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John White
State Superintendent of Education
877.453.2721
(toll-free)
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LDOE Weekly Newsletter 10/30/2012
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Dear Colleagues,
If we believe in children and all that they can accomplish, we must give them access to the best educational options as early as possible. Right now, roughly half of our kindergarten students enter that grade level unable to complete the most basic of academic skills. Those students often fall behind early and stay behind throughout their time in our schools.
Most tragic about this is that we have evidence we can do better. In our own state, emerging data suggest, for example, that the effects of an academic pre-kindergarten experience through LA4 can have lasting effects on academic achievement. But our fragmented system of early childhood education means that students too often have no access to quality programs, and that parents have no information on which to base decisions for their children. Our fractured system is based on rules, funding, and governance rather than on what is best for the child.
Today the Department announced a framework for the implementation of Act 3, creating a unified network of early childhood education in Louisiana. All public programs, regardless of funding or governance, would be assessed using evidence of classroom practice and student learning under this proposal. Parents would receive clear information and would apply to programs through a unified application process. Public dollars would be sent only to those programs that succeed with children, and government would plan which programs to maintain based on where there is the most need and where programs have proven themselves to serve children well.
You can find a summary presentation here and an in-depth description here.
There is still much discussion left to be had regarding final policies. The framework also lays out a multi-year plan for development of this unified network; change is not going to happen over night. But through unifying our fragmented system under one set of standards and values, we can better deliver on the promise we owe our children and families to begin their education early.
As always, thank you for all you do for our children,
John
John White
Louisiana Department of Education
Twitter @LouisianaSupe
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Superintendent's Conference Call
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Ladies & Gentlemen:
You are invited to participate in the Superintendents' Conference Call hosted by State Superintendent John White on Monday, November 5, at 10:30 a.m. CST. You may begin dialing into the call 15 minutes in advance. Please follow the instructions below:
To join the Superintendents' November 5, 2012 Meeting:
1. Go to https://ldoe.uc.att.com/la/meet/?ExEventID=2BXBSN&MeetingKey=FXX8VEF9&UserExtEventID=635886
2. Select: Participant Application
3. Dial into the Phone Bridge: (866) 802-4324
4. When prompted, please give the Meeting ID # 1595917
5. You will need to identify yourself in order to be placed into the meeting.
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Assessments and Accountability
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Increase in Student Responses to PASS New Writing Prompts
Please forward to Districts and Schools.
New sample writing prompts have been available on the PASS system for several weeks. There have already been 7,700 responses from students. Students can use the writing prompts at school or at home to practice with the new format. All responses are scored for Content, Style, and Conventions (4 points each). Reports are returned to students two school days following the submission of the response and give the number of points received for each dimension, a short commentary about the scores, a copy of the student response, and the writing prompt.
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ACT Testing
No later than Friday, November 9, the district accountability coordinator and the district test coordinator will receive via a secure e-mail from Jennifer Baird with two lists: 1) seniors who have not taken ACT and are required to take ACT in March (mandatory, state-funded testers), and 2) seniors who have already taken ACT (optional, district-funded testers). The lists will be arranged by school with the students who are required to test in March and then a second list for the tested seniors with the highest ACT shown beside the name. Please submit the Intent to Test Seniors form by Friday, November 16, indicating your plans to test additional seniors to Bernadette Morris.
If your district elects to test some or all of your seniors who have already taken ACT, your district coordinator and district superintendent will receive a CEA agreement the week of November 12, which must be signed and returned by Friday, December 14, to Bernadette Morris at bernadette.morris@la.gov. This form is a binding agreement indicating your district's commitment to pay for the additional testing. After ACT testing has been completed and the final ACT file with the March 19 ACT scores and April 23 makeup scores available, Jennifer Baird will run the final ACT files against the SIS membership to determine the billed amount for each school district. Districts may not use a fee waiver for free/reduced lunch status; this fee waiver may only be used for National Test Dates (Saturday testing) and may not be used for state testing (March 19 testing and April 23 makeups).
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Value Added Model
On Friday, October 26, Superintendent White and Department staff held a conference call to provide an overview of the Value-Added Model and speak specifically to frequently raised concerns. A copy of the PowerPoint used during the call can be found here.
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Parent Petition Process
Last Friday, the Department of Education released the Parent Petition Process.
Under this process, parents can decide to turn over their child's low performing school to the control of the Recovery School District (RSD). The RSD exists to transform struggling schools into high-performing schools and has a tremendous record of raising student achievement.
Only low-performing schools - those that receive a D or F rating for three straight years-- are eligible for the Parent Petition Process. Please feel free to visit the Parent Petition Webpage to learn more about the process and which schools are eligible for petition.
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Bullying Prevention in Louisiana Schools
New regulations for the implementation of Act 861 on Bullying Prevention were approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) as a Notice of Intent at the October Board meeting. BESE also approved a Bullying Report Form and a
Bullying Investigation Form that districts are to now use to document their efforts. The new forms are attached and will be available for download on the Department of Education's website.
In addition, the Louisiana Department of Education developed A Bullying Prevention Toolkit containing other resources that districts may use to address bullying.
For further information or questions regarding the new bullying regulations, contact Robert Schaff (Robert.Schaff@la.gov) or Lillie Burns (Lillie.Burns@la.gov) at 225-342-3338.
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Act 1 - Compensation
Last week, over 200 educators came together to discuss their plans for changing their compensation systems to meet the requirements of Act 1. These meetings kicked off the LDOE's strategy to support districts as they begin to design compensation plans that meet local priorities and satisfy the requirements of Act 1.
- If you attended one of the workshops, you will receive a survey asking for feedback in coming days.
- If you were unable to attend one of the workshops, the LDOE materials - including two, customizable, Act 1-compliant compensation models - can be found at the following link: http://www.louisianaschools.net/topics/act1_talent_statute.html.
- If your district needs ongoing support or individual consultation, please contact act1@la.gov.
If you have any questions, please contact Gary Jones at gary.jones@la.gov.
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Early Childhood Care and Education Parent Survey
Please forward to Superintendents, Principals, Supervisors /Directors of Special Education.
The Louisiana Department of Education is working with Stand for Children Louisiana in an effort to bring the voice of parents to the state's plan for early childhood care and education. Please make every effort to advise the parents of young children in your school community that their response to the survey is invited and encouraged. Parents may participate by using the following link http://stand.org/louisiana/action/early-childhood-survey. Survey results will be considered by the Department for the state's plan for early childhood care and education.
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Advanced Placement® Fee Reimbursement
Please forward to all principals, counselors and AP® coordinators.
With funding from the USDOE Advanced Placement® (AP®) Test Fee Program, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) will reimburse $57 for each AP® Exam taken by students enrolled in both public and BESE-approved nonpublic* schools who meet the definition of low-income. The fee reimbursements are for students who were enrolled in a rigorous course preparing them for the AP® exam taken during the May 2012 testing cycle, and were between the ages of 5 and 19 on exam day. Funds are limited and will be available until they are completely allocated. Please complete the attached AP ® Test Fee Reimbursement packet and return electronically to Dr. Ernise S Singleton at ernise.singleton@la.gov by November 16, 2012.
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HCIS
LDOE staff now has some LEA Administrator functions; therefore if your district is encountering issues with some of the basic HCIS functions and are in need of an immediate solution, your Network Team's Data Specialist can remotely assist you with finding a solution.
The character count for observations has increased from 4000 characters to 50000 characters. This means that evaluators and observers will be able to input additional comments into HCIS during Compass observations.
The Help Desk is now accessible on the initial screen in HCIS. The HCIS Help Desk can resolve most commonly experienced problems that new users may encounter.
A new status report for school-level data is available to supervisor-level users and above. Access to these reports has also been granted to LDE Staff users in order to better assist LEA in Compass implementation.
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Compass Leader Training
During the past few weeks, Networks have been across the state delivering the Compass Leader Evaluator Trainings. During these sessions, district leaders were provided with the necessary tools and information for the evaluation of school leaders. For session training materials click here. For more information on the Compass Leader Evaluation process click here. Network Teams are available to provide any additional assistance and support to districts.
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October LA 4 Reports Reminder
Please forward to LA 4 Coordinators.
This notification is a reminder that the October LA 4 Enrollment Report and the Before- and After-School Enrichment Report (if applicable) are due by the close of business on Monday, November 5, 2012. Please make sure your reports are submitted in a timely and accurate manner. If you have questions regarding reporting procedures, please contact Ms. Nicholy Johnson at (225) 342-3647 or Nicholy.johnson@la.gov.
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Technology Readiness Support Efforts - New and Updated Contracts Coming
As part of LDOE's continued support for digital and technology readiness in our LEAs, the department has begun negotiations with computer, server, network and telecommunication equipment manufacturers and service providers to develop more cost effective solutions and options for our LEAs. It is the goal of the department to have all new and updated contracts available to our LEAs by the end of the calendar year. The updated technology footprint report will be released in early January, which will also assist you in prioritizing your technology acquisitions. As contracts are completed, announcement will be made via the newsletter and via the monthly technical calls with LEA IT staff. For specific details and contract options, please contact Carol Mosley at Carol.Mosley@la.gov. |
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LEADS and INSIGHT Portals Server Maintenance
Please forward to all Data Coordinators.
The LEADS and INSIGHT Portals will be unavailable on Wednesday November 7, 2012 from 3:00 PM through 9:00 PM for regular monthly server maintenance. Access to all links and applications available through the LEADS and INSIGHT Portals will be unavailable during this maintenance period. Please adjust your schedules accordingly.
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STS Down for Upgrade
Please forward to all STS Coordinators:
The LDOE Student Transcript System (STS) will be down for a period of time, starting at 10:00 am on Thursday, November 1, 2012 in order to deploy the new File Upload Screen and file processor to production. In a future newsletter we will notify users when the system is ready to go online.
To view a previously recorded Webinar on this enhancement, refer to the MP4 link near the bottom of the STS Web page (the same page where you would go to get the latest STS User Guide). Please contact John Fielding (john.fielding@la.gov) or Jacqueline Lewis (jacqueline.lewis@la.gov) with any problems or questions.
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Additional State Provided Trainings
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Accountability Webinar
Please forward to Superintendents and Accountability Contacts.
The LDoE will host an accountability webinar on Thursday, November 1, at 2:00 p.m. Department staff will review the school performance reports that are posted online through the LDoE website, as well as information about the SPS and letter grade release. For more information about the webinar, please contact Jennifer Baird at Jennifer.Baird@la.gov or 225.342.3514. Instructions for accessing the webinar are below.
To join the iMeeting, follow the instructions below.
1. https://ldoe.uc.att.com/la/meet/?ExEventID=F69JBM&MeetingKey=1NXRY6W5&UserExtEventID=651535 a few minutes before the Event's scheduled start time.
2. If prompted, enter the Meeting Key: 1NXRY6W5
3. When prompted, select the participant type: Participant Application (Windows User) or Web Participant (Macintosh User)
4. Once you have been logged into the event, a window will pop-up to provide you with audio options (i.e. computer-based sound or telephone dial-in information).
If you have not used AT&T Connect before, go to http://uc.att.com/support/download_attc_participant.html to download and install the participant application before the Event.
To connect with your *TELEPHONE ONLY* (no computer):
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1. Dial the number of the location closest to you:
* US Local: 1-617-231-2724 (Toll Free: No)
* US Toll Free: 1-888-621-7121 (Toll Free: Yes)
To see the complete list of dial-in access numbers https://ldoe.uc.att.com/la/default.asp?Target=DialInInformation&ExternalEventID=F69JBM
2. When prompted, enter the Event Number: 651535
3. While connected:
- To mute/un-mute your phone, dial *6
- To learn other telephone commands, dial *9
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SRCL and LDC Districts and SRCL Network Coaches Please forward to Middle and High School ELA, Science, and Social Studies Teachers; Instructional Coaches; District and School Administrators, and Network Coaches participating in the Literacy Design Collaborative and SRCL. These follow-up LDC trainings are designed for middle and high school ELA, science, and social studies teachers; instructional coaches; district and school administrators, and network coaches participating in the Literacy Design Collaborative and SRCL who attended the initial LDC training. Participants will learn to embed Common Core Literacy Standards into content area instruction using tools created by Literacy Design Collaborative. Register on Coursewhere at LDC Follow-up Training Sessions. Also, participants should join the R-Groupspace Network. If you have questions about R-Groupspace, contact Cathy Feldman at cathy.feldman@reachassoc.net. November 29-30, 2012 LA Tech Student Union Center
100 Wisteria Street
Ruston, LA 71272 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sign-in from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. November 27-28, 2012 Chalmette Elementary School
75 E. Chalmette Circle
Chalmette, LA 70043 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sign-in from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. |
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SRCL Subgrantees and SRCL Network Coaches
Please forward to LEAs participating in the SRCL project.
In the Data-to-Action workshops, SRCL subgrantees will use their data to engage in the data-to- action process. Each sub-grantee is invited to bring up to a 12-member team whose roles and responsibilities directly impact literacy instruction from birth through 12th grade, such as the school principal or designee, early childhood director, district instructional supervisors, literacy integration specialists, special education director, lead speech-language pathologist, master teachers, and certified interventionists. Teams should bring the following data, as appropriate, for each school/site in their Literacy Line: Fall benchmarking data for DSC, TELD-3, DIBELS and STEEP, spring 2012 data for LEAP, iLEAP, and EOC, and Instructional Visit Checklist (IVC) data if available. Register on Coursewhere for the workshop date and location that best fits your schedule (Data-to-Action for SRCL Districts).
November 8, 2012
Gladys Higdon Instructional Resource Center
502 Beauregard Street
Alexandria, LA 71301
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
November 16, 2012
St. Charles Professional Learning Center
12727 Highway 90
Luling, LA 70070
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
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