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 Heartland Administrators’ Association (HAA) will meet on Oct. 2 at DMACC in Ankeny. The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. with partner updates. At 9:00 a.m. guest speaker and education technology guru Brad Waid will present a workshop entitled, “Transforming the Classroom through Augmented Reality.” This session is designed for superintendents; all other educators are invited to an afternoon session with Waid on the same topic.
HAA Meeting
Date: Oct. 2
Location: DMACC Ankeny: Student Center, Bldg 5, 2006 S. Ankeny Blvd, Ankeny
Time:
8:30 - 9:00 a.m. Partner Updates
9:00 - Noon Workshop with Brad Waid
HAA Oct. Agenda
EdTech guru Brad Waid is coming to Iowa on Oct. 2 to present the latest on emerging technology and the impact it’s having now in our schools, the impact it will have in the future and questions we need to be asking ourselves now. Your teacher leaders, administrators, technology coordinators and all educators are invited!
Brad will be one-on-one with superintendents in the morning session and with all educators in the afternoon session. Registration links for both sessions are below.
*Good news! We’re rolling back the afternoon registration fee to $0! Come and enjoy a great day of learning!*
Transforming the Classroom through Augmented Reality
Oct. 2, 2018
DMACC, Student Center, Bldg 5
2006 S. Ankeny Blvd, Ankeny
Registration:
Superintendent Session
8:30 a.m. - 9 Updates from Partners
9:00 - Noon Workshop with Brad Waid
Register Now
All Educators Session
1 - 4 p.m. Workshop with Brad Waid
Register Now
Educators, families and residents within the Heartland AEA service area are invited to share personal experiences on children’s mental health services at a listening post to be held on Oct. 8, from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. at Heartland AEA at 6500 Corporate Drive in Johnston.
Listening posts are being hosted at locations across Iowa on behalf of the Children’s System State Board established by Gov. Kim Reynolds in April. The board will review the information gathered from these listening posts as part of its charge to review existing resources and develop a strategic plan with specific recommendations to implement a better approach to help children with mental health issues. The report is due to the governor on Nov. 15.
Two additional opportunities have been created for individuals who are unable to attend the Oct. 8 event:
Join an Online Listening Post
An online listening post has been scheduled for Oct. 4 from 12:00-1:00 p.m. To join from your computer, click on this link: https://zoom.us/j/290354386. To join via phone, dial (646) 876-9923 and enter meeting code: 290-354-386.
Complete an Online Survey
A survey is available for those unable to attend a listening post. That survey can be accessed at this link: https://goo.gl/V25AeU. The deadline to complete the survey is Oct. 12.
Questions can be directed to Jeff Herzberg, Children’s System Board Member and Chief Administrator at Prairie Lakes AEA at jherzberg@plaea.org or (515) 570-2601.
Jan Chappuis
Standards-Based Learning
Nov. 29, 2018
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
FFA Enrichment Center, 1055 SW Prairie Trail Parkway, Ankeny
Register at this link by Oct. 15
Teachers, curriculum directors and instructional coaches will have the opportunity to learn from Jan Chappuis, one of the nation’s leaders in Standards-based Learning. Jan’s expertise could help in all areas of instruction from formative assessment instruction to standards based practices. In this session, Jan will:
- Focus on all aspects of curriculum: the intended, the enacted, and the assessed
- Address the work of identifying and unpacking standards of learning to create learning targets.
- Help teachers know how to identify those learning targets into categories such as knowledge, reasoning, skills or products
- Lead learning on what a balanced assessment system looks like, and what it takes to create that system within the instructional cycle
- Address the need to plan for accommodations and modifications for exceptional learners such as special education students, ELL and gifted/advanced learners
Nine EdCamp-style workshops will be held throughout the 2018-19 school year to provide additional learning, collaboration and conversation for those interested in Standards-Based Learning (SBL) Including Grading and Reporting. The workshops coincide with specific strands of the Standards-Based Learning Framework developed by Heartland AEA. You can attend whatever sessions are of interest to you; you do not need to attend all nine. Come learn with us!
Standards-Based Learning Framework Fridays
First Friday of the month from October 2018 to May 2019
Next Session: Oct. 5
12:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Visit our website to learn more and register
I announced last week that the Department has changed the notification date for ESSA levels of support from Oct. 15 to sometime between Dec. 3-14. Because of this change in the timeline for notification to schools, the school improvement schedule this year will also be adjusted. I’m pleased to tell you that most of the schedule will remain intact. The staff at the Department and all of our AEA colleagues have worked hard to ensure as little disruption to schools as possible.
The newly revised ESSA School Improvement One-Page Timeline is accessible HERE. The full ESSA School Improvement Timeline - with links to webinars and presentation slides - is at the same link as before and has been revised to match the one-page timeline. Here are the critical points you need to know about the updated timeline:
The Department and AEA staff chose to leave the schedule of professional learning intact because we feel this is the right work regardless of federal compliance requirements. We want to value the hard work of schools that have been on this journey of continuous improvement long before ESSA was a consideration by continuing to offer high quality professional learning in collaboration with the AEA system. This will be done largely on the same schedule we had communicated prior to the ESSA notification change.
The Administrator Information Sessions previously scheduled for the month of October have been canceled. We will instead hold a series of webinars during the month of October to keep administrators and other staff up-to-date on ESSA. The dates, times and topics will be posted to the ESSA School Improvement Timeline as soon as they are available. All webinars will be recorded and posted to the same document.
In addition, we will reschedule Administrator Sessions between Dec. 10 and Jan. 11. Department staff will be at one session in each AEA to go over the ESSA designations, report card, and any questions you may have.
Any changes to the AEA registration system for all professional learning opportunities will be finalized by Oct. 10. Only small changes will be made in individual agencies after this date.
While we will not be offering Intervention System professional learning during the regular school year, as planned, we will make it the focus of our Summer Institute. The Institute is required for schools receiving comprehensive assistance, recommended for those receiving targeted assistance, and open to all other schools, as well. The dates freed up by moving the Intervention System professional learning will be repurposed to offer the necessary ESSA components for schools, such as Self-Assessment of MTSS Implementation (SAMI) and Action Planning.
Schools will not be able to do the ESSA data review until after designations are announced. Even so, we will provide you with a list of other data sources that may be useful as you engage in the self-assessment in the fall.
We will add additional dates to our fall professional learning calendar for 2019 for Universal Tier Tools and Intervention System.
Site visits for schools receiving comprehensive assistance will not take place now until the spring semester of 2020. We will conduct two pilot sites in fall 2019.
If you have questions about these changes prior to the October webinar series please contact Barbara Ohlund at barbara.ohlund@iowa.gov.
Professional development opportunities for technology readiness will be offered in early October. The dates and locations are provided below. All districts are strongly encouraged to send representatives. Registration can be found at the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) portal.
The ISASP Accessibility and Accommodations Manual is under review by the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Testing Programs. The manual will be available in late October.
ISASP per test costs for both public and nonpublic students are available as a bulletin on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) portal.
Green Hills AEA - Oct. 1
24997 Hwy 92, Council Bluffs
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Northwest AEA - Oct. 1
1520 Morningside Ave, Sioux City
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Heartland AEA - Oct. 26500 Corporate Drive, Johnston
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Keystone AEA - Oct. 2
1400 Second St NW, Elkader
8:00 a.m. - Noon
Grant Wood AEA - Oct. 3
4401 6th St SW, Cedar Rapids
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Central Rivers AEA - Oct. 4
9184 265th Street, Clear Lake
8:00 a.m. - Noon
Heartland AEA - Oct. 8
511 S 17th Street, Ames
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Central Rivers AEA - Oct. 91521 Technology Pkwy, Cedar Falls
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Green Hills AEA - Oct. 9
257 Swan Street, Creston
8:00 a.m. - Noon
Great Prairie AEA - Oct. 10
2814 N Court Street, Ottumwa
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Prairie Lakes AEA - Oct. 10500 NE 6th St, Pocahontas
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Mississippi Bend AEA - Oct. 12
729 21st Street, Bettendorf
8:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
