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

Administrator Connection is Going on Summer Vacation

As the school year comes to a close, so does our weekly Administrator Connection. Today is our last planned weekly update until August. We’ll communicate any important information via email during the summer.

If you’re leaving your district, contact the Heartland AEA Communications Department at comms@heartlandaea.org with your successor's name and email address (if known). We won't take your email address out of our email distribution list until after July 1.

Have a very enjoyable summer!

Stay Connected With Us This Summer

Remember you can always keep up-to-date this summer with Heartland AEA and statewide AEA happenings through our social media! Be sure to “follow” and “like” (and Share!) the following sites to stay updated with the latest news and information.

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

Districts are Invited to Participate in a Pilot of the BrightBytes Early Insights Suite

Heartland AEA is pleased to invite districts to participate in a pilot of the BrightBytes Early Insights Suite. The BrightBytes Early Insights suite is designed to provide education organizations with a comprehensive system to ensure students in need of extra support are connected to the most effective programs to drive success. To be considered for this pilot, please complete this form.

For 2018-19, Heartland AEA will provide access to the Early Insights Suite to a somewhat limited number of districts in our AEA. This pilot will fully fund the implementation of the full suite, which includes two modules: Student Success and Intervention. The Student Success module is about identifying students at risk of dropping out, and ensuring all students are prepared to thrive in postsecondary learning environments. The Intervention module helps coordinate interventions, track fidelity and frequency of services, and document all efforts in a centralized location.

General information about this module in the BrightBytes system is available on their website: BrightBytes Early Insights Suite. We will also schedule more detailed introductory webinar sessions for interested districts. In the meantime, these slides might also be helpful in your decision-making process: BrightBytes Early Insights Suite Introduction.

We are aware of many conversations happening in our state related to identifying and supporting the use of student data systems to help with instructional decision-making, including efforts at the state level led by the Department of Education. Heartland AEA believes this pilot will help with short and long-term planning as we consider the best options for how we support this work. As you may know, we have offered the HEART database for many years, and while this has been a very helpful tool for instructional decision-making, we believe resources like the ones offered by the BrightBytes Early Insights Suite capitalize on the latest research and technology advances to use predictive analytics to further our abilities to improve outcomes for students.

If you are interested, please complete this form in its entirety. We will contact you about an informational webinar and to confirm your intent to participate in the pilot. Capacity is somewhat limited, but we will do our best to accommodate as many districts as we can. If you have questions, please contact Sheila King, Chief Information Officer, sking@heartlandaea.org.

Heartland AEA Vans Will Deliver to Your District During Summer Months

Heartland AEA vans will deliver twice a week to each district administration building and schools with summer school during the summer months, as well as once a week to public libraries. If you have summer school or professional development programs and you would like regularly scheduled deliveries to additional buildings, please email Colleen Miller at colleen_miller@heartlandaea.org. 

Schedule:

• Regular delivery ends June 19. Drivers will stop at each school even if school has ended.
• Summer delivery begins June 20.
• Last summer delivery is August 9.
• Regular fall delivery begins August 13.

We’re Giving Away Books! For FREE!

We're having a book give away at Heartland AEA this summer! You can choose from over 2,000 gently used professional and PK-12 books … for FREE! Our kickoff is June 18-19 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Heartland AEA, 6500 Corporate Drive in Johnston. After that, books will be available in our library at that same location all summer until they’re gone. So come see us and pick up some awesome books for your classroom.

Have You Registered for The 14th Annual Our Kids Summer Institute for Educators and Administrators of English Learners?

“Speaking for All Learners” will be held on June 12-13, 2018 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.
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!

Featured Speakers
Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D
ELL specialist with 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, two worlds-linguistically and culturally. Successful speaker of five languages, teacher, entrepreneur, comedian.

Anita Pandey, Ph.D.Professor of Linguistics and Coordinator of Professional Development and Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Ryan Wise, Ed.D.
Director of the Iowa Department of education

Plus, our amazing local experts and students!

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.

What Are Key Items Needed for Standards-Based Learning Implementation? Find Out on June 14!

Carol Commodore, Ed.D. will address key items that speak to the need for a full, robust systems approach to implementing standards-based learning, including grading and reporting. She will lead learning on possible components such as having a guiding team or task force of some kind, mapping out a communication plan, and building consensus. 

Strand of Standards-Based Learning Framework: Internal/External Capacity Building 
Date: June 14, 2018 
Time: 8:30 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. 
Location: FFA Enrichment Center, 1055 SW Prairie Trail Pkwy, Ankeny, IA 

Registration 
Registration fee $60 
Register at this link 

Target Audience
District Leaders, Teachers, Building Leadership Teams, Instructional Coaches 

Presenter
Dr. Carol Commodore is the founding member of Leadership, Learning and Assessment, LLC. Carol is also one of the founding members of the Wisconsin Assessment Consortium and an independent consultant with Pearson's Assessment Training Institute of Portland, Oregon. She was a classroom teacher for over 20 years and was a district-level administrator for eleven years. Carol’s research interests focus on the impact of assessment and instruction on learners and their learning. She strives to provide meaningful ways to assist educators in their reflective practice and in the acquisition of tools that will bring insight and joy to them and their students in the educational process. 

Save the Dates! 
For these additional Heartland AEA-hosted Standards-Based Learning Opportunities:

Strand of SBL Framework: Belief System and Implementation Considerations 
Presenter: Tom Schimmer, Sept. 27, 2018 

Strand of SBL Framework: Standards-Based Learning 
Presenter: Jan Chappuis, Nov. 29, 2018 

Strand of SBL Framework: Learning Targets, Scales & Rubrics 
Presenter: Tammy Heflebower, Ed.D., Feb. 28, 2019 

Strand of SBL Framework: TBD 
Presenter: Myron Dueck, June 11, 2019

Steve Constantino Returns to Iowa to Present “Engaging Every Family to Support Student Achievement”

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.

Peter Dewitt Will Lead an Iowa Evaluator License Renewal Course, Beginning June 28

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.

Registration
Register at this link
The course is open to anyone in Iowa. Seating is limited to 50 people.

Questions
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.

Learn From Influential Leaders in the Heartland AEA Leadership Series

The Heartland AEA 2018-19 Leadership Series is presented by some of today’s most intriguing, innovative and influential leaders from around the country who will share their background, insight and knowledge with you. Speakers will candidly share their experiences, discuss challenges that have impacted their work and provide a unique opportunity for you to learn from their hands-on experiences.

Registration is now open for the five-session series that begins this fall. Some sessions are designated for superintendents and some are open to any educator.

Sept. 4, 2018
Kevin Honeycutt - Midnight Run

Oct. 2, 2018
Brad Waid - Transforming the Classroom through Augmented Reality

Nov. 6, 2018
Shannon Suldo, Ph.D. - Positive Psychology Interventions in Schools

Jan. 8, 2019
Anthony Muhammad, Ph.D. - Transforming School Culture through PLCs

March 5, 2019
Trevor Ragan - Teaching a Growth Mindset to Achieve Success for All Learners

Leadership Series Location
DMACC
Student Center, Bldg 5
2006 S. Ankeny Blvd, Ankeny

Registration
Review all the session options and registration links in this flyer.

Questions?
Contact Jim Verlengia, Ed.D., Director of Leadership Supports at jverlengia@heartlandaea.org or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14388.

June 2018 School Leader Update

The June issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is now available.

Statewide Assessment of Student Progress Update

In the spring of 2019, a newly designed statewide assessment of student progress will be used in the state of Iowa. Through House File 2235, the Legislature determined that the new state assessment developed by Iowa Testing Programs (ITP) at the University of Iowa will be administered during the 2018-19 school year. The Iowa Department of Education and ITP are committed to ensuring good communications to the field and will coordinate on important issues such as professional development and federal peer review.

A few key items of note:

• Testing window: Per the statute, all districts will be testing during the last quarter of the year. To accommodate district calendars, the testing window for 2018-19 will be open from March 1 to May 30.
• Professional learning: Starting in the late fall, professional learning will be delivered in multiple formats, including in-person seminars offered around the state as well as online. Topics will include test format and content, administration and accessibility.
• Technology readiness: Because we expect the majority of school districts will administer the online version of new assessments in 2018-19, a technology readiness plan and district certification process is being developed. The certification process will begin in November to check bandwidth, network connectivity, device compatibility and load capacity.
• Cost: Legislators appropriated $2.7 million on behalf of public school districts to help offset the delivery costs associated with the new statewide assessment. More specific information concerning the costs to districts will be available in August.

We encourage you to send any questions you have to assessments@iowa.gov so that we can begin a Frequently Asked Questions page to be published on the new website.

More information will follow this summer. Thank you in advance for your support of our statewide assessment efforts.

Ryan Wise, Ed.L.D., Director, Iowa Department of Education
Stephen B. Dunbar, Ph.D.Director, Iowa Testing Programs