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 have been asked to complete Steps I - II in the online Request for Transportation Agreement process. Districts can now complete Step III (certifying your permissions) beginning May 1 through May 31. Please 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.
*Share this with all of your full-time employees*
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
PSLF also provides a personalized 10-year loan forgiveness plan outlining projected tax-free savings.
Contact IS Loan Solutions at (866) 831-5564 or visit isloansolutions.com for more information and success stories.
If you registered with IS Loan 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.
Don’t miss out on 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. Sessions include:
- 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
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!
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. Register by June 4 at this link: https://goo.gl/2pXC0m
Note: Districts implementing Corrective Action Plans (CAP) for English Learners 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.
With another successful ELPA21 assessment administration in the books, districts are reminded to return all testing materials as noted in the training and in the original shipment. Return all used and unused paper and pencil materials (e.g. Kindergarten and 1st grade online writing supplements, paper test booklets, braille kits) using the prepaid return shipping label for return to Measurement Inc. as soon as possible. If you have any questions, contact the Iowa Department of Education Help Desk at iowaelpa21helpdesk@air.org or (855) 873-5710.
Heartland AEA with support from the Iowa Department of Education is pleased to pilot 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 19-20, Oct. 3 and Dec. 5, 2017 at the Heartland AEA Regional Education Center in Johnston.
Heartland AEA and Corwin partnered in the design of the Evaluator Approval Training pilot 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
The pilot is open to anyone in the state. Seating is limited to 50 people. Registration information is coming soon!
Learn more about the Institute in a live webinar!
If you’d like to learn more about Collaborative Leadership and the course content, join Dr. Dewitt in a live webinar on May 9, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. 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.
Are you an AEA or district staff member serving students with autism in less restrictive environments? Then the web-based course “Online Effective Programming for Integrated Students on the Autism Spectrum” may be for you!
This self-paced course will cover a variety of topics, including:
- Characteristics of autism
- Effective classroom supports
- Evidence-based strategies for addressing concerns in the areas of communication, behavior and social skills
- Professional collaboration as a vital component to serving students on the autism spectrum
Effective Programming for Integrated Students on the Autism Spectrum
Dates: June 12 - Aug. 11, 2017
Location: Online
Registration: Register at this link
*Graduate and license renewal credit are available.
