North Carolina’s Effort to Provide Blended/Online Teacher Preparation Courses

1. North Carolina’s Effort to Provide Blended/Online Teacher Preparation Courses Reggie Flythe, Consultant North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

2. Brief History of DE in NC • State Law states the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall provide driver education to all public, private, charter, home school and federal school students • Provide services to over 115,000 students annually • State funding provided, students must pay a fee of up to $65, local school districts set the fee amount charged • Use a combination of commercial school contractors and “in-house” driver education teachers to provide services

3. Brief History of DE in NC • Parents do have the flexibility to pay a commercial school for “private” driver education • Driver Education is an integral part of Graduated Licensing • Student must take Driver Education in order to obtain Learner’s Permit as early as age 15 • Student cannot obtain Learner’s Permit or License until age 18 without taking Driver Education

4. NC Driver Education by Program Type2017-18 In-house programs Commercial driving schools

5. A look at teacher training in NC • Currently we have approximately 1200 driver education teachers • East Carolina University taught the last cohort of driver education teachers in 2014-15 • NCDMV teaches an 80-hour instructor certification course – 2 weeks at various locations throughout the state • Three commercial driving schools have the ability to train teachers • NC has over 300 retired teachers currently working

6. Licensing and Certification • Department of Public Instruction Licensure – Must have university level courses in DE, must have 8.5 CEU’s to renew license every 5 years, may teach DE as long as teaching license current • Division of Motor Vehicle Licensure – Must take an 80 hour course, must have 64 contact hours of approved courses/conferences to renew license every 4 years

7. Assessment Recommendations “There is no standardized, evaluated or consistent delivery of instructor training programs within North Carolina. The instructor training curriculum is not based on any State or national standards and is varied and inconsistent.” • Adopt a standards based instructor training curriculum that is used by all training programs in North Carolina.

8. Assessment Recommendations • State Driver Education Assessment (May 2015) priority recommendations • Standardize the pre-requisites for certification and recertification for all driver education instructors to be consistent with the national standards regardless of the licensing agency and Local Education Agencies (LEAs).

9. NC Driver Education Reform Teacher Certification Recertification Program Oversight Education & Training

10. What now? • NC DPI is working on a new teacher credentialing and recertification system • Use the Assessment recommendations to align any work done to meet or exceed the National Standards • Note: Our Assessment was done in May 2015 and the standards were revised in 2017. The 2017 Instructor Qualification National Standards are more detailed • We have discussed obtaining ANSTSE Technical Assistance to help us in the effort to align our work with the new standards

11. Current Status of Program Development • We have obtained permission from ANSTSE to utilize the 2017 Model Training Curriculum for the Teaching Task Instructor Training Program • We have developed a teacher training/certification plan • We are currently working on determining what parts of NC law, policies and DMV material need to be included in the curriculum • During the next two weeks, we will be visiting the eight regions of our state to brief stakeholders and obtain feedback on classroom and behind the wheel practice teaching ideas

12. Online Component • We are collaborating with the NC Virtual Public Schools to utilize tools they have produced to create the online portion of our training program • We plan to provide online training in three segments: • fundamental concepts of teaching and learning • classroom teaching and learning • teaching and learning theories for behind the wheel

13. Student Teaching Practicum • We will work with LEA’s to establish classroom and behind the wheel teaching opportunities for new teachers and those who need assistance with re-certification • LEAs will need to identify “mentor teachers” to go through DPI led training for master teachers • LEA mentor teachers will be credentialed to provide support in the “hands-on” portion of the teacher training system for both classroom and behind the wheel training.

14. Licensing and Credentialing • Teachers completing the course will receive driver education certification on their teaching license • Non-Teachers completing the course will receive driver education licensure that will allow them to teach in “in-house” programs • We are working closely with NC DMV to allow anyone completing our teacher training program to be licensed by DMV to teach in commercial schools • The ultimate goal is to train all driver education teachers through this teacher training system to satisfy the needs of DPI and DMV

15. Contact Info • Reggie Flythe • NC DPI Consultant • Reggie.Flythe@dpi.nc.gov • (919) 724-0400