NCCDS ALERT!

Is the Personalized Education Plan requirement being properly implemented in your school?

The Student Accountability Standards passed by the State Board of Education in 1999 requires that each student in grades 3, 5, 8 who do not score at least a Level III on the relevant End of Grade (EOG) test must have a Personalized Education Plan to be written and maintained. The same is true of high school students who have failed one or both components of the competency test as well as freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who have failed an End of Course (EOC) test. The Fairness in Testing Act of 2001 continues the PEP mandate.

The following items are the core of the PEP requirements:

(1) A plan must be developed for the students described above.

(2) A conference of the key stakeholders (parent, student, teacher, guidance counselor) must occur to develop the plan. Each stakeholder will be assigned an appropriate responsibility in implementing the plan.

(3) The viability of the plan and the student’s progress must be monitored on a regular basis. At the high school level, progress must be assessed at the mid-point of each grading period.

(4) A folder containing the plan and noted progress must be maintained and accessible to all stakeholders.

This is just a sampling of the requirements. To read it all for yourself, point your browser to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/student_promotion/pep.html

Last month the NCCDS wrote Dr. Henry Johnson, Associate Superintendant of the NC Dept. of Public Instruction with our concerns. While we appreciate Dr. Johnson’s forthright responses we are concerned with DPI’s relative apathy.

The concern of NCCDS is that the PEP requirement is not being administered with the same fervor that the high-stakes testing is being administered. We maintain this illustrates a fundamental hypocrisy on the part of the DPI. While NCCDS does not advocate for remediation merely so a student can pass a high-stakes test, we do believe that monies set aside for assisting some of our most vulnerable students be spent on these students. We have already received reports from across the state that this is not happening. We need your help to further document what is happening.

In order to gain a better picture of what is happening, we are asking you to provide us with a snapshot of your school’s or your school system’s compliance with the PEP requirement. Please copy/paste the following questionnaire and email back to us. If non-compliance is the order of the day, we plan to use this information to lobby our lawmakers to either back off from high-stakes testing or to more vigorously enforce state requirements that students who need assistance are getting it.

(1) Are you teaching in an elementary or secondary school?

(2) Do you have students that, based on the above criteria, should have PEPs developed?

(3) Your school is may be receiving funds to hire a “PEP Coordinator”. Has this person been designated/hired and what are this person’s true job responsibilities?

(4) Almost every school in the state receives funds for remediation. How is your school appropriating these monies?

(5) Are you or were you party to development of the plan with the appropriate stakeholders? Is progress being assessed per the requirements?

(6) If you are a high school teacher, are PEPs being developed for students who failed EOCs?

(7) Would you like to share any other information that would provide us a better picture of compliance with the PEP requirement?

Thank you so much for your help.

Irv Besecker

John deVille