School Improvement HELP

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

GHAEA H.E.L.P. Blog, January 2015

What's New?

On Friday, January 30, 2015 the first phase of the Attendance Center Ranking (ACR) system will be made public on the DE website. This is interactive tool provides a snapshot of how the state’s public schools and school districts are performing on two measures: student proficiency rates and growth toward college and career readiness.

Iowa's Data Snapshot available

Student proficiency rates represent the percentage of students proficient in math and reading in grades 3 through 8 and 11. In Iowa, being “proficient” in math and reading means performing at a basic level. Proficiency does not necessarily put students on the path to college and career readiness.
The growth measure is defined as the percentage of students who are on a trajectory to be college and career ready (CCR) by the end of high school as defined by ACT.

The tool encompasses two of the nine measures that eventually will make up the Attendance Center Rankings system: student proficiency rates, academic growth, attendance rates, parent involvement, employee turnover, community activities and involvement, closing achievement gaps score, graduation rates, and college and career readiness.

Also, the Iowa Department of Education has released the latest edition of the Annual Condition of Education report. Follow the link to view 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.

Monday, December 22, 2014

GHAEA H.E.L.P. Blog December 2014

Jingle bells, all is swell.
Vacation time, let’s rest!
Oh what fun ‘14 has been.
We welcome ‘15 with zest!

What's NEW

Teacher Leadership & Compensation System

The next group of school districts has been chosen to launch local teacher leadership plans through Iowa’s new Teacher Leadership and Compensation System. 125 school districts were chosen to put in place local plans – 74 of them during the 2015-16 school year and another 51 during the 2016-17 school year. The school districts serve a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities. In GHAEA, these schools include:

2015-16: Atlantic, Central Decatur, Glenwood, Lewis Central, Nodaway Valley and Red Oak
2016-17: CAM, Clarke and Lenox

These 125 selected districts join 39 other districts that were chosen to implement the first teacher leadership systems. The goal is to have all Iowa school districts participate in the optional system by 2016-17, according to Brad Buck.

October 31, 2015 - TLC Year 3 Applications Due. As the Legislature has only identified TLC as a three-year application opportunity, schools that do not apply for this third round may not have the option to do so in the future.

For more information about Teacher Leadership & Compensation, please refer to the GHAEA H.E.L.P. site or contact Jan Norgaard,

Substitute Authorization License Change

A substitute authorization allows an individual to substitute in grades PK-12 for no more than five consecutive days and no more than 10 days in a 30-day period in one job assignment for a regularly assigned teacher who is absent, except in the driver’s education classroom. As of 12/17/14, holders of the substitute authorization may now serve PK-12 classrooms. For more information about the change to 282—22.2 (272) Substitute authorization, click here.

School Start Date Waiver Change

Effective immediately, the Department will no longer automatically grant waivers of the school start date requested under Iowa Code section 279.10(4) for the 2015-2016 school year. Visit the Department of Education and scroll to New Innovative Calendar and Continued Innovative Calendar for more information.

What's DUE

Early Literacy Implementation

For those schools utilizing Iowa TIER (FAST and IGDI screening tools), the winter screening window will be from January 12 to February 6, 2015.

EdInsight

If you are wondering about EdInsight training, there is one last opportunity scheduled for this winter: January 8, 2015 at Red Oak. Click here to sign up.

Happy Holidays from GHAEA H.E.L.P!

Friday, November 21, 2014

November 2014

American Education Week: Nov. 17 - 21

"Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility."

"An investment in knowledge always pays
the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

What's NEW?

Assessment News On November 4, 2014, members of the Assessment Task Force recommended that Iowa lawmakers adopt the Smarter Balanced assessments as Iowa’s new state test for public and accredited nonpublic schools starting with the 2016-17 school year. The task force will continue to work on a final report, which is due in January to the Legislature, to the State Board of Education and to Iowa Department of Education Director Brad Buck.

340 Success Stories Through the National Blue Ribbon Schools program, 340 schools are receiving recognition for either their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Each of the schools—290 public and 50 private—has released one-page profiles detailing its work in providing all students with a well-rounded education, using technology in the classroom, and encouraging educator collaboration and stakeholder engagement to ensure that students succeed.

Did You Know? The makeup of the 114th Congress will set quite a few records, including more women and minorities than any previous Congress, the largest Republican majority in the House since before World War II, and the first Congress since World War II to not include a veteran of that war.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

October 2014

Helping Educational Leaders Prepare

What's NEW:

Upcoming Continuous Improvement Model: You may have been hearing buzz around the work of collaborative teams of DE/ AEA/ LEA members developing a unified improvement process for Iowa. This table captures the vision so far.

Early Literacy Implementation (ELI): At this time, schools have most likely completed the Fall Universal Screening assessments and have moved forward to: 1) examining the health of Core Instruction, 2) identifying students in need of intervention, and 3) progress monitoring. As a reminder, many resources are available to support this implementation on the Department of Education's ELI page.

Iowa Reading Research Center (Building Iowa's Home for Literacy) launched their new web site. Check it out for "Latest News" "Facebook Feed" and "Twitter Feed" Iowa Reading Research Center is an online collection of literacy resources available to the public for classroom learning and teaching, at-home support, and educator research for children birth through 12th grade. Resources collected have undergone varying levels of screening to ensure research is accurate and relevant to visitors.

What's DUE:

October 31: TLC Applications
October 31: Special Education Count Date

It is not too late to sign up for the ELI Data Review Days. Participants MUST have received training on TIER and FAST assessments during the summer 2014. In this course, participants will understand the data obtained from FAST and use Collaborative Inquiry Questions to build an MTSS system. Follow this link to register.

For other H.E.L.P. topics and support, visit our Google Site.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Helping Educational Leaders Prepare

September 2014 There's lots more on the GHAEA H.E.L.P. Site

What's NEW?

New Iowa Core Website

The Iowa Department of Education will launch a new Iowa Core website this fall to help Iowans better access and use our state’s academic standards, as well as supporting resources educators may use to implement the Iowa Core. The website is part of a larger Iowa Core Resources project, which is designed to bridge the gap between the work to set rigorous standards at the state level and the work to put those standards into practice in classrooms. The new Iowa Core website will have three sections: searchable standards, resources for educators, and resources for parents and the community. Watch the Iowa Department of Education’s website for updates.

Meeting ELI Requirements

The majority of schools in GHAEA are meeting ELI requirements using the free FAST tool provided by the Department of Education and the associated IowaTIER data system. The focus of the work at this time is getting schools into IowaTIER to complete the Universal Screener for students K-3. Further support in the form of training will follow later this year in regards to Progress Monitoring and Interventions. Each Friday, there are Q&A webinars designed to support those involved in the FAST/ Iowa TIER work. Click here to locate transcripts from previous sessions and to find details about upcoming webinars and scroll down to Technical Assistance Sessions. To sign up for training on IGDIs (Universal Screening measures for Preschool, NOT a required component of ELI legislation), follow this link. Deadline is October 10.

What's DUE?

September 30, 2014 Marks the end of access to the Smarter Balance Digital Library for Iowa Educators. Download any resource you wish to keep. NOW.
October 10, 2014 Last date to register for IGDIs training.
October 31, 2014 TLC Applications due.

You've made it through September! Congratulations for completing all the reports to the DE!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Helping Educational Leaders Prepare

August 2014

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. =)

Friday, July 25, 2014