What's Due...
TLCS Plans due January 31
All 346 Iowa school districts have applied for planning grants to support the local development of Teacher Leadership and Compensation Systems. The deadline to submit a plan to enter the system in the 2014-15 school year is January 31, and those selected to participate in the first year of the system will be notified by early March. If you are submitting a plan and have questions, check the DE FAQ page, visit the TLCS page on the GHAEA H.E.L.P. site or Peter Ansingh (DE) encourages you to contact him directly.
What's New...
The report provides a wide range of state-level data, including shifts in student populations and demographics, teacher salaries and characteristics, student achievement results and school financial information. The report contains the most recent data through the 2012-13 school year, unless otherwise noted.
“Data such as those included in the Annual Condition of Education report help us understand where we are as an education system, what works well, and where improvements are needed,” Iowa Department of Education Director Brad Buck said. “This is one resource that will help us work together to provide all students the best education possible.”
The report also includes two unique sections:
- An evaluation of the impact of the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program on the third-grade assessment results of students who participated in the preschool program during the 2008-09 school year.
- A study that examines the relationship between student achievement and teacher retention in Iowa schools.
Iowa TIER, IGDIs and FAST assessments
Iowa TIER, as well as IGDIs and FAST assessments, will be made available to all districts to support the requirement in 279.68 that all schools must implement valid and reliable universal screening and progress monitoring assessments by August 2014. A team of DE/AEA/LEA personnel is working to develop a detailed plan of how to provide such access while maintaining the current implementation and scaling model for a multi-tiered system of support for early literacy. This plan will likely be made public by February 2014. For more information about MTSS (RtI) in Iowa, click here.
THIRD GRADE, prepare for 2017
The 2013 reading legislation mandates all K-3rd graders receive the necessary reading instruction to help them reach “proficiency” by the end of third grade. Any non-proficient students will be required to receive intensive, research-based reading instruction. Such students will be retained starting May 2017. (Click to see a summary of the legislation).
HiSET starting this month. Goodbye GED.
The Iowa Department of Education announced a new test that will replace the GED® in 2014 as the assessment required to earn a state-issued high school equivalency diploma.
