Evaluation of Race to the Top
North Carolina’s successful proposal to secure funding via the United States Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RttT) grant program includes an evaluation of the initiatives outlined in the proposal. This evaluation took place over the full term of the grant (2010-2014) and was designed to provide formative feedback for program improvement and determine impact on the target goals of each initiative and on overall, state-level outcome goals. Evaluations employed rigorous approaches that integrated quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses.
To meet these evaluation goals, the Evaluation Team at the Friday Institute collaborated with two other organizations – the Carolina Institute for Public Policy (UNC-Chapel Hill) and the SERVE Center (UNC-Greensboro). This Consortium utilized the diverse expertise and capacities of the three organizations to provide the breadth, depth and rigor needed for the evaluation activities. Results were shared regularly with RttT leadership, stakeholder communities, and applicable national audiences through regular reports to state agencies, conference presentations and journal articles. Evaluation emphasis was placed on describing statewide RttT impacts and, where possible, understanding the factors that facilitate progress.
Funders
US Department of Education Partners
Carolina Institute for Public Policy 
SERVE Center Teams
Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Group Selected Resources
Report – A Preliminary Cost Analysis of North Carolina’s Race to the Top Initiatives
With nearly $400 million over four years dedicated to funding twelve state initiatives and multiple local initiatives that serve over 1.4 million students, nearly 100,000 teachers, and over 5,000 administrators, North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) grant is a broad and extensive undertaking. The RttT grant is intended to allow North Carolina to develop and implement innovative education policies and practices, but as the end of the grant period approaches, decisions must be made as to which policies can and should be continued. In making these choices, it is imperative that decision-makers understand the costs as well as the outcomes associated with each initiative. The state RttT proposal included a commitment to an independent evaluation of all of its grant-funded initiatives, and this report provides a preliminary cost analysis of seven of the state-level RttT initiatives to help inform that understanding.
In 2011, as a part of the State Board of Education’s implementation of North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) initiative, a sixth standard—a measure of student growth, the Educational Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS)—was added to the existing five standards for evaluating teachers. The purpose of this report is to describe the outcomes of teacher evaluations that have occurred since the sixth standard was added and trends in those outcomes through 2013-14.
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the effects of adding an eighth standard, school-level Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) scores, to the evaluation of school principals that is based on the seven standards in the North Carolina Standards for School Executives (NCSSE). To that end, this report describes the relationship between the principal evaluation ratings and other measures of administrator effectiveness, as well as trends in the administrator evaluation between the 2010-11 and 2013-14 school years.
Report – Building LEA and Regional Professional Development Capacity: First Annual Evaluation Report
The North Carolina RttT professional development plan, led by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), is an expansive and multi-faceted effort to increase student achievement by updating the knowledge and skills of the public education workforce. This professional development initiative aims to address the challenge of preparing educators throughout the State for the changes driven by the new Common Core State Standards and North Carolina Essential Standards; the increased use of data to inform classroom and school decisions; rapid changes in the technologies and digital resources available for teaching and learning; the new teacher and administrator evaluation processes; increased emphasis on formative assessment to inform instructional decisions; and increased emphasis on differentiating professional development needs for individual educators with different backgrounds. All of the major NC RttT initiatives depend upon professional development; none of them will be successful unless North Carolina’s educators are well-prepared and supported as they work to implement these changes in their schools and classrooms.
Report – Comparing Value Added Models for Estimating Teacher Effectiveness
In the North Carolina Race to the Top proposal, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) committed to incorporate teacher effectiveness estimates into the existing teacher evaluation process by adding a criterion for each teacher’s effectiveness in raising student test scores. The first step in adding a teacher effectiveness measure is to estimate the effectiveness of individual teachers who taught tested grades and subjects.
Report – Comparing Value-Added Models for Estimating Individual Teacher Effects on a Statewide Basis
Many states are currently adopting value-added models for use in formal evaluations of teachers. We evaluated nine commonly used teacher value-added models on four criteria using both actual and simulated data. For the simulated data, we tested model performance under two violations of the potential outcomes model: settings in which the single unit treatment value assumption was violated, and settings in which the ignorability of assignment to treatment assumption was violated. The performance of all models suffered when the assumptions were violated, suggesting that none of the models performed sufficiently well to be considered for high stakes purposes. Patterns of relative performance emerged, however, which we argue is sufficient support for using four value-added models for low stakes purposes: the three-level hierarchical linear model with one year of pretest scores, the three-level hierarchical linear model with two years of pretest scores, the Educational Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) univariate response model, and the student fixed effects model.
Report – Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP): First Annual RttT Evaluation Report
Providing high-quality, accessible professional development to all teachers and principals is a critical component of the professional development plan funded by North Carolina’s federal Race to the Top (RttT) grant. One key professional development program funded through RttT focuses on providing professional development for practicing principals. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has partnered with the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principals’ Association (NCPAPA) to provide a leadership development program for practicing school principals. This professional development model, entitled Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP), is aligned to the performance evaluation standards adopted by the State Board of Education for North Carolina’s school leaders (i.e., the North Carolina Standards for School Executives).
Report – Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP): Second Annual Evaluation Report
Providing high-quality, accessible professional development to all teachers and principals is a critical component of the professional development plan funded by North Carolina’s federal Race to the Top (RttT) grant. One key professional development program funded through RttT is the Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP) program. Designed for all practicing principals, DLP is aligned to the performance evaluation standards adopted by the State Board of Education for North Carolina’s school leaders (i.e., the North Carolina Standards for School Executives).1 The DLP program is provided by the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principals’ Association (NCPAPA) in partnership with North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI).
Providing high-quality, accessible professional development to all teachers and principals is a critical component of the professional development plan funded by North Carolina’s federal Race to the Top (RttT) grant. One key professional development program funded through RttT is the Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP) program. Designed for practicing principals, DLP is aligned to the performance evaluation standards adopted by the State Board of Education for North Carolina’s school leaders (i.e., the North Carolina Standards for School Executives).1 The DLP program is provided by the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principals’ Association (NCPAPA) in partnership with North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI).
North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT)-funded initiative to Turn Around the Lowest Achieving Schools (TALAS) is one of the most ambitious school turnaround efforts undertaken across the United States, including other states supported through the federal RttT Fund. In 2012-13, the District and School Transformation (DST) Division of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) continued to work on the transformation of North Carolina’s 118 lowest-achieving schools (11 of which have closed since the beginning of the initiative) and also work with 12 districts to support and sustain the transformation implementation. Also in 2012-13, North Carolina began administering new, more rigorous assessments based on the Common Core State Standards and fewer students were found to be proficient on assessments of these higher standards than on previous state assessments. As a result, schools across the state had lower Performance Composites. Even so, comparing changes in Performance Composites from 2009-10 to 2012-13, the schools targeted by DST experienced smaller declines than did other schools at their grade level. On average, under the more rigorous standards, DST elementary schools declined 7.9 points less than did other elementary schools; DST middle schools declined 4.4 points less than did other middle schools; and DST high school changes were about the same as those of other high schools in North Carolina.
Report – Fourth Annual Race to the Top Professional Development Evaluation Report
The North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) Professional Development Initiative is an expansive and multi-faceted effort to increase student achievement by updating the knowledge and skills of the state’s public education workforce, which includes more than 100,000 teachers and 2,400 principals. This initiative is driven by a host of substantial policy changes, including: new curriculum standards and student evaluations; revised educator evaluation processes; increased emphasis on formative assessment to inform instructional decisions; rapid changes in technologies and digital resources for teaching and learning; and a heightened emphasis on improving college and career readiness for all student groups. The challenge is formidable.
Report – Golden LEAF STEM Initiative Evaluation: Baseline Report
Student success in the core content areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is essential for the development of an American workforce that can compete in the global economy. In response to this critical need states across the country, including North Carolina, have developed K–12 initiatives designed to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.
Report – Golden LEAF STEM Initiative Evaluation: Descriptive Data Report
Student success in the core content areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is essential for the development of an American workforce that can compete in the global economy. In response to this critical need, states across the country, including North Carolina, have developed K-12 initiatives designed to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists, technicians, mathematicians, and engineers. In North Carolina, the Golden LEAF Foundation (Golden LEAF) is a leader in the effort to promote and sustain high quality STEM education in public schools. The Golden LEAF grants program provides strategic funding for innovative K-12 education projects. In 2010 the Foundation launched a STEM Initiative to support “successful models that increase STEM education for students in grades four through nine in rural, economically distressed, and/or tobacco-dependent counties of North Carolina.”
Report – Initial Findings: TALAS School Leader Professional Development
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina is evaluating the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) District and School Transformation (DST) Division’s federally funded Race to the Top (RttT) Turning Around North Carolina’s Lowest Achieving Schools (TALAS) Initiative. One goal of this evaluation is to assess the main intervention strategies that DST employs to improve low-performing schools.
To address the challenges faced by novice teachers in low-performing schools, North Carolina created the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP) as part of its Race to the Top proposal. This brief presents results from the first full-year of NC NTSP implementation (2012-13).
Report – LEA Race to the Top Expenditures: Initial Analysis
In 2010, North Carolina was awarded $399,465,769 from the federal Race to the Top (RttT) competition to fund state and local educational reform. States receiving RttT funds were required to allocate half of the funds to participating local education agencies (LEAs). North Carolina pooled $34,639,376 of locally-allocated funds to provide a computing infrastructure to serve local needs statewide, referred to as the North Carolina Education Cloud. LEAs were required to contribute, on a prorated basis, funds from their local allocations to this project, after which the amount allocated directly to LEAs (including eligible charter schools) was $165,360,624. The purpose of the direct allocation of funds to North Carolina LEAs was to provide them with resources to support statewide RttT initiatives locally and to allow LEAs flexibility in crafting their own plans to achieve the objectives of RttT. LEAs pursued multiple strategies for spending their first year of RttT funds. In 2010-11, LEA RttT expenditures totaled $12,617,032 or approximately $11.92 per pupil.
Report – LEA RttT Expenditures: Analysis of Fund Use and Expenditure Patterns
In 2010, North Carolina was awarded $399,465,769 from the federal Race to the Top (RttT) competition to fund state and local educational reform. States receiving RttT funds were required to allocate half of the funds to participating local education agencies (LEAs) and eligible charter schools. North Carolina pooled locally-allocated funds, totaling $34,639,376, to provide a computing infrastructure to serve local needs statewide, referred to as the North Carolina Education Cloud (NCEdCloud). LEAs were required to contribute, on a prorated basis, funds from their local allocations to this project, after which the amount allocated directly to LEAs (including eligible charter schools) was $165,360,624. The purpose of the direct allocation of funds to North Carolina LEAs was to provide them with resources to support statewide RttT initiatives locally and to allow LEAs flexibility in crafting their own plans to achieve the objectives of RttT. LEAs pursued multiple strategies for spending their first two years of RttT funds. In 2010-11, LEA RttT expenditures totaled $12,617,032 or approximately $11.92 per pupil. In 2011-12, LEA RttT expenditures totaled $58,745,648 or approximately $40.18 per pupil.
Report – LEA RttT Expenditures: Final Analysis
In 2010, North Carolina was awarded $399,465,769 from the federal Race to the Top (RttT) competition to fund state and local education reform. States receiving RttT funds were required to allocate half of the funds to participating local school districts and eligible charter schools, which we collectively refer to as local education agencies (LEAs). North Carolina pooled $34,639,376 in locally-allocated funds to provide a computing infrastructure—the North Carolina Education Cloud (NCEdCloud)—to serve local needs statewide. LEAs were required to contribute funds from their local allocations on a prorated basis to this project, after which the amount allocated directly to LEAs was $165,360,624.
Report – Local Strategic Staffing in NC: Review of Plans and Early Implementation
Education experts and researchers agree that effective teachers are critical to the academic success of students, but all too often, students who struggle the most do not have access to effective teachers. Concern about the uneven access of low-performing, poor, and minority students to effective teachers is a foundational component of the United States Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RttT) program, which encouraged applicants to propose ways in which states could work to counter this persistent trend. In response, North Carolina’s proposal offered several state-level initiatives for achieving a more equitable distribution of effective educators statewide, including support for locally-developed strategic staffing plans, or plans that aim to distribute an education unit’s more effective educators into its lowest-performing schools.
Report – Measures of Student Growth in NCEES
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina (CERE–NC) is evaluating the Race to the Top (RttT) initiative to integrate and fully implement the addition of a student growth component into the educator evaluation process for teachers and principals. The goal of the Consortium’s evaluation is to examine this implementation, as well as perceptions of the initiative among teachers and principals and outcomes associated with the addition of the student growth measure to the evaluation process. The Evaluation Team is assessing correlations between measures of student growth and other measures of teacher performance and collecting baseline data for assessing the impact of the addition of student growth measures to the educator evaluation process on educator and student performance over time.
Report – NC NTSP Year 1 Report
Based on research showing that beginning teachers represent more than 6% of North Carolina’s public school teachers, have the greatest potential for rapid improvement in terms of raising student achievement, and exit teaching at significantly higher rates than more experienced peers, providing comprehensive induction supports to increase the effectiveness and retention of beginning teachers was identified as a high-priority reform initiative in the North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) proposal. To meet this need, the University of North Carolina General Administration (UNC-GA), in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), has developed and implemented the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP) for novice teachers in the lowest-achieving schools in the state.
Report – NC RttT Overall Impact and Implementation Findings: Final Report
The ultimate goal of North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) plan was to build statewide capacity that could support sustained, long-term improvements in public education; namely, increases in student achievement, reductions in achievement gaps, and increases in graduation rates. To address these outcomes, North Carolina’s proposal focused on strengthening the education workforce by providing great teachers for every student and a great principal for every school. Initiatives were designed to provide a coherent approach with mutually-reinforcing components across multiple reform pillars.
Report – NCTC Final Evaluation
One of the most important goals of North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) proposal is to increase the access of students in the state’s most challenging and lowest-achieving schools to effective teachers. With this report, the Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina has completed its evaluation of North Carolina’s use of RttT funds to develop a North Carolina Teacher Corps (NCTC) and to expand the presence of Teach for America (TFA) in the state. The evaluation’s goals have been to assess the extent to which these programs contribute to an increase in the presence of effective teachers in the high-need schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) targeted in the RttT proposal. This final report includes a summative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data gathered during the first two years of the NCTC initiative, as well as a final summary of TFA’s RttT-funded expansion.
Report – NCTC Start-Up and TFA Expansion
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina is evaluating North Carolina’s use of Race to the Top (RttT) funds to develop a North Carolina Teacher Corps (NCTC) and to expand the presence of Teach for America (TFA) in the state. The evaluation’s goals are to assess the extent to which these programs contribute to an increase in the presence of effective teachers in high-need schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) targeted in the RttT proposal. This first report presents baseline measures for future evaluations of NCTC, describes early results of TFA’s expansion under RttT via its Eastern North Carolina (TFA-ENC) chapter, and provides formative feedback to NCTC in support of its growth and improvement.
Report – NCVPS Blended Learning STEM Courses: Final Report
This report completes the Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina’s evaluation of North Carolina’s use of Race to the Top (RttT) funds to develop a series of STEM-based courses to be delivered to underserved students through the state’s Virtual Public School (NCVPS) via a blended-learning model. The evaluation’s goals have been to assess the extent to which this initiative contributed to: (a) the enrollment of underserved students targeted by the initiative; (b) the success of those students in the STEM courses offered; and (c) an increase in the availability of effective STEM teaching to students in high-need schools.
Report – NCVPS Blended Learning STEM Courses: First-Year Formative Assessment, Part II
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina is evaluating North Carolina’s use of Race to the Top (RttT) funds to develop a series of STEM-based courses to be delivered to underserved students through the state’s Virtual Public School (NCVPS) via a blended-learning model. The evaluation’s goals are to assess the extent to which this initiative contributes to: (a) the enrollment of underserved students targeted by the initiative; (b) the success of those students in the STEM courses offered; and (c) an increase in the availability of effective STEM teaching to students in high-need schools.
Report – NCVPS Blended Learning STEM Courses: Initial Formative Assessment, Part I
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina is evaluating North Carolina’s use of Race to the Top (RttT) funds to develop a series of STEM-based courses to be delivered to underserved students through the state’s Virtual Public School (NCVPS) via a blended-learning model. The evaluation’s goals are to assess the extent to which this initiative contributes to: (a) the enrollment of underserved students targeted by the initiative; (b) the success of those students in the STEM courses offered; and (c) an increase in the availability of effective STEM teaching to students in high-need schools.
Report – North Carolina New Teacher Support Program: Final Race to the Top Evaluation Report
The North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP) was developed to provide induction supports to beginning teachers in North Carolina’s lowest-achieving schools and to meet two high-priority needs identified by the state’s Race to the Top (RttT) grant: (1) helping teachers to succeed during their initial years in teaching; and (2) retaining qualified teachers, particularly in high-need schools. The NC NTSP aims to improve the instructional knowledge, skills, attitudes, effectiveness, and retention of participating teachers through the provision of three support components: institutes (multi-day trainings); instructional coaching; and professional development. This report reflects findings from an independent external evaluation of the NC NTSP conducted by the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina as part of the statewide RttT evaluation undertaken by the Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina (CERE–NC).
Report – North Carolina New Teacher Support Program: Interim Evaluation Report
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina is evaluating North Carolina’s use of Race to the Top (RttT) funds to support the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP), a comprehensive induction program that targets beginning teachers in schools across the state that qualified for RttT services by being in the lowest 5% of student achievement or by having a graduation rate below 60% (hereafter referred to as RttT schools). The overall purpose of this evaluation is to assess the extent to which this program improves the instructional practice quality, self-efficacy, value-added effectiveness, and retention of participating teachers through the provision of three support components: an institute, instructional coaching, and professional development.
Report – North Carolina Regional Leadership Academies: Final 2012 Activity Report
Developing school leaders who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to effectively lead low-performing schools has become a critical goal for local education agencies (LEAs) intent on dramatically improving student outcomes. North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) plan acknowledges the pressing need for high-quality leadership in low-achieving schools; the component of the plan that focuses on ensuring equitable distribution of high-quality teachers and leaders identifies, among other things, a need for “increasing the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas” (NCDPI, 2010, p.10). To accomplish this in North Carolina, the state has established three Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs), each of which has laid out a clear set of principles about leadership in general, leadership development in particular, and leadership development for high-need schools most specifically.
Report – North Carolina Regional Leadership Academies: Final 2013 Activity Report
Developing school leaders who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to effectively lead low-performing schools has become a critical goal for local education agencies (LEAs)1 intent on dramatically improving student outcomes. North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) plan acknowledges the pressing need for high-quality leadership in low-achieving schools; the component of the plan that focuses on ensuring equitable distribution of high-quality teachers and leaders identifies, among other things, a need for “increasing the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas” (NCDPI, 2010, p.10). To accomplish this in North Carolina, the state has established three Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs), each of which has laid out a clear set of principles about leadership in general, leadership development in particular, and leadership development for high-need schools most specifically.
Report – North Carolina Regional Leadership Academies: Final Summative Activity Report
Developing school leaders who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to effectively lead low-performing schools has become a critical goal for local education agencies (LEAs) intent on dramatically improving student outcomes. North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) plan acknowledges the pressing need for high-quality leadership in low-achieving schools; the component of the plan that focuses on ensuring equitable distribution of high-quality teachers and leaders identifies, among other things, a need for “increasing the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas” (NCDPI, 2010, p.10). To accomplish this goal, North Carolina has established three Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs), each of which has laid out a clear set of principles about leadership in general, leadership development in particular, and leadership development for high-need schools most specifically.
Report – North Carolina RttT: Evaluation Update
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina (CERE–NC) is conducting the evaluation of North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) initiatives. The roles of the RttT Evaluation Team are to (1) document the activities of the RttT initiatives; (2) provide timely, formative data, analyses, and recommendations to help the initiative teams improve their ongoing work; and (3) provide summative evaluation results toward the end of the grant period to determine whether the RttT initiatives met their goals and to inform future policy and program decisions to sustain, modify, or discontinue initiatives after the grant-funded period.
Report – North Carolina Teacher Corps: Year One Implementation Report
One of the most important goals of North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) proposal is to increase the access of students in the state’s most challenging and lowest-achieving schools to effective teachers. The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina is evaluating North Carolina’s use of RttT funds to develop a North Carolina Teacher Corps (NCTC) and to expand the presence of Teach for America (TFA) in the state. The evaluation’s goals are to assess the extent to which these programs contribute to an increase in the presence of effective teachers in the high-need schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs—North Carolina’s term for traditional school districts and charter schools) targeted in the RttT proposal. This second report includes an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data gathered during the first year of the NCTC initiative and provides formative feedback to NCTC in support of its growth and improvement. Data related to the RttT-supported expansion of TFA in eastern North Carolina for school year 2012-13 were included in the previous report, and TFA data for school year 2013-14 will be included in the final report.
Report – North Carolina’s Future-Ready Leadership Program: An Overview of Current Data
North Carolina’s four-year Race to the Top (RttT) grant supported assistant principals through a professional development initiative known as Future-Ready Leadership (FRL). The FRL program was developed and provided by the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principals’ Association (NCPAPA) in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). Each year, participating assistant principals take part in six cohort-based face-to-face sessions and engage in assignments, projects, and readings designed to build their capacity as “future-ready” school leaders and as a result build the capacity of their schools.
Report – North Carolina’s STEM High Schools: An Overview of Current Data
This report describes measures of the STEM high school education landscape for the 2009–10 school year that will serve as a baseline against which the Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina (CERE–NC) will assess the implementation and impacts of RttT-sponsored STEM activities.
Through its Race to the Top (RttT)-funded initiative to Turn Around the Lowest-Achieving Schools (TALAS), North Carolina has carried out an effort to transform low-performing schools that is more ambitious than those of all other states that received RttT funding. The District and School Transformation (DST) Division of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) continued its work on the transformation of North Carolina’s 118 lowest-achieving schools through the 2014-15 school year.1 DST also worked with 12 of the state’s lowest-performing school districts to support and sustain transformation implementation.
Report – Productive Connections (DST 2011-12)
As one key component of North Carolina’s 4-year, $400 million Race to the Top (RttT) grant activities, the District and School Transformation Division (DST) of the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) is intervening to improve student achievement and high school graduation rates in the lowest-achieving five percent of the state’s high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools, some 118 schools in all. In addition, the DST is working with twelve of the lowest-achieving school districts in the state to strengthen their ability to lead and support effective school reform.
Report – Prospects for Using Digital Recording Systems for Evaluation: An Overview
The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina Race to the Top Evaluation Team investigated the possibility of utilizing in-class panoramic cameras for repeated observation of multiple classrooms statewide over the course of the Race to the Top evaluation. The Team also considered several different classroom observation coding schemes for use across all Race to the Top evaluations.
Report – Race to the Top Evaluation: STEM Affinity Network—Second-Year Report
This second annual report of the RttT STEM implementation activities documents ongoing implementation of RttT STEM initiative in participating schools and assesses intermediate outcomes for students and staff in anchor schools after one year of implementation.
Report – Race to the Top Evaluation: STEM Affinity Network—Third-Year Report
This third annual report on the North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) STEM initiative documents ongoing implementation of the initiative in participating anchor and affinity schools and assesses intermediate outcomes for students and staff in the third year of implementation.
Report – Race to the Top Online Professional Development Evaluation: Year 1 Report
The North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) proposal (North Carolina Office of the Governor, 2010) specifies that the state’s Professional Development Initiative will focus on the “use of e-learning tools to meet the professional development needs of teachers, schools, and districts” (p. 191). It points to research demonstrating that “well-designed and -implemented online professional development programs are not only valued by teachers but also positively impact classroom practices and student learning.”
Report – Race to the Top Performance Incentives in North Carolina
North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) program includes several initiatives designed to improve educator effectiveness and retain effective educators, all with a goal of improving student performance, particularly in the state’s lowest-performing schools. The purpose of this report is to provide a summative assessment of the RttT performance incentive. In its first two years, the incentive was a $1,500 bonus available to all certified staff in designated schools that met high growth. Beginning in 2012, a $500 individual-level incentive in addition to the $1,500 school-wide bonus was made available (and will continue to be available for incentives earned through the 2013-14 school year) to teachers of tested subjects whose classrooms exceed expected growth, regardless of school-wide performance.
Report – Race to the Top STEM Affinity Network – Final Report
This final report of the Race to the Top (RttT) STEM evaluation presents outcomes of the initiative at the end of the original funding period (2010-14) and discusses implementation and sustainability of the program activities. It also presents recommendations with regard to improving effectiveness of and continuation of the program.
Report – Race to the Top in North Carolina, 2010-2012 – A Summary of Formative Findings
In November 2012, the State reached the mid-point of its four-year implementation of the ambitious and multi-layered package of initiatives described in its Race to the Top (RttT) scope of work. The tasks are complex and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has made great strides toward full implementation of the initiatives. Reaching this mid-point provides RttT leadership with a valuable opportunity to reflect on its successes and review its initial implementation plans, with an eye towards making mid-course improvements that will ensure successful completion of the scope of work. This memorandum acknowledges all of the important work that has taken place and serves as an opportunity to provide the State with a framework for identifying areas for improvement over the remaining two years of implementation.
Report – Regional Leadership Academies Cost-Effectiveness Framework
The North Carolina Race to the Top plan for ensuring equitable distribution of high-quality teachers and leaders includes development of Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs) that will “increasing the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas.” The RLAs are to be “approved for certifying principals” and will “provide a new model for the preparation, early career support, and continuous professional development of school leaders.” To prepare to address questions about post-RttT sustainability of the RLAs, evaluators created a framework for completing a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of these programs that will address: (a) whether the targeted outcomes of the RLAs outweigh the added costs associated with them, relative to traditional school administration preparation programs that do not specifically or exclusively prepare leaders for low-performing school settings; and (b) whether the RLAs are cost-effective relative to alternative programs that serve the same or similar purposes.
Report – RttT PD Evaluation: Year 2, Part II—Local Outcomes Baseline
The North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) professional development plan is an expansive and multi-faceted effort to increase student achievement by updating the knowledge and skills of the state’s entire K-12 public education workforce. This initiative is driven by a host of recent changes, including: adoption of new Common Core State Standards and North Carolina Essential Standards; increased use of data to inform classroom and school decisions; rapid changes in the technologies and digital resources available for teaching and learning; new teacher and administrator evaluation processes; and an increased emphasis on formative assessment to inform instructional decisions.
Report – RttT PD Evaluation: Year 2, Part I—Statewide Face-to-Face PD
The North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) professional development plan is an expansive and multi-faceted effort to increase student achievement by updating the knowledge and skills of the state’s entire public education workforce. This initiative is driven by a host of recent changes, including: adoption of new Common Core State Standards and North Carolina Essential Standards; increased use of data to inform classroom and school decisions; rapid changes in the technologies and digital resources available for teaching and learning; new teacher and administrator evaluation processes; and an increased emphasis on formative assessment to inform instructional decisions.
Report – STEM Affinity Networks: Year 1 Report
This report on the first year of the RttT STEM implementation activities provides a descriptive study and documentation of the implementation of the RttT STEM initiative in participating schools. Additionally, it provides formative feedback on the initiative’s long-term goals of building articulated and cohesive models of a STEM school and of a network of STEM schools.
Report – State Strategic Staffing: Recruitment Incentive for Lowest-Performing Schools
The North Carolina Race to the Top program funds a State Strategic Staffing Initiative (SSSI), which is intended to provide students in lower-performing schools with greater access to highly effective teachers. This initiative makes it possible for Local Education Agencies (LEAs—North Carolina’s term for traditional school districts and charter schools) to provide a voucher to teachers as a recruitment incentive for them to transfer to an eligible school. The annual amount of the voucher is $5,360 and can be used for tuition towards one of several Master’s degrees related to education, student loan payments, housing, or any combination thereof.
Report – Strategic Staffing in NC: Summative Review of Local and State Implementation
Effective teachers are critical to the academic success of students, but all too often, students who struggle the most do not have access to them. Concern about low-performing, poor, and minority students’ access to effective teachers was a foundational component of the United States Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RttT) program, which encouraged state applicants to propose ways to counter this persistent trend. North Carolina’s RttT plan included several initiatives for achieving a more equitable distribution of effective educators, including support for one statewide and several locally-developed strategic staffing plans that aim to distribute an education unit’s more effective educators into its lowest-performing schools.
Report – Teacher Performance Incentives in North Carolina
North Carolina’s Race to the Top program includes several initiatives that are designed to improve overall teacher effectiveness and student performance, particularly for the lowestperforming schools. The purpose of this report is to offer a preliminary evaluation of the performance incentive initiative, a $1,500-per-teacher school-wide bonus designed to increase the efforts of teachers in North Carolina’s lowest-performing schools.
Report – Teacher and Principal Perceptions of the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System
To enhance North Carolina’s competitiveness in receiving federal Race to the Top (RttT) funds, the North Carolina State Board of Education agreed to include a measure of student growth for teachers and principals in the existing North Carolina Educator Evaluation System (NCEES). The Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation–North Carolina (CERE–NC) evaluated the Race to the Top (RttT) initiative to integrate and fully implement the addition of a student growth measure into the NCEES process for teachers. The goal of this evaluation report is to examine teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of the addition and implementation of the student growth measure to the evaluation process.
Report – The Distribution of Teacher Value Added in North Carolina
North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) plan includes several specific interventions that are designed to improve the effectiveness of teachers and reduce inequities in the distribution of and student access to effective teachers. The purpose of this report is to provide a baseline for the evaluation of the impacts on effective teacher distribution and assess that result from implementation of the state’s RttT plan. On February 2, 2012, the North Carolina State Board of Education adopted the Educator Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), a product of the SAS Institute, as the measure of student growth to be used to assess teachers on the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System’s new sixth standard.
Report – The Distribution of Teachers in North Carolina, 2009-2013
Research shows that teachers influence student learning more than any other school-based resource. This research brief addresses the question of whether this important resource is equitably distributed across districts (local education agencies), schools, and classrooms in North Carolina. The concern is that students in high-poverty and low-achieving schools and classrooms may not be getting the most effective teachers. North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) plan included several specific interventions that were designed to improve the effectiveness of teachers and reduce inequities in students’ access to high value-added teachers. This report provides a follow-up to the baseline report of teacher distribution and assesses changes in the distribution of high value-added teachers that may have resulted from implementation of the state’s RttT plan. The findings of this report could help inform policy initiatives—such as relocation bonuses and strategic staffing practices—that attempt to address inequities in access to high value-added teachers.
Report – The Golden LEAF STEM Initiative Evaluation: Year Two Report
Student success in the core content areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has emerged as an essential component in the development of an American workforce that can compete in the global, 21st century economy. In response to this critical need states across the country, including North Carolina, have developed K–12 public school initiatives designed to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.
Report – Third Annual Race to the Top Professional Development Evaluation Report
The North Carolina Race to the Top (RttT) Professional Development Initiative is an expansive and multi-faceted effort to increase student achievement by updating the knowledge and skills of the state’s public education workforce, which includes about 100,000 teachers and 2,400 principals. This initiative is driven by a host of substantial policy changes, including: adoption of new Common Core State Standards and North Carolina Essential Standards; implementation of new standardized state assessments; increased use of data to inform classroom and school decisions; rapid changes in the technologies and digital resources available for teaching and learning; new teacher and administrator evaluation processes; an increased emphasis on formative assessment to inform instructional decisions; and a heightened emphasis on improving college and career readiness among all student groups.
Report – Turning Around North Carolina’s Lowest Achieving Schools (2006-2010)
From 2010 through 2014, a portion of North Carolina’s $400 million Race to the Top grant will enable the NC Department of Public Instruction to intervene in an effort to improve performance in the lowest-achieving five percent of North Carolina’s schools – some 118 elementary, middle, and high schools. With modifications to accommodate federal guidelines, the interventions supported by Race to the Top funds will build upon experience gained from the NCDPI Turnaround Schools program’s work in similar schools between 2006 and 2010. The study reported here was designed to help distill that experience into knowledge which the District and School Transformation Division can use to strengthen its work during the Race to the Top era.
Project Team
Dr Shaun Kellogg 
Robert H Maser
Dr Trip Stallings
Dr LaTricia Walker Townsend
Sara Tova Pilzer Weiss