Executive Summary

North Dakota Center for Distance Education

Dr. Alan J Peterson, Director

1510 12th St N
Fargo, ND 58102-2220

Document Generated On March 10, 2014

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Description of the School 2

School's Purpose 3

Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 5

Additional Information 7
Executive Summary
North Dakota Center for Distance Education

Introduction

Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by
which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful
to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder
engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student
learning. <br><br> The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the
strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of
how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to
reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis.

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Executive Summary
North Dakota Center for Distance Education

Description of the School

Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include
demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated
with the community/communities the school serves?

The North Dakota Center for Distance Education (NDCDE), was established in 1935 by the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, making
North Dakota the first state to provide a special appropriation for a high school correspondence program. T.W. Thordarson, founder of
NDCDE, envisioned a correspondence school where students unable to attend an organized high school would have the opportunity to
receive an education and students in regular high schools would be given the opportunity to study courses not offered locally. This vision has
certainly been met and exceeded by the guidance and leadership of Dr. Alan Peterson, the current state director of NDCDE.

The North Dakota Center for Distance Education is located in Fargo, North Dakota on the North Dakota State University campus. However,
virtually NDCDE can be accessed by students all over the world. NDCDE is proud of its unique features, servicing students from grades 6-
12, ranging in age from 12-70, and residing all over the United States, including American Samoa and Guam, and in 21 foreign countries. As
a state school, NDCDE also meets the unique needs and desires of the schools in North Dakota, especially the small schools. Our students
choose NDCDE, for a variety of reasons such as seeking a diploma, enrichment, advancement, credit recovery, or early graduation - just
to name a few.

Our newest challenge occurred when the state legislature subsidized the cost of courses for ND students, causing a large surge of
enrollments. The challenge is the hiring and training of new highly qualified and highly competent teachers to ensure that student learning is
taking place and NDCDE continues to realize its vision and mission.

Currently, NDCDE has 1,428 students with 2,263 course enrollments. Of these, 86 are enrolled in our diploma program. In addition, NDCDE
has 11 FTE teachers, 20 contract teachers, and 15 staff.

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North Dakota Center for Distance Education

School's Purpose

Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the
school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students.

The North Dakota Center for Distance Education (NDCDE) is an accredited, non-profit, distance education school that has been providing
educational opportunities to students since 1935.

NDCDE has more than 130 online courses available to students, grades 6-12. Courses include core, elective, Advanced Placement and
credit recovery with instructional support available for all NDCDE courses. All students have direct access to teachers and receive one-on-
one help from licensed instructors committed to meeting students' needs. They experience fast and easy online enrollment and the flexibility
to work at their own pace. Many students have chosen to earn a high school diploma online through our diploma program.

NDCDE teachers are experts at applying all distance education delivery methods which are highly effective when used correctly. These
methods include telephone, video streaming, texting, email, discussion forums and computer-supported courses. Most important to NDCDE,
and to our students, is using the delivery method that effectively meets student's needs. .

NDCDE also makes available print-based courses via conventional delivery systems. Print courses are used in situations where virtual
support methods are not available or in situations where print courses are preferred by students and/or their education providers.

NDCDE teachers are in regular contact with students and are available to them during the teacher's office hours. Students can expect
regular phone calls, emails, texts, messages delivered via computer-supported white boards, virtual face to face meetings supported by
video streaming, and discussion forums supported by CDE's Learning Management System (LMS). NDCDE teachers' goal is to make sure
students receive the help and guidance they want and need for student learning to take place.

Vision

The ND Center for Distance Education believes that intelligent use of educational technology can transform the effectiveness of student
learning, teacher methods, and administrator decision-making.

Mission

The ND CDE's mission is to ensure that all North Dakota middle and high school students regardless of location have access to educational
opportunities that meet or exceed expectations for the quality of curriculum, ongoing contact time with highly qualified teachers, the selection
and use of suitable educational technology, monitoring course delivery efficiency and effectiveness, and student learning.

Values

1. Student learning - CDE strives at all times to understand current and future student learning needs and respond to them.
2. Leadership - CDE believes that teaching provides a key component to all types and methods of leadership.
3. Involvement of people - CDE believes that the full involvement of all people enables their individual and collective abilities to be used for
the organization's benefit.
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4. Processes - CDE applies the process-based approach because a desired result can be achieved efficiently and effectively using the
process approach.
5. Connections - CDE is convinced the highest level of effectiveness and efficiency is achieved by identifying, understanding, and managing
the connections between processes.
6. Continual improvement - Every member of CDE is responsible for continually improving CDE's products, services, processes, and
system.
7. Factual approach to decision-making - CDE knows that effective decisions are based on analysis of data and information, not conjecture.
8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships - CDE firmly believes it and its suppliers are interdependent; a mutually beneficial relationship
enhances the ability of both to add value.

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North Dakota Center for Distance Education

Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement

Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for
improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years.

Within the last three years, NDCDE has experienced numerous changes and improvements due to internal restructuring and the
implementation of a process based management system. With these changes came new requirements which include serving students
regardless of their locations, focusing on student learning, providing quality curriculum, assuring adequate contact time between teacher and
student, applying suitable educational technology, and monitoring the adequacy and quality of course delivery. With the restructuring and
implementation of new requirements, NDCDE has successfully served 172 of the 185 schools in the state of North Dakota and increased
completion rates in 2013 to 94%! In addition, NDCDE includes curriculum from 9 award-winning curriculum providers. With the great team
at NDCDE partnering with other North Dakota educators, we have produced 21st Century solutions for the challenges faced by rural ND
schools, their communities, and students. NDCDE has so far been successful in saving two ND schools from closing their doors and has
had several students win state academic awards.

The changes, that have taken place during our restructuring the past three years to accomplish such monumental tasks, are many and
include all departments and every faculty and staff member at NDCDE. The implementation of our process based management system
allowed for NDCDE to transition from management to governance, command and control philosophy to stewardship, patriarchy to partnership
and dependency to empowerment. Therefore, our mission and vision statements were revised to focus on student learning, and align with
North Dakota's Century Code.

The role of teachers has also changed and improved to meet our new vision and mission statement. NDCDE teachers have been provided
with advanced technology to ensure that they can be reached by students from anywhere at any time. Instructors welcome new enrollments
within 24 hours, meet students face-to-face via Blackboard Collaborate and provide weekly progress reports. In addition student/teacher
ratios have decreased to 120 students per semester for full time teachers which resulted in the hiring of additional contract teachers for all
subject areas to help meet our vision of student learning. These new requirements have resulted in a better teacher/student relationship in
addition to ensuring that student's complete courses successfully and on time. Finally, NDCDE has partnered with School Improvement
Network (SINet) for professional development and Common Core training which has allowed for teacher growth and development in
educational best practices.

NDCDE has a very complex system which requires the use of numerous systems to help achieve our mission and vision. Some of these
systems include the use of our Student Information System (SIS) Genius which allows NDCDE faculty and staff along with students, parents,
and supervisors, access to monitor student progress. Genius allows access to a wide range of student data including student/teacher ratios,
completion rates, student/teacher interaction, course grades, and demographics. Another system to help NDCDE meet its mission is the
implementation of a new Learning Management System (LMS), Brainhoney, which allows teachers and students to access student grades
and activity reports in addition to linking standards and benchmarks to courses, lessons, and questions within the assignments. Furthermore,
our accounting and budgeting information system now uses Great Plains (GP) software which assists in all monthly, yearly, and biennial
accounting data and allows for the uploading of budgets and the tracking of expenses and revenues through invoices, bills, and payables.

NDCDE's enrollment process has also been streamlined to include immediate teacher notification of enrollments, an increased number of
invoices being released in a day thereby increasing the number of orders that can be shipped, and less time spent adjusting inventory levels
and more time to focus on in-time delivery of course materials. Reporting capabilities now allow for immediate access to the total sales per
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North Dakota Center for Distance Education

day, the number of invoices processed each day, and the number of invoices located in state and out of state. It also allows for quicker and
more efficient processing of course price changes, course inventory changes, and cash receipts processing. E-Commerce that integrates
with Microsoft Dynamics billing software allows for an easier and more secure online ordering process for schools, parents, and students.
Because customers can create an online ordering login, unique to each user, all enrollments are completed online quickly and efficiently.
Finally, schools can receive expedited school and credit recovery approval.

Another addition to NDCDE was the creation of a Reconditioning Team to formalize an ongoing adoption and replacement cycle for our
curriculum. Flowcharts were developed to define the interaction process in addition to the development of standardized steps used in course
creation and integration. The information from this core process supports the understanding and development stages of curriculum which
allow all staff to both understand and participate in curriculum deployment.

With the process based management system at NDCDE, we feel that we have corrected most areas of our process and are now able to
accomplish significant improvements. In the years to come, NDCDE will continue to improve the teacher/student interaction that is key to
student achievement and success. In addition, NDCDE will continue to provide service to the small schools in the state of North Dakota to
ensure that their educational needs are met allowing for student achievement in the 21st Century.

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North Dakota Center for Distance Education

Additional Information

Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous
sections.

None

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