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
The Iowa Department of Education in collaboration with the Iowa School Safety Alliance will be hosting school behavioral threat assessment training that is part of developing comprehensive school emergency operations plans. The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Healthy Students, is offering a one day Train-the-Educator training designed to familiarize schools and school districts with school behavioral threat assessments in preventing and reducing targeted violence at K-12 schools.
Topics covered include how a threat assessment team can be integrated into the broader framework of school safety, security, emergency management and preparedness put forth in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans.
The intended audiences for this training are school administrators, teachers, counselors, support staff, community partners such as law enforcement and school resource officers, and representatives from community groups.
This is a great way to improve safety efforts in your school. The course is FREE and will be held on May 1, 2018 at Heartland AEA, 6500 Corporate Drive in Johnston from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Due to limited seating, it is important to register soon. Registration closes on April 24. Register for this training session online at this link.
Quality and affordable student planners are available for your school through Heartland AEA’s Creative Services Department. Planners can help some students feel more engaged and aware of school events, activities and projects. Visit our website to choose your planner style from the many options we offer. Place your order by May 1, 2018 to ensure delivery by the beginning of the next school year. For more information, contact the Heartland AEA Creative Services Department at (800) 255-0405 ext. 14368 or creativeservices@heartlandaea.org.
“Speaking for All Learners” will be held on June 12-13, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at North Polk High School. PK-12 educators will have the opportunity to 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.
Keynoters
- Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D is an ELL specialist who has extensive and diverse experience teaching educators how to enhance instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
- David Edward Garcia grew up on the Mexican border in Texas and lived in two worlds-linguistically and culturally. Growing up as an EL, he did not experience academic success but has become a successful speaker of five languages, teacher, entrepreneur, comedian and an inspiration to both students and educators.
Conference topics include:
- Strategies for addressing barriers to academic and language learning for English Learners in the classroom
- Best practices for supporting early childhood language acquisition for preschool English Learners
- Instructional leadership strategies for English language learning programs
- Connecting and collaborating with other educators responsible for the success of English Learners
- And many more learning opportunities and topics from experts in educating English Learners!
Information and Registration
Learn more at the conference website and register at this link by June 5.
Incentive
Heartland AEA Title III will refund the cost of registration ($150), plus provide an honorarium of $200 to off-contract public and non-public educators for full attendance and participation. This funding is not available to public or non-public districts served by the Des Moines Public Schools.
Anyone, anywhere can be the one to make a difference in the life of an adolescent with a mental health challenge – if they know what to do and what to say.
Heartland AEA is offering Youth Mental Health First Aid certification training on April 12 to help educators, school staff and other caring adults how to identify, understand and respond to signs of a mental health challenge in kids ages 12-18. The certification trains on the skills needed to reach out and provide initial help and support to an adolescent who may be experiencing a mental health challenge or a crisis.
Learn more about:
- Risk factors and warning signs of mental health issues in adolescents
- Importance of early intervention
- How to help youth ages 12-18 who are experiencing a mental health challenge or crisis
Youth Mental Health First Aid
April 12, 2018
8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Heartland AEA, Johnston Regional Education Center, 6500 Corporate Drive, Johnston
Registration
This is a FREE course.Register at this link.
Are your students’ families really involved in their education? At this FREE event on June 18, participants will will learn the importance of family engagement in the academic lives and success of learners and discover how to create a culture that is conducive to engaging every family in the school and classroom.
Engaging Every Family to Support Student Achievement
June 18, 2018
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Johnston Middle School Auditorium
6501 NW 62nd Ave., Johnston, IA
Register at this link by June 8
For more information, contact Terry Mendell, Heartland AEA Family & Educator Lead Coordinator, at (515) 270-0405 ext. 17135 or tmendell@heartlandaea.org.
Invited Audience: school administrators, teacher leaders, general and special education teachers
Presenter: Steve Constantino, Ed.D.
As a high school principal in 1995, Steve Constantino, Ed.D. became aware of research about the effects of family engagement on student learning and was convinced that this was the missing ingredient in helping all children learn. Using his high school as a laboratory, Dr. Constantino began to read more and more research and more importantly, figure out ways to apply it to his school.
Steve’s work has gained national prominence as he’s traveled the United States speaking and working with all types of educators, school board members and businesses to promote sound practices in family engagement that result in increased academic achievement for all students.
Today, he is the Acting State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Commonwealth of Virginia and is an adjunct professor at the School of Education, College of William and Mary where he teaches courses in the Executive Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership.
Heartland AEA is pleased to once again offer an additional course option for administrators and/or evaluators who want to renew their evaluator license. The Collaborative Leadership Institute is a two credit hour course that will be held on June 28-29, Oct. 12 and Dec. 13, 2018 at Heartland AEA in Adel.
Heartland AEA and Corwin partnered in the design of the Evaluator Approval Training pilot last year with the assistance of Peter Dewitt, Ed.D., and his work on Collaborative Leadership, which is grounded in the Visible Learning research of education expert John Hattie, on the most influential and impactful leadership practices shown to accelerate student learning.
In the Institute, Dr. Dewitt will unpack six leadership factors of Collaborative Leadership, painting a powerful scheme to meet stakeholders where they are, motivate stakeholders to strive for improvement and model how to do it. Participants will learn:
- The definition and complexities of collaborative leadership
- The 6 influences from Hattie’s research where they should focus
- How to redesign structures they have in place to help them have deeper and more impactful conversations with teachers, students and parents
- How to increase their ability to identify effective strategies for improvement
- How to build consistency in providing feedback to teachers based on a common set of agreed upon effective components of teaching
- Several activities to use with their staff to elicit the teachers’ voice and input into coaching, thus increasing teachers’ investment
- A deeper understanding of the Claims, Evidence, Impact, Judgment model for providing feedback to teachers
- To share best practices and be a resource
Registration
Register at this link
The course is open to anyone in Iowa. Seating is limited to 50 people.
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.
The April 2018 BoEE Update includes information about:
- Converting from an initial license to a standard
- Legislative update: expiration dates, Praxis II/edTPA testing, suicide awareness and prevention
- CTE Information Technology and Computer Science – New Endorsements
- Conditional Licensure
- New online licensing system
- Online license check
- Coaching
The April 2018 School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is now available.
