Helping Educational Leaders Prepare
August 2014
Sign up for the H.E.L.P. blog to stay up-to-date about what's new and what's due! Follow this link to find out how.What's New
The Iowa DE will be offering a Mini Summit on Wednesday, September 17th in Creston, at Southwest Iowa Community College. They have held these Summits in other AEAs and they have been very popular. Sessions will be provided on topics such as: Early Childhood, Assessment, Teacher Leadership Compensation, Special Education, Licensure, MTSS/RtI, Legislation and Federal Reporting, Transportation, Food and Nutrition, Fine Arts and much more. Please see the attached draft agenda for more information on session topics. Iowa education director Brad Buck will speak to attendees during lunch, in room 220. Lunch will be available to purchase onsite. Space is limited, be sure to register early. Register for the Mini Summit here.In the first week of August, the Governor made the decision to change the status of Iowa from a Governing State in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to an Affiliate State. That means that AEA and LEA access to the Digital Library and over 1500 resources posted to date will end on September 30, 2014 (so download as much as you need or want now). During the next Iowa Legislative session the Assessment Task Force, which is made up of parents, educators, and business members, will make a recommendation on whether to move to Smarter Balanced or stay with Iowa Testing as our AYP assessment. The Legislature will then make the final decision. If they choose to move to Smarter Balanced, we will have access to the Digital Library again by late summer 2015. By then the library should have grown to more than 3000 resources. Learn more about the Task Force here.
What's Due
Certified Annual Reports, CPlan, CAR, SES, Transportation Reports are due September 15. For more information, follow this link to the Department of Education website. In other words, be nice to your Administrator during this hectic reporting time. =)
