a National Board Certified Teacher."

Read the full press release here. Congratulations, Heather! Thank you for all that you do for your students!