North Carolina § 115C-105 - 37. Identification of low-performing schools.

§ 115C-105. 37. Identification of low-performing schools.

Identification of Low-Performing Schools. - The State Board of Education shall identify low-performing schools on an annual basis. Low-performing schools are those that earn an overall school performance grade of D or F and a school growth score of "met expected growth" or "not met expected growth" as defined by G.S. 115C-83.15. Plan for Improvement of Low-Performing Schools. - If a school has been identified as low-performing as provided in this section and the school is not located in a local school administrative unit identified as low-performing under G.S. 115C-105.39A, the following actions shall be taken: The superintendent shall proceed under G.S. 115C-105.39. Within 30 days of the initial identification of a school as low-performing by the State Board, the superintendent shall submit to the local board of education a preliminary plan for improving both the school performance grade and school growth score, including how the superintendent and other central office administrators will work with the school and monitor the school's progress. Within 30 days of its receipt of the preliminary plan, the local board shall vote to approve, modify, or reject this plan. Before the local board votes on the preliminary plan, it shall make the plan available to the public, including the personnel assigned to that school and the parents and guardians of the students who are assigned to the school, and shall allow for written comments. The local board shall submit a final plan to the State Board within five days of the local board's approval of the plan. The State Board shall review the plan expeditiously and, if appropriate, may offer recommendations to modify the plan. The local board shall consider any recommendations made by the State Board and, if necessary, amend the plan and vote on approval of any changes to the final plan. The local board of education shall provide access to the final plan on the local school administrative unit's Web site. The State Board of Education shall also provide access to each low-performing school plan on the Department of Public Instruction's Web site. Parental Notice of Low-Performing School Status. - Each school that the State Board identifies as low-performing shall provide written notification to the parents and guardians of students attending that school within 30 days of the identification that includes the following information: A statement that the State Board of Education has found that the school has earned an overall school performance grade of D or F and a school growth score of "met expected growth" or "not met expected growth" and has been identified as a low-performing school as defined by G.S. 115C-105.37. The statement shall include an explanation of the school performance grades and growth scores. The school performance grade and growth score earned. Information about the preliminary plan developed under subsection (a1) of this section and the availability of the final plan on the local school administrative unit's Web site. The meeting date for when the preliminary plan will be considered by the local board of education. A description of any additional steps the school is taking to improve student performance. History (1995 (Reg. Sess., 1996), c. 716, s. 3; 1997-221, s. 20(b); 1997-443, s. 8.45; 1998-59, s. 1; 2001-424, s. 29.4(a); 2015-241, s. 8A.4(b); 2017-57, s. 7.26(f).) Editor's Note. - The number of this section was assigned by the Revisor of Statutes, the number in Session Laws 1995 (Reg. Sess., 1996), c. 716, s. 3, having been 115C-105.30. Session Laws 2007-445, s. 1(a)-(c), provides: "(a) The State Board of Education shall designate schools which meet two or more of the following criteria as high-need schools: "(1) More than forty-five percent (45%) of students perform at Level 1 or Level 2 on end-of-grade or end-of-course tests, "(2) Teacher turnover rate is greater than twenty-five percent (25%), or "(3) More than eighty percent (80%) of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. "(b) Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, to ensure that the schools designated as high-need schools by the State Board of Education have the high quality staff and the additional support they need, the following modifications to law, policy, or both shall apply: "(1) National Board Certified Teachers who serve as mentors, literacy coaches, or in other nonadministrative instructional leadership positions at these schools shall retain the twelve percent (12%) salary increment for NBPTS certification, notwithstanding G.S. 115C-296.2 . "(2) National Board Certified Teachers, teachers of the year, and other categories of accomplished teachers designated by the State Board of Education shall be given the academic freedom at these schools to use research-based practices in the classroom that go beyond the standard course of study. "(c) The State Board of Education shall consider the following strategies to ensure that the high-need schools have the high quality staff and the additional support they need and shall report by January 15, 2008, to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on the cost of implementing for the 2008-2009 fiscal year: "(1) Adding additional teacher positions at these schools to reduce class size. "(2) Providing incentives to attract National Board Certified Teachers to these schools. "(3) Employing teachers at these schools for 11 months. These teachers shall use the extra month of employment for curriculum development, staff development, and planning for the next school year." Session Laws 2015-241, s. 8A.1(a), (b), provides: "(a) The General Assembly finds that some local boards of education have failed to comply with the requirements of the judiciary's decisions in Leandro to provide all public school students the opportunity to receive a sound basic education. Notwithstanding a history of adequate State and local funding and legislatively-granted flexibility in administration, management, and employment at the local level to provide tools to facilitate compliance with Leandro , some local boards of education have failed to take actions sufficient to: "(1) Prevent education bureaucracies from interfering with and overriding accountability measures and education reforms required by State law. "(2) Properly administer the public schools. "(3) Provide high-quality principals in every school and high-quality teachers in every classroom. "(b) It is the intent of the General Assembly in this act to provide the following additional direction, authority, and resources to local boards of education and to the State Board of Education to enable them to correct these deficiencies: "(1) Clarify the role of local boards of education to ensure that their main focus is to provide each public school student with the opportunity to receive a sound basic education, and that all policy decisions should be made with that objective in mind, including employment decisions, budget development, and other administrative actions. "(2) Direct the State Board of Education not to allow waivers of State laws and rules that permit local boards to avoid accountability measures and education reforms required by the State. "(3) Provide additional teacher positions to transition to a lower class size in first grade which, according to research, is optimal for learning at this critical time. "(4) Facilitate the identification of low-performing schools and low-performing local school administrative units. "(5) Provide the State Board of Education with authority to consolidate local school administrative units in contiguous counties as necessary to ensure that all school systems have the size, expertise, and other resources necessary to provide their students with the opportunity to receive a sound basic education. "(6) Provide forty-one million eight hundred forty-six thousand one hundred twenty-three dollars ($41,846,123) in additional funds to increase the base teacher salary paid by the State by six and one-tenth percent (6.1%)." Session Laws 2015-241, s. 1.1, provides: "This act shall be known as 'The Current Operations and Capital Improvements Appropriations Act of 2015.'" Session Laws 2015-241, s. 33.4, provides: "Except for statutory changes or other provisions that clearly indicate an intention to have effects beyond the 2015-2017 fiscal biennium, the textual provisions of this act apply only to funds appropriated for, and activities occurring during, the 2015-2017 fiscal biennium." Session Laws 2015-241, s. 33.6, is a severability clause. Session Laws 2017-57, s. 7.26( l ), made the amendment to this section by Session Laws 2017-57, s. 7.26(f), applicable beginning with the 2017-2018 school year. Session Laws 2017-57, s. 1.1, provides: "This act shall be known as the 'Current Operations Appropriations Act of 2017.'" Session Laws 2017-57, s. 39.6, is a severability clause. Session Laws 2020-3, s. 2.1, as amended by Session Laws 2020-49, s. 3(a), provides: "For the purposes of this Part, the following definitions apply: "(1) Authority. - State Education Assistance Authority. "(2) Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency. - The period beginning March 10, 2020, and continuing until the Governor signs an executive order rescinding Executive Order No. 116 (Declaration of a State of Emergency to Coordinate Response and Protective Actions to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19). "(3) Federal testing waiver. - The testing waiver granted to the State Board of Education by the United States Department of Education for the 2019-2020 school year, pursuant to section 8401(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended, which, pursuant to G.S. 115C-174.11 , eliminated the collection of certain student assessment data for the 2019-2020 school year. "(4) Modified calendar school. - A school that a local board designated as having a modified calendar for the 2003-2004 school year or any school that was part of a planned program in the 2003-2004 school year for a system of modified calendar schools, so long as the school operates under a modified calendar. "(5) State Board. - The State Board of Education. "(6) Year-round school. - A school with a single or multi-track instructional calendar that was adopted prior to March 1, 2020, and provides instructional days in compliance with Section 2.11(b)(1) of this Part throughout the entire school calendar year, beginning July 1 and ending June 30, by utilizing at least one of the following plans: "a. A plan dividing students into four groups and requiring each group to be in school for assigned and staggered quarters each school calendar year. "b. A plan providing students be scheduled to attend an average of between 44 and 46 instructional days followed by an average of between 15 and 20 days of vacation, repeated throughout the school calendar year. "c. A plan dividing the school calendar year into five nine-week sessions of classes and requiring each student to attend four assigned and staggered sessions out of the five nine-week sessions to complete the student's instructional year." Session Laws 2020-3, s. 2.2, provides: "The purpose of this Part is to clarify or modify certain requirements in consideration of actions and circumstances related to the COVID-19 emergency, including, but not limited to, the federal testing waiver and the closure of schools for in-person instruction during the 2019-2020 school year." Session Laws 2020-3, s. 2.5(a), provides: "Low-Performing Schools. - Notwithstanding G.S. 115C-105.37 and G.S. 115C-218.94(a) , for the 2020-2021 school year, the following applies: "(1) The State Board shall not identify additional low-performing schools based on data from the 2019-2020 school year. "(2) Schools previously identified as low-performing based on data from the 2018-2019 school year shall continue to be identified as low-performing. "(3) Previously identified low-performing schools shall continue to carry out the final plan approved by the local board of education pursuant to G.S. 115C-105.37(a1) . "(4) The State Board and the local board of education shall continue to provide online access to each low-performing school's plan in accordance with G.S. 115C-105.37(a1)(5) . "(5) The written parental notice required by G.S. 115C-105.37(b) is not required to be provided again, but local boards of education of low-performing schools shall include with their online final plans a brief explanation that low-performing identification continues pending assessment data from the 2020-2021 school year." Session Laws 2020-3, s. 5, is a severability clause. Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2015-241, s. 8A.4(b), effective July 1, 2015, rewrote the section. Session Laws 2017-57, s. 7.26(f), effective July 1, 2017, substituted "earned an overall" for "received a" in subsection (a) and subdivision (b)(1); and substituted "earned" for "received" in subdivision (b)(2). For applicability, see editor's note. Legal Periodicals. - For note on Leandro v. State, 346 N.C. 336 , 488 S.E.2d 249 (1997), see 76 N.C.L. Rev. 1481 (1998).