1.  Throughout the school year, but particularly in the summer when on-campus facilities are more available, External Programs sponsors teacher in-service professional development programs and special programs for K-12 students.  NCSSM has a long and impressive history of grant awards to support these outreach programs and works closely with the NC Dept. of Public Instruction.

New expert partners to help with outreach program development.

A more direct relationship with teacher preparation programs.

Opportunities to come to the table to influence math/science pre-service programs.

1.  In this consolidation with the 16 Universities, do they have in mind a particular role for us in K-12 teacher professional development or K-12 distance education? Would we be expected to align with some master direction?

2. If we are called on to meet new needs, what kinds of personnel and other resources will be available to us? More grant opportunities?

 Findings*:  NCSSM is not being offered full constituent status for a particular role.  This may be an opportunity to advance your Math/Science /Technology education outreach objectives.  Developing K-12 online courses could be a logical next step to augment the Early College programs offered by some of the UNC campuses.  GA through legislative support has offered grants for the development of online courses or faculty PD in online course development.  These kinds of opportunities would be open to NCSSM.  To the extent GA has funding, GA has emphasized teacher education, nursing, technology and information science.

2. Our Distance Learning (DL) Department continues to be the state leader in K-12 educational programming on the North Carolina Information Highway and video-over-IP technologies, averaging close to 400 hours of connections monthly. NCSSM is also an emerging leader in web-based learning technologies and has developed four advanced math/science web courses.

3.  NCSSM is at the forefront of national efforts to promote the use of videoconferencing in K-12 education.  NCSSM DL is an active participant in the formation of the North Carolina Virtual initiative

Improved DL bandwidth and broadcast technologies, software and hardware resources.

New venues for our DL teacher collaboratives with a possible expanded role in new teacher induction.

3.  How is the DL programming decided at each of the constituent universities and is there some master direction/standard for these programs?

4.  What kind of DL technologies will be available to us at what costs?

5.  What does GA perceive as the NCSSM role in the NC Virtual Public School?

Findings:  GA does not control distance education programs on the university campuses any more or less than other university programming.  The Chancellors are charged and responsible for setting programming directions. GA has been able to meet needs/ influence DL programming directions through funding incentives.  The NCSSM technology subcommittee has been talking to the right folks about taking advantage of university technologies.  GA is following the development of the NC Virtual School the same as you.  As part of a virtual collegiate presence, GA is going to build a web portal that lists all our online degree programs and courses.  UNC system universities now have 90 degree programs on line.  There is a need to better promote these.

4.  NCSSM is already closely aligned with UNC K-12 programs, e.g., we are a center of the Math/ Science Education Network (MSEN), we work closely with LearnNC, and we coordinate the Summer Ventures Program.

Opportunities to be represented in research studies on the improvement of teaching and learning.

More direct lines of communication on new initiatives, new research findings, new technologies, and new funding opportunities.

Potential to more actively participate in the recruitment of K-12 students to careers in math/science education.

6. Will transition to UNC result in significant programmatic changes, e.g., increase demand for DL programming, changes in summer teacher institutes, staff increases?

7. Will technical assistance (IT, grant development, legal, research) be available to support our outreach programs?

Findings:  As NCSSM transitions to full constituency, you are expected to have access to all the resources available to the other campuses. The improvement of K-12 education, particularly in math and science with a focus on teacher recruitment and retention is a high priority for the University System.  It is a big challenge to develop distance education online baccalaureate programs in math and science.  NCSSM could play an important role in meeting this challenge.  Consider this an opportunity for NCSSM to demonstrate its leadership in math and science education and forge roles the school values.

5.  NCSSM External Programs embraces the mission of improving math/science education statewide with a special emphasis on reaching low-wealth and rural districts and connecting these with tuition-free resources through DL technologies.

Better able to connect our low-wealth and rural school partners to resources available through the UNC system.

8.  Will our client schools incur increased costs for DL programming?

Findings:  Becoming a constituent doesn’t mean NCSSM will have to change its outreach mission or do anything substantially different than what it is doing right now.  Folks are pretty impressed with all NCSSM is accomplishing with present funding.  NCSSM has not charged fees for its DL programming and Sadler does not think we would have to change that.