Message from the Executive Committee of the Heartland Board of Directors

TO: Heartland AEA Superintendents
FROM: Executive Committee, Heartland Board of Directors

September is here, and school is in full swing. It seems the perfect time to thank you for your efforts on behalf of your students and your communities. The Heartland board and staff are honored to be in partnership with you.

In this time of transition, please be assured the Heartland board remains firm in its focus and the expectations made explicit in its published goals. At its retreat in late September, the Board will complete its annual performance evaluation and continue implementation of the search process for a new chief administrator.

Your input regarding desired characteristics of a new agency leader is essential to that process. The Heartland Superintendents Advisory Council will represent you as the superintendents’ focus group and will be interviewed on October 6. If you’re not on the Council, we hope you’ll contact a member before that date to share your priorities.

All of us at Heartland AEA are here to serve you and your schools. Choosing the right leader for the Agency will help us make the partnerships with you even stronger and bring all of us who care about teaching and learning closer to our shared goal: significant gains in student achievement.

Superintendents: HAA Minutes from September 1st Now Available

Click here to view minutes from the September 1st HAA meeting. The minutes are also posted on Heartland's Web site at http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ldr/admin.html.

Iowa Core Curriculum - Implementation Planning FAQs

Periodically, the Heartland Iowa Core Curriculum Team will post some frequently asked questions in the Administrator Connection. The responses are based on the most current information available at the time. The questions in this edition are related to implementation planning.

What does it mean to “fully implement” the Iowa Core Curriculum?
Full implementation is accomplished when the school or district is able to provide evidence that an ongoing process is in place to ensure that each and every student is learning the Essential Concepts and Skill Sets of the Iowa Core Curriculum. A school that has fully implemented the Iowa Core Curriculum is engaged in an ongoing process of data-gathering and analysis, decision-making, identifying actions and assessing impact around alignment and professional development focused on content, instruction and assessment. The school is fully engaged in continuous improvement processes that specifically target improved student learning and performance.

What will an implementation plan look like?
A district/school’s implementation plan will resemble an action plan. It should address these components:

1. Outcome - from self study
2. Targets/Actions - from self study
3. Activities and resources to accomplish the target
4. Evidence of progress
5. Timeline
6. If needed, other district/school decided components (i.e, persons responsible, budget, etc.)

An example of an implementation plan will be shared with teams during the October Leadership Year Two, Day One Training Sessions. A template for an implementation plan can be found http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/icc/resources.html, under Self-Study and Implementation, then Implementation Planning Worksheet.

The contact person for Heartland’s Iowa Core Curriculum team is Linda Biermann Hoobin who can be reached at lhoobin@aea11.k12.ia.us.

New Online Print Ordering System Coming this Fall

Last May, Heartland entered into a new agreement with Xerox Corporation to manage our Print Center. This agreement would enable us to use state-of-the-art equipment, provide cheaper full color prints and increase our turnaround time back to the schools. The transition this summer during one of our busiest seasons allowed us to see where there were gaps in the system that needed fixing.

One of the new procedures starting in September, will be implementing a new online print ordering system for our area schools' printing needs. The system is called, WebCRD, and it works much like Amazon.com or Kinkos online. School staff will have a login that will keep documents available for review allowing them to re-order quickly in the future. Users will also get an estimated cost before submitting their order, see the proof of their order and track its progress. This will expedite printing and reduce errors.

As with all transitions there will be a learning curve and some bumps, but the end product will be a more efficient system for ordering your printing. If you have any questions or comments about the new Print Center, please e-mail Brenda Gustafson at bgustafson@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Heartland AEA Provided News Clips

Each morning, the Heartland Communications Department provides links to local and national education news headlines. We call this service "news clips". If you would like to receive the news clips service, please contact the Heartland Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us.

IPTV to Air Two Shows Featuring Principals

Iowa Public Television will air two shows in September focusing on principal leadership. On Thursday, September 10th at 8:00 p.m., Iowa Journal will feature interviews with Iowa principals about the redefinition of their roles to ones of instructional leadership. The Principal Story, debuting nationally September 15th at 9:30 p.m., will reveal the struggles leaders face as they keep their focus on improving teaching and learning amid the competing demands of managing staff and engaging students and communities.