December 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's NEW

The Department of Education has recently released updated guidance around the Early Literacy Implementation: 3rd Grade Retention. Click here to read more.

In November, a small team from each district in GHAEA had the opportunity to be trained on key components of Iowa's new state assessment: Smarter Balanced Assessment system. There is an expectation that all teachers, administrators and supports will, in turn, be trained by their district teams by the summer of 2017. The Department of Education developed a talking points document to provide overall information about SBAC.

What's DUE

Please consider providing feedback on the Draft Iowa Social Studies Standards. The survey is designed to obtain the opinions and comments of educators and the public to the draft standards created by the Social Studies Standards Writing Team. Follow this link to complete the survey.

January 23, 2017: Register today for Celebrating Iowa Successes- Early Literacy Symposium to hear from Kathy Patton, PRESS Literacy Coordinator; Scott Slechta, 2016 Iowa Teacher of the Year, and Deborah Reed, Director of the Iowa Reading Research Center. Topics to include: effective intervention components, reading skills for information and literary text, teaching spelling to students with reading difficulties, realigning Literacy Block based on data and providing a guaranteed and viable curriculum. The symposium will take place at the Iowa Events Center from 9:00-4:00.

WISHING YOU CHERISHED MOMENTS WITH FRIENDS & FAMILY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!

November 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

November 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's NEW

A newly enhanced report in Tier has been released.  It will replace the previous report on Students Staying at Benchmark over time and will be utilized to track students maintaining benchmark over time as well as students who move from below-benchmark to at-or-above-benchmark and those who start at-benchmark and fall below-benchmark in a subsequent screening period. Look for the MTSS Effectiveness Over Time report within the Summary Reports in TIER.

Social Studies Draft Standards have been released and will be available for public feedback.

There will be an EdInsight training on December 19 at the Red Oak office. The morning will focus on the canned reports, and while the training is not required, it will be most helpful to those that prefer face-to-face instruction on navigating the system.  Those that prefer a self-paced approach can use this Guide to EdInsight Reports to learn on your own.  Those wishing to access the EdInsight Cube will be required to attend the training.  Click here to sign up.

What's DUE

Registration for the two-day Universal Instruction is now available. Superintendents should have received an invitation from Mark Crady. Dates will be November 30 & December 1 in Creston or December 15 & 16 in Avoca.

October 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's New

Iowa will begin using the Smarter Balanced Assessment System (SBAC) in ELA and Mathematics starting with the 2017-2018 school year for students in grades 3-11. This assessment system is aligned to Iowa’s statewide standards with formative, interim, and summative components. By the summer of 2017, there is an expectation all teachers, administrators, and supports will be trained on SBAC. A train-the-trainer session will take place in GHAEA in November, 2016. Superintendents have recently received an email with a registration link. District personnel will be trained to take information back to all staff.  GHAEA has also selected Consultants to attend the training.

What's Due

Reminder of training on Teaching Transparently: for Model Teachers, mentors, facilitators, and administration. Dates: January 16, 17, February 28, and April 13. Registration available on the GHAEA class registration site under workshop, leadership.

Cancelled Early Support Literacy Day- Due to Differentiated Accountability training, the November 7 Early Literacy Support Day has been cancelled. Schools are encouraged to attend the Celebrate Success Day in Des Moines for the January 23 date, which also will not be held regionally. We will continue to plan to hold the May 18 support date as scheduled.

September2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What’s New:

• Dates are planned for Differentiated Accountability Universal and Targeted Support in Assessment & Data Based Decision Making and Universal Instruction within GHAEA.  Please see the Help calendar for dates. Superintendents should have received invitations to these trainings as well.
• ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act): Iowa’s Statewide plan is currently being finalized and vetted. This work will be on-going for approximately the next six months.

What’s Due:

• September 15: PK desk audits are due via the Iowa Education portal. Contact Jennifer.Adkins@iowa.gov with questions.
• September 15: District and AEA desk audits open in the portal. Desk audits are due by December 15. Contact Janet.Boyd@iowa.gov with questions.
• October 3: Special Education Count Day
• October 15: Certified Enrollment Deadline **YOU MAY WANT TO CLICK CERTIFY ON THE 14TH SINCE THE 15TH IS A SATURDAY AND STATE OFFICES ARE NOT OPEN ON WEEKENDS.**

August 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's NEW

Differentiated Accountability:

Healthy Indicators for Intervention System have been added to those for Assessment & Data-Based Decision-Making and Universal Instruction.  To view these, head over to the H.E.L.P. Site.  Plans are being developed to support schools in the areas of assessment & decision-making and universal instruction. Support days will be offered regionally within each AEA. Stay tuned for dates. 

CASA:

Consolidated Accountability and Support Application has replaced the C-Plan. More information available on the Department of Education website.

New State Assessment:

There is a new webpage developed to help teachers, school administrators and parents prepare for a transition to Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts and mathematics. 

What's DUE

August 15: Application for Early Literacy fund$ open$ on the Iowa Grant$ web$ite

June 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's NEW

Differentiated Accountability
Collaborative Inquiry questions that guide improvement efforts are grouped into essential conceptual areas (lovingly referred to as the 'atomic flower').  The current focus is on students in PreK through 6th Grade in two conceptual areas:

• Assessment and Data Based Decision Making- students participating in universal screening and progress monitoring (Healthy Indicators: percent of students participating in screening and monitoring)
• Universal Instruction- provision of of evidence-based instruction and intervention (Healthy Indicators: percent of student meeting benchmark and staying above benchmark)

In 2016-17, the conceptual area of Intervention System will be added to the PreK- 6th grade focus for Differentiated Accountability.

What's DUE

June 15- Online Nonpublic Transportation Reimbursement Claims due
June 15- Spring BEDS due
June 15- Spring SRI due
June 30- Last day to pay PSEO tuition due to eligible post-secondary institutions

May 2016 H.E.L.P.

What’s NEW?

Early Literacy Support Days are being planned for next year. GHAEA will be holding four regional workshops to assist schools in the engagement of data analysis, the Universal Instruction Facilitation Guide and the newly released Intervention System Guide.

In 2016-17 the Differentiated Accountability process will roll out statewide. The SSIT (Statewide School Improvement Team) will determine levels of support based on spring 2016 data and notify schools in early fall. On-site visits will occur during the second half of the 16-17 school year.

Stay tuned for on-going Legislative updates and final decisions about ELI summer school and retention requirement and the implementation of a new statewide accountability assessment.

What’s DUE?

• Check out the GHAEA TLC 2016-17 Opportunities for teacher leaders
• Register for: “You Are a Teacher Leader, Now What?” under Main Category of Workshop, Leadership

April 2016 HELP

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What's NEW?

All GHAEA districts now have TLC Plans approved!

2016 - 2017 Journey to Excellence M/I Dates. 2016-17 Registration for the mentors and 1st and 2nd year beginning educators in your district will open in May 2016. An email will be sent to GHAEA M/I District Facilitators and Superintendents.

The next conceptual area being added to Differentiated Accountability will be Intervention (Targeted and Intensive Services); to be piloted in 2016-17.

C4K has developed an expansion plan for MTSS for 7-12 literacy, PK-12 math, and PK-12 behavior.

What's DUE?

April 7: Statewide Voluntary PK Applications
April 25: Iowa Teacher of the Year Nominations

May your Spring be off to a cheery start!

March 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's NEW!

Not Sure What to Make of State Assessment Chatter?
Do these tests reflect strong content? Are they rigorous? What are their strengths and areas for improvement? Read the review of PARCC, Smarter Balanced, ACTaspire and MCAS.

New Teachers' Learning Curve
New and experienced teacher volunteers are being sought to participate in a pilot study examining practices that maximize professional learning in the first two years of teaching. The Department of Education has announced the launch of a new webpage explaining the opportunity and the Iowa Teacher Performance Assessment provides the structured process for examining practices.

Differentiated Accountability
East Union and Red Oak Districts have completed their Differentiated Accountability visits with positive reviews! Comment by one participant: "We AREN’T just swimming... swimming anymore---we are Olympic grade swimming! Thanks for all the tools/help!”

What's DUE!

Register now for Launching Teacher Leadership: Operationalizing the TLC Plan for Cohort 3 Schools. April 12, 2016 @ Iowa Events Center

Sign up today for the 3rd Annual SAI/ISEA Leveraging Teacher Leadership Institute featuring several experts in the field. July 13, 2016 @ Prairie Meadows

January 2016 H.E.L.P. Blog

What's NEW?

• Differentiated Accountability replaces the Site Visit for AEA and LEAs

• ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, replaces NCLB
  

• Determination of state-wide assessment (Iowa Assessment, Smarter Balanced) on temporary hold

• Launching TLC for Y3 districts: April 12, 2016 in DM