Action Required by Sept. 15 to Secure myIGDIs for Your District

Dear Colleagues,

A few weeks ago you received an email from the Iowa Department of Education informing you that they were unable to continue their support for the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (myIGDIs) for literacy screening for preschool learners. The AEA system is interested in helping districts provide consistency with their screening programs for the 2017-18 school year. After consulting with the Iowa Department of Education, the AEA system reached out to myIGDIS and negotiated a one-year Iowa rate for use by districts, their community partners and nonpublic schools in Iowa. The AEA will contribute $2 a child to offset the cost for programs. This means programs will have free access or only pay $1.30 if they choose the iPad license.

Cost
The options listed below are available to programs that have been giving myIGDIS and those that want to begin screening in 2017-18. (Please note, the AEA system is providing this financial support to provide some consistency for districts in the 2017-18 school year. Funding for future school years is not being promised.)

Option	License type	Cost after AEA buy-down	Cost to districts after AEA subsidy
A	*Hard Copy of the Screening Scoring Forms + access to the Online Data System.	$2 per student	$0 per student
B	iPad License for administration and scoring. This includes Progress Monitoring + access to the Online Data System (Need 2 ipads per classroom: teacher & student)	$3.30 per student	$1.30 per student

*This is the same version that programs used with the kits last year. Progress monitoring isn’t available with the paper version.

If a district chooses the Online Data System and iPad license and Progress Monitoring System, the AEA system will pay $2 per student and myIGDIs will contract with the district for the additional $1.30 per student. If a district has already enrolled with myIGDIs, the district will be reimbursed by the AEA system $2 per student.

Online Data System
Under both options the district will have access to the Online Data System. The Online Data System offers the following features:

• Accessible through any device with internet connectivity.
• Create reports for classroom instruction or for communicating progress to parents.
• Analyze assessment data, measure effectiveness of instructional changes, and track performance trends in alignment with long-term outcomes.

Screening Window
The Iowa Department of Education has moved the opening and closing of the fall screening window for preschool only. The screening window will open Sept. 18 and closes Oct. 20. If districts have scoring protocols left from past years they may use them to get started. Once a district records their information on the Google form, they may make copies of protocols or can wait to be shipped protocols by myIGDIs.

Benchmarks for myIGDIs for 2017-18
The benchmarks that were used in 2016-17 for IGDIs in Iowa Tier will be different than the benchmarks set in the myIGDIs online system. The benchmarks set in the Online Data System are set based on national student performance. The purpose of screening is to predict which children may be at risk for early literacy skill development. The benchmarks in myIGDIs set by the researchers at the University of Minnesota are based on 3 Tiered System of data, however the predictive value will remain the same. Districts will have access to the myIGDIs benchmark scores for fall, winter and spring through a downloadable technical manual.

Student Import into Online Data System
Preschool students will not be imported into the myIGDIs online data system through the district Student Information System (SIS). myIGDIs has an import process involving an Excel template. This process and setting up classes will be explained in the training webinars.

Training
Free statewide webinars will be offered to show educators how to use the online data system. These will be scheduled statewide and schools could chose to join at no additional cost. myIGDIS plans to begin offering them the week of Sept. 18, 2017.

District Action to Participate
Interested districts should click on the link and learn more about myIGDIS and sign up if they want to participate. The information that will be requested is the name and email of the early childhood contact and assessment coordinator/contact, name of district, shipping address for paper copies if they are needed, the AEA system your district is located in, the number of preschool students you will screening in 2017-18, and which service you are wanting to use (hard copies and Online Data System or Online Data System and iPad license).

Timeline

Sept. 8-15:

• Interested districts can sign up and indicate if they need paper copies sent from myIGDIS

Week of Sept. 18:

• Classroom teachers need to attend webinar. Upon completion they can they will have access to the online data system and training modules.

Sept. 18:

• Fall screening window opens for preschool

Oct. 20:

• Fall screening window closes for preschool

Questions and Support
If you have specific questions about my myIGDIS and their materials and licenses, contact Jill Freking at (612) 444-3043 or jill@earlylearninglabs.com. If you have questions about anything related to the role of the AEA, contact Kevin Fangman at kfangman@heartlandaea.org.

To access myIGDIs for this academic year, action needs to be taken by districts by Sept. 15.