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
During the last two months, districts completed Steps I - II in the online Request for Transportation Agreement process. Districts are now asked to complete Step III (certifying your permissions) by May 31. Review the instructions and timelines to complete the process for 2017-18, including the video tutorials. For more information, contact Jenny Ugolini at jugolini@heartlandaea.org or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14441.
Heartland AEA is partnering with an advisory company, IS Loan Solutions, to help school employees improve their student loan situations and overall financial well-being. All of your full-time district employees (regardless of position) with student loans are encouraged to find out if this voluntary benefit can help them. They may qualify for loan forgiveness and refinancing to help lower or even eliminate loan payments. IS Loan Solutions has helped others reduce their monthly payments on average by 81%.
Click this link https://HeartlandAEA.myisls.com/register and enter registration code AEA11 for more information.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) may be able to:
- Immediately lower monthly student loan payment
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- Reduce student loan obligation
- Significantly lower costs to earn additional degrees
- Receive a personalized 10-year loan forgiveness plan outlining projected tax-free savings
Some may be able to lower their payments through the program, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF is not Teacher Loan Forgiveness). If you choose to work with IS Loan Solutions, there will be a fee for their services. For those who won’t benefit from PSLF, refinancing may work for you. For those who registered with ISLoan Solutions in the past and were told you would not benefit from PSLF, login to your MyISLS portal, and you will be directed to the refinancing option.
Contact IS Loan Solutions at (866) 831-5564 or visit isloansolutions.com for more information and success stories.
At Heartland AEA we have been surveying teacher librarians and technology coordinators about their school’s media usage and we’re finding that streaming video is the preferred video format in most classrooms. We randomly chose eight days in April to study usage and there were over 10,000 views of streaming videos! As we continue to build our streaming video collection, we will also remove VHS tapes from circulation after this school year. DVDs will still be available for checkout. If you have questions about streaming video or any of our other library or digital supports for schools, contact the Heartland AEA Library at (800) 255-0405 ext. 15799 or info@heartlandaea.org.
Registration is open for the 13th Annual Our Kids Summer Institute for educators and administrators of English Learners, June 13-14, 2017 at Waukee High School in Waukee. Network with other educational professionals, discover new strategies for working with English language learners in Iowa and meet national and local experts to enrich practices for increasing EL achievement.
Featured speakers include:
- Trudy Arriaga, Ed.D. - Administrator leader and advocate for ELs, first female superintendent of Ventura Unified School District where she began as a bilingual paraeducator
- Fern Westernoff, Ph.D. - Speech language pathologist who earned her doctorate in ELL and merged two areas of expertise to inform her work in Toronto, the world’s largest K-12 EL population
- Amy Hewett-Olatunde, Ed.D. - Minnesota’s 2015 Teacher of the Year
- Major Sean Quinlan - Retired Major United States Marine Corp, ROTC Instructor at Des Moines’ North High School and former football coach featured with his team on ESPN during the 2017 Super Bowl and,
- Our amazing students!
Sessions will focus on:
- Serving English Learners with Disabilities
- Newcomer Considerations
- Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices
- ELs and Literacy Support
- Enhancing EL Instruction through Home Language Connections
- High Yield Strategies for ELs
- Successful District Programs
- First-person student voices
Registration
Registration is $150 and includes lunch, snacks, Go To Strategies, OELA Newcomer Toolkit and OELA English Learner Toolkit. Seating is limited to the first 500 registrants on a first-come, first-served basis. Bring a team! We hope to see you there!
Register by June 4 at this link
Note for Teachers and Administrators in the Heartland AEA area: Title III will refund the cost of registration ($150), plus an honorarium of $200 (totaling $350) to off-contract individuals for full attendance and participation. Claim forms will be available at the event.
Note for Districts implementing Corrective Action Plans (CAP) for English Learners: These districts are required to send a team in accordance with the Technical Assistance Requirement under Title III. Contact your AEA Title III Consultant for additional information and financial support.
Heartland AEA with support from the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is pleased to pilot an additional course option for administrators and/or evaluators who want to renew their evaluator license. The Collaborative Leadership Institute will be held on June 19-20, Oct. 3 and Dec. 5, 2017 at the Heartland AEA Regional Education Center in Johnston. The pilot is open to anyone in the state and seating is limited to 50 people. Registration will be open soon pending approval from the DE and BoEE.
Learn more about the Institute in a live webinar on May 9
If you’d like to learn more about the content that will be presented in the Institute, join course facilitator Dr. Peter DeWitt in a live webinar on May 9, 2017 at 4:15 p.m. (Note: This is a change in time from the original announcement). Register for the webinar at this link.
For any other questions, contact Jim Verlengia, Ed.D., Director of Leadership Supports with Heartland AEA at jverlengia@heartlandaea.org or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14388.
Join in the last statewide C4K Leadership webinar on Zoom to receive updates and start planning for next year. C4K Leadership webinars allow for ongoing opportunities for professional learning and support for state administrators and access to tools and resources necessary for leadership. The webinars put learning into actual leadership practice, make connections and help leaders to stay ahead of new initiatives, laws and expectations through Differentiated Accountability.
Statewide C4K Leadership Webinar
Date: May 18, 2017
Time: 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
Zoom link to join the webinar
Des Moines Public Schools and Drake University are teaming up to bring you the conference on Transforming Systems Through Standards-Based Learning on June 22 at the Iowa Events Center.
Conference Emphasis
The conference will have an emphasis on secondary buildings and educators who are considering how to start authentic standards-based learning (including grading and reporting), help teachers who are trying things on their own, and support secondary educators who are looking for new ideas to try.
Session Topics
The conference consists of a keynote and two breakouts in the morning, lunch on site, teacher highlight speakers over lunch and two afternoon breakouts. Breakouts will be facilitated largely by DMPS teachers and leaders, as they lead learning over how DMPS has implemented standards-referenced learning, including grading and reporting, in a large district. Other conference faculty will offer sessions on:
- Making a student information system (online grading system, such as Infinite Campus) work with standards-referenced/based grading
- Learning how standards become proficiency scales
- How to track and monitor student learning
- Considerations for exceptional learners
- How administrators can lead efforts in standards-based learning, including grading & reporting
- Where to stand philosophically with regard to standards-based learning, scoring evidence, use of zeroes
- Successful implementation of standards-based learning and grading in smaller, rural schools
- Managing multiple opportunities for assessment of learning
- Looking at research regarding how standards-based learning and grading work
Drake University and Des Moines Public Schools Present:Transforming Systems through Standards-Based Learning
Date: June 22, 2017
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Location: Iowa Events Center, 730 3rd St, Des Moines
Register at this link
For more information, contact Becca Lindahl, at blindahl@heartlandaea.org or (515) 270-9030 Ext. 14355.
The BoEE May 2017 Newsletter contains important news about a legislative update on Mandatory Reporting, CPR Certification - Coaching, hiring new graduates, conditional licensure, BoEE helpful website tools and more.
The Iowa Department of Education May 2017 School Leader Update is now available.
The Iowa Department of Education’s May 2017 Each and Every Child newsletter is now available. This issue focuses on keeping kids learning throughout their summer break. And Deborah Reed, head of the Iowa Reading Research Council, weighs in on the so-called summer slide.
