Districts and Charter Schools,
 
Please forward this E-lert to your school-level stakeholders. If you are having difficulty viewing this email, you may view the E-lert online here: 
October 24, 2014 - In This Issue:
Calendar Check
October 16 - Early Calendar Grade reports posted in the registration system. These are weighted grades (37.5%)

October 16 - Traditional calendar progress reports are posted in the registration system. 

October 30 - Traditional calendar grade reports posted in the registration system. These are weighted grades (37.5%)

October 30 - Early calendar progress reports are posted in the registration system. 

NCVPS Celebrations
Districts and Schools, tell us about your success stories. Let us hear about individual student successes, increased virtual enrollment, outstanding lab facilitators, or virtual support processes that your school or district has in place. We would love to promote these stories.

Click here to tell us about your successes. 
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Current E-lert News
1st Grade Reports

We have posted our first weighted grade reports in the registration system for early calender courses.  Be aware of these dates:

 

Oct. 16: Early Calendar 1st Grade Report posted.

Oct. 30: Traditional Calender 1st Grade Report posted.

 

Here is how we weight our grades:

 

Standard Grading Scale for Block Classes

37.5%     (First Grade Report)

37.5%  (Second Grade Report)

*Final Exam/Project: 25%


 

Standard Grading Scale for Yearlong Classes

18.75%  (First Grade Report)

18.75%  (Second Grade Report)

18.75%  (Third Grade Report)

18.75%  (Fourth Grade Report)

25%       (Final Exam/Project)*


*EOC and CTE Courses

 

The Final Exam for EOC and CTE courses will be the EOC and VoCATS score. Schools are responsible for the administration of all EOC and CTE tests. For those courses, the grades NCVPS reports to the school will be 75% of the final grade. Schools will score the EOCs and CTEs and average in the remaining 25% to determine the final grade. 


 

*SAT Prep will not have a final exam because of the two-part nature of the course.

 

All other courses have their final exams or final projects online in the course.


The following fields are on our first weighted grade reports:

 

Grading Period 1 = All courses (except credit recovery and OCS) will have a numeric grade reported here. 

 

Comment = All instructors will leave a comment. 

 

Sample Grade Report


 

Grade Report Details:

 

1. All standard classes will report a progress grade, and teachers will leave a comment for each student.

 

2. We do not report grades for OCS classes. Classroom teachers determine OCS grades. 

 

3. We do not report grades for credit recovery classes. See the comments section to determine if the student is on pace or not.

 

4. Even if a student is supposed to be dropped or withdrawn, we will report a grade until the school withdraws the student.

 

5. We do not report a grade below 60 on our first grading period report. 

 

Be sure to download these reports to see how your students are performing! If you have district-level access, you can see progress of NCVPS students from all of your district schools. 

 

Follow this link to see how to run a grade report.

 

Follow this link to see our Quick Reference Guide on Grades.  

Supporting Students - Intervention Time

Be sure to check the latest progress report to see how your students are progressing. If you have students who are low-performing, under-performing, or at-risk for any reason, NCVPS has a number of intervention strategies for districts and schools to help.  

 

Follow this link to see our intervention strategies. 

Current Enrollment Options

Here are our current enrollment options:

 

1. OCS - We cannot create new OCS sections, but schools may add students to their already established NCVPS OCS sections throughout the semester.

 

2. Credit Recovery - Schools may enroll students in credit recovery until December 1 if we have seats available in the course.

 

3. Transfer Students - NCVPS is now accepting transfer students. Transfer students must already be enrolled in the face-2-face version of the course, have seat time in front of an instructor, and have a grade to transfer in with. Students new to the course cannot transfer in.  

 

4. Spring 2015 - Registration for Spring 2015 is still open.

Tech Updates

We have some important tips from our tech team. These tips help ensure smooth operations.  

 

Recent updates for Java and Flash

Please update to version Java 7, Update 71.


You can find the update at this link: 

http://java.com/en/download/manual_java7.jsp

 

We are testing out Version 8 update 25. For now, please hold off on this update if possible.

Please go to the following link to update Adobe Flash Player to the latest Version 15.0.0.189: 
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ 

 

Chromebooks

NCVPS does not support Chrome's web-based operating system, and we do not recommend the use of Chromebooks for NCVPS courses. Chrome's lack of Java capabilities means students will encounter problems with rich media objects while using Chromebooks.


If a student or school chooses to use Chromebooks, please understand that certain areas of NCVPS content WILL NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY in the Blackboard and Moodle environments. 


Help Desk Ticketing Tips
To answer your tickets faster and more efficiently we ask for the following when opening a ticket with the Virtual Support Center:
  • Students first & last name
  • PowerSchool ID number
  • Course enrolled (example CourseSec01Fall14)
Please specify if course is:
  • AP
  • Honors
  • Early Calendar
  • CR
  • OCS
This will help to ensure we have the correct student.

Tech Requirements 

For additional information please see our Tech Requirements:
http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/technology-requirements/  

Approved eLearning Courses for NC
NCVPS Courses

NCVPS offers over 150 different courses, including advanced placement, electives, traditional, honors, core, STEM, occupational course of study, and credit recovery courses. 

Check out our 150+ list of courses here.  

Vendor Approved Courses

In addition to NCVPS courses, North Carolina public schools also have a list of approved third-party vendor courses that they may choose from for virtual classes. Please follow this link to see the list of approved vendor courses. More on the vendor approval process can be found here

Here are the newest approved vendor courses: 
(Course Title - Vendor)
  • Spanish 1 - Edmentum
  • Probability and Statistics - Edmentum
  • Pre-Calculus - Edmentum
  • French 1 - Edmentum
  • French 2 - Edmentum
  • AP Calculus AB - Florida Virtual
  • AP Statistics - Florida Virtual
  • Physical Science - Florida Virtual
Course Spotlight - ACT Prep

ACT Prep sections are open for Spring 2015 enrollments! This course offers a great way to prepare for your future! 


If you have questions, please contact Karen Creech at Karen.creech@ncpublicschools.gov. 

North Carolina Virtual Public School
1017 Main Campus Drive, Partners I Bldg., 
SUITE 3900, Raleigh, NC 27606
Phone:  919-513-8550   |  Fax:  919-513-2557  |   
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