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
This year Iowa’s AEAs again will be subsidizing the costs for schools to upgrade their DE-provided FAST subscriptions to include math and behavior assessments for the 2019-20 school year, and are expanding the potential grades available for schools. This year schools will have the option to use the expanded assessment suite in math and behavior for K-6, and will have the additional option to include grades 7 and 8. This option is available both to schools that purchased the expanded assessment suite in 2018-19 and those that want to use for the first time in 2019-20. Please refer to this FASTBridge program document for more information about pricing, registration, billing, training and ordering materials.
The April 12, 2019 Iowa AEA Legislative Update is now available.
June 18 - 19, 2019
FFA Enrichment Center
1055 SW Prairie Trail Pkwy, Ankeny, IA
Registration for the Our Kids Summer Institute is now open! You can use the following registration link: Our Kids Summer Institute 2019 (Course #: 180032) to get yourself and your team registered to attend our June learning together. We are also excited to offer each registered participant a book from our keynote speaker Diane Staehr Fenner titled, Advocating for English Learners: A Guide for Educators.
Our keynote presentation and breakout session topics are full of information for classroom teachers, EL teachers, administrators, instructional coaches and PK instructors. Your district team will have the opportunity to network with other educational professionals, discover new strategies for working with English Language Learners (EL) in Iowa and meet national and local experts to enrich practices for increasing EL achievement. Find more information on topic of learning and our keynote presenters at this link: 15th Annual Our Kids Conference Presenters and Topics!
We look forward to seeing you and your team in June!
The Department of Education is once again accepting applications for funding that Iowa schools and districts can use to build the computer science teacher workforce. The deadline for applications is May 20.
The incentive fund was created through 2017 legislation that encourages computer science in every school in Iowa. The fund is pending an appropriation from the Legislature.
The Computer Science Professional Development Incentive Fund will provide school districts, nonpublic schools and collaboratives of school systems to pay for professional learning or university coursework to build the capacity of educators to deliver high-quality computer science instruction at each grade level.
Applications for funding must demonstrate how schools will expand high-quality computer science instruction based on new computer science standards adopted by the State Board of Education.
Information about the Incentive Fund including application guidance and the scoring rubric is available on the Department of Education Computer Science web page. For additional information on the incentive fund, please contact Wren Hoffman, Program Consultant, Computer Science, Iowa Department of Education, at (515) 981-3306 or wren.hoffman@iowa.gov.
