Our Mission

To provide services and leadership, in partnership with families, schools and communities, that improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth.

Our Goals

• Increase learning growth for students

• Decrease gaps in achievement

• Increase annual graduation rates

• Increase gateways to post-secondary success 

TIME CHANGE: Heartland AEA Administrators Association (HAA) Meeting – Nov. 3

The HAA meeting on Nov. 3 will start at 8:45 a.m. instead of 9:00 a.m. and lunch will be provided.

For up-to-date meeting information, please refer to the HAA Google Site or agenda. 



Heartland AEA Administrators Association Meeting
Nov. 3, 2015
Regional Education Center
6500 Corporate Drive, Johnston
8:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.

Literacy Intervention Event Scheduled Jan. 13

Iowa's schools are implementing successful reading interventions every day! What better way to learn and share effective practices in reading intervention than by attending “Celebrating Iowa’s Success,” a one-day literacy event sponsored by the Collaborating for Iowa’s Kids (C4K), a collaborative comprised of the Iowa Department of Education, Area Education Agencies, and Iowa districts.

This event is designed for district and building administrators, reading specialists, classroom teachers and instructional coaches. Participants will hear:

• Keynote speaker Amanda VanDerHeyden discuss Return On Investment in education
• Schools from across the state share successful literacy interventions

Registration is due Dec. 18 and schools with successful literacy interventions are encouraged to apply and share successes with others across the state. Applications are due Nov. 20.

If you have questions, contact Mary Jane Stites or Mark Crady, coordinators of C4K Training Cadre, at (515) 270-0405.

DMACC Surplus Available

The DMACC Ankeny campus has the following surplus supplies available:

• 30 sled base desks

If interested, please contact Julie Klocke, DMACC Purchasing, at (515) 964-6386 or jaklocke1@dmacc.edu.

Task Force Releases Recommendations to Redesign Career and Technical Education in Iowa

Members of the Secondary Career and Technical Education Task Force released their final recommendations, which set a new vision for career and technical education that is in line with the needs of students, employers and the state’s economy. The task force’s recommendations for high-quality career and technical education (CTE) programs are as follows:

• Promote career and college readiness through thoughtful career guidance and purposeful academic and technical planning practices.
• Provide high-quality, integrated CTE programming comprised of secondary exploratory and transitory coursework to prepare students for higher-level, specialized academic and technical training.
• Afford students the opportunity to access a spectrum of high-quality work-based learning experiences through a coherent delivery system that streamlines and leverages existing initiatives.
• Address the shortage of qualified career and technical instructors by expanding opportunities to obtain academic and technical training in licensure areas and examining pre-service preparation and licensure practices to remove barriers for horizontal and vertical career advancement for individuals within the profession.
• Through collaboration and regional partnerships, provide for increased and equitable access to high-quality CTE through a statewide system of regional centers.

The full report is available on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.

Nov. 2015 Each and Every Child Newsletter

The Nov.2015 issue of the Each and Every Child newsletter is available from the Iowa Department of Education. Every school talks about transitioning their students from a school career to beyond, whether that’s a good-paying job, a two-year community college or even a four-year university. But these two school districts examined their programs and found lots of opportunity.

Nov. 2015 School Leader Update

The Nov.2015 issue of the School Leader Update is available from the Iowa Department of Education. In this edition, read about Director Ryan Wise’s observations as he travels through the state visiting schools, and Attorney Nicole Proesch talks about student discipline.

Trouble Accessing the DE/AEA Survey? Help is Here!

If you have had trouble accessing the annual AEA/DE Customer Survey, it may be that the survey is being blocked by district software. Here are a couple suggestions:

• Contact the tech folks at the district and ask them to whitelist the URL for the survey.
• While not the ideal situation, try accessing the survey from a home or library computer or other location than in the school.

The survey is open until Nov. 25, 2015. Please share this link with your staff.

If you have any issues accessing the survey, contact Dr. Gary Dannenbring.