Our Mission
To improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth by providing services and leadership in partnership with families, schools and communities.
Our Goals
- Increase learning growth for students
- Decrease the gap in achievement
- Increase annual graduation rates
- Increase gateways to post-secondary success
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, all Heartland AEA offices will be closed Nov. 24 and 25. Our van delivery schedule will be as follows:
- Regular delivery Nov. 21-22
Regular delivery resumes Nov. 28. Additionally, there will be no Administrator Connection on Nov. 25.
The Heartland Administrators’ Association (HAA) will meet Dec. 6 from Noon - 1:00 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Conference Center, 8600 Northpark Dr., Johnston, IA. For up-to-date meeting information and agenda, refer to the HAA Google Site.
The 2017 ELPA21 dates for testing, launch, paper and pencil, training and missing materials were shared at the Iowa Culture and Language Conference this week. Disseminate these slides widely within your districts as needed.
Iowa’s nine AEAs and AEA PD Online are collaborating to move our individual professional development/licensure programs to a statewide PD system, the benefits of which include:
- Access to PD opportunities through a statewide course catalog in a shared registration system.
- Greater equity and consistency to programming while reinforcing the value of learning and credit.
- Generating resources to help support quality PD/licensure programming.
Each AEA will be adjusting to the same participant fee structure to align with the statewide system. Changes for Heartland AEA participants will be effective Jan. 1, 2017. Heartland, as well as the statewide system, will also be increasing the instructor compensation.
For more information you can read the complete program details here or contact Brandie Gean at (515) 270-9030 Ext. 14459 or bgean@heartlandaea.org.
PRESS (Path to Reading Excellence in School Sites) Trainings are two-day learning opportunities for training cadre members, agency consultants and school leadership teams. The goal for PRESS and C4K is to train district and nonpublic school staff to use PRESS interventions for literacy at the targeted levels in grades K-6 while developing AEA and state capacity to support implementation within the Universal Instruction and Intervention System facilitation guides.
PRESS is integrating with the C4K statewide system and a variety of learning opportunities and resources for Iowa educators will be available to help establish a school-based system and practices for all K-6 students in order to become capable readers.
Registration Links:
Closing date for registration will be one week prior to the PRESS event.
Storm Lake
Jan. 12-13, 2017
Buena Vista University
Registration Link
Des MoinesJan. 25-26, 2017
Plymouth Congregational Church
Registration Link
The Nov. 2016 AEA Purchasing Foodservice Newsletter is available and includes topics such as cafeteria furniture trends and school lunch.
Keep Iowa Beautiful will award five $1,000 scholarships to Iowa high school seniors in 2017 in memory of Robert Byers, teacher and environmentalist. Students who plan to enroll in an Iowa college or university to study environmental science, community development, landscape architecture or architecture (historical emphasis) or community planning and sustainability are eligible to apply. For more information and to apply go to www.keepiowabeautiful.com/grants/byers. Applications are due Jan. 6, 2017.
America's Farmers Grow Ag Leaders, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund, is giving students the chance to earn a $1,500 scholarship in an ag-related field of study, with more than a half-million dollars in scholarships available. The Scholarship program is managed by the National FFA Scholarship Program but applicants are not required to be FFA members. For more information, visit www.GrowAgLeaders.com. Applications are due Feb. 1, 2017.
Our Mission
To improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth by providing services and leadership in partnership with families, schools and communities.
Our Goals
- Increase learning growth for students
- Decrease the gap in achievement
- Increase annual graduation rates
- Increase gateways to post-secondary success
Two important messages about Training to Access ELPA21 Results and the ELPA21 Score Reporting Interpretation Guide are below, to help with interpretation of what the scores mean,
Training to Access ELPA21 Results
ELPA21 Online Score Reports are live on the Online Score Reporting System. Before accessing the individual student score reports, district staff must complete the training as outlined below.
For students who have transferred to a new district post-test administration, they will be included in the score reporting for the district that tested the student. Follow the same process that was utilized for Abbreviated Reports for Proficiency Determinations as follows:
- Contact the sending district and request the student’s ELPA21 Score Report be sent to you.
- If you run into problems retrieving the score report from the sending district. contact Kelly Hart.
Online Reporting System Training is live and needs to be completed before attempting to retrieve score reports from ORS.
- Access the webinar training here. Once you have logged in, click on Catalog and search for ELPA21 to locate the webinar training titled, Online Reporting System (ORS) Webinar for ELPA21 Assessment 2016-2017.
Instructions for accessing ORS are provided in the training webinar.
All questions related to A and A accounts need to be addressed through the Iowa Department of Education helpline at (515) 725-2040.
All other questions related to the ORS need to be directed to the AIR help desk at:
- Toll-Free Phone Support: (855) 873-5710
ELPA21 Score Interpretation Guide
The ELPA21 Score Reporting Interpretation Guide will also be uploaded to the AIR/IDE Portal and attached to the ORS Training as a resource. This will help clarify a number of questions regarding what the scores mean.
The two-day Iowa Science Standards Module 2 workshops are a continuation of the work that was begun last year with the Iowa Core Science Standards Overview (Module 1). Participation in Module 1 (or something equivalent) is a prerequisite for Module 2. The focus this year will be on unpacking the standards and developing coherent science lessons/units. This will include identifying "the right" (scientific) phenomena to use in a lesson/unit, using portions of the EQuIP Rubric to measure the alignment to the NGSS and overall quality of lessons/units and bundling standards in a lesson/unit. All workshops are scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Educators have the option of taking the Iowa Science Standards Module 1 from AEA PD Online. This can be used as a review or as new learning for those who were unable to take the PD last year. If you choose to take the online Module 1, we encourage you to take this session as a group, so you have meaningful group conversations. To access Module 1 Online visit the AEA PD Online website, click on the "Catalog" button and search for "science standards." Participants will need to login (or create a login) in order to take this online module.
All Module 2 workshops and registration links can be found on this page of our website.
DMACC Ankeny Campus has the following surplus items available. If interested, contact Julie Klocke with DMACC Purchasing at jaklocke1@dmacc.edu.
3 wire shelving units 18 in D x 4ft W x 6ft H
28 steel shelving units 24in D x 4ftW x 6ft H
15 computer desks with window view below desk monitors: 5 ft x 30 in
Our Mission
To improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth by providing services and leadership in partnership with families, schools and communities.
Our Goals
- Increase learning growth for students
- Decrease the gap in achievement
- Increase annual graduation rates
- Increase gateways to post-secondary success
Improve your data collection skills with this course:
Instructional Practices Inventory Level I Workshop
Date: Jan. 24, 2017
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Heartland AEA, Regional Education Center, 6500 Corporate Drive, Johnston, IA
Registration
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If you have successfully completed the IPI Level I workshop, this workshop will help you increase student engagement throughout the school day by focusing on technology infusion:
Instructional Practices Inventory Technology Workshop
Date: Jan. 25, 2017
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Heartland AEA, Regional Education Center, 6500 Corporate Drive, Johnston, IA
Registration
If you have questions, contact Karla Day, Professional Learning and Leadership Consultant, at kday@heartlandaea.org.
The two-day Iowa Science Standards Module 2 workshops are a continuation of the work that was begun last year with the Iowa Core Science Standards Overview (Module 1). Participation in Module 1 (or something equivalent) is a prerequisite for Module 2. The focus this year will be on unpacking the standards and developing coherent science lessons/units. This will include identifying "the right" (scientific) phenomena to use in a lesson/unit, using portions of the EQuIP Rubric to measure the alignment to the NGSS and overall quality of lessons/units and bundling standards in a lesson/unit. All workshops are scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Educators have the option of taking the Iowa Science Standards Module 1 from AEA PD Online. This can be used as a review or as new learning for those who were unable to take the PD last year. If you choose to take the online Module 1, we encourage you to take this session as a group, so you have meaningful group conversations. To access Module 1 Online visit the AEA PD Online website, click on the "Catalog" button and search for "science standards." Participants will need to login (or create a login) in order to take this online module.
All Module 2 workshops and registration links can be found on this page of our website.
The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners Nov. 2016 BoEE Newsletter addresses ethics for educators, provides website reminders, includes an attorney update from Darcy Lane and offers guidelines on social networking usage.
American Education Week—Nov. 14-18, 2016—will present all Americans with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate public education and honor individuals who are making a difference in ensuring that every child receives a quality education. 2016's theme, "Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility," is reflected in special observances each day of the 2016 weeklong celebration.
Letters About Literature (LAL) is a reading/writing contest sponsored by the Library of Congress that challenges students in grades 4 through 12 to become independent readers. Young readers respond to the work they have read (fiction or nonfiction, a short story, poem, essay or speech) by exploring the personal relationship between themselves, the author, and the work’s characters or themes, and then write a personal letter to an author explaining how that author’s work changed their way of thinking about the world or themselves.
Letters are judged on state and national levels and students are eligible to win cash awards and submission for judging at the national level. Grades 9-12 letters must be postmarked by Dec. 2, 2016 and grades 4-8 must be postmarked by Jan. 9, 2017.
Complete information about the 2017 Letters About Literature program (classroom teaching guide, how LAL helps meet the Iowa Core, entry coupons, judges’ criteria) is available on the Iowa Center for the Book website.
**Please forward this email to language arts, gifted/talented and other teachers in your schools who emphasize reading and writing in their disciplines.
The Iowa Department of Education’s Nov. 2016 School Leader Update is now available.
