Reminder About Iowa Alternate Assessment for Homebound Students and Students on Shortened School Days

This is a reminder that homebound students (usually for medical reasons) and students on shortened school days who receive educational services from a district are required to be tested for NCLB.  

Homebound students take the same assessments as if they were in a school building. Iowa Code does not provide exemption of assessment for students on shortened school days. For homebound/shortened school day students where instruction and assessment on the Iowa Alternate Assessment requirement of 15 items per content area assessed may be problematic, IEP teams must convene and come to consensus that a reduction of the requirement is warranted and then submit a request to the Department. The Department will then make a determination on the number of rating scales required for assessment.

If you have questions about IAA requirements, contact your regional director or Angela Calhoun at acalhoun@heartlandaea.org.

Superintendents: November 5 HAA Meeting

Click here for the updated HAA agenda for next week’s meeting. The meeting will be held from 9:00-11:50 a.m. on Tuesday, November 5 in Rooms 13 A & B of the Heartland AEA Johnston Regional Education Center (6500 Corporate Drive). Meeting topics include a session with SAI Legal Counsel Matt Carver about school safety and related legal issues and breakouts dealing with district-wide technology and negotiations.

Assessing Academic Rigor, Spring 2014

Spring dates for Assessing Academic Rigor courses are set! If you are looking to renew your Administrative License, one of the courses you may want to take is Assessing Academic Rigor. The spring dates are January 23, 30, February 20 & 27 at Heartland AEA. Click here to register.

Teacher Leadership and Compensation Model Google Site

Heartland AEA has a Google Site of resources to support schools as they plan their teacher leadership and compensation model. The site can be accessed here. One key resource listed under the October 30 meeting documents is the planning template. Districts that attended the first planning workshop really found this template helpful.

Background Checks Requirements for School Employees

This guidance is from Iowa Department of Education website. 
Under Iowa Code section 279.69, the Legislature has closed the gap on the requirement for school district employees to have background checks. The newly passed law requires that all school district employees have a background check conducted in compliance with various Iowa laws by July 1, 2014. This legislation includes other school employees such as cooks, custodians, paraprofessionals, and administrators who are not licensed with the Board of Educational Examiners. These employees must have a background check upon initially being hired and then every five years on the anniversary date of the employee. The law requires the school district to review information in the Iowa court information system, the sex offender registry, the child abuse registry, and the central registry for dependent adult abuse for information regarding the applicant. The school district must pay the costs of the checks and maintain documentation of compliance with this law. Click here for an ISFIS report for guidance with the new background check law.

November-December 2013 Each & Every Child Newsletter

Click here to for a link to the November-December 2013 edition of the Each & Every Child newsletter from the Iowa Department of Education. This issue introduces you to the school that is simply the best in the state when it comes to bringing their students on Individualized Education Plans up to grade-level achievement. Take a bow, Northeast Elementary in Ankeny!

Superintendents: November 2013 HAA Agenda

Click here to download the agenda for the November 5 HAA meeting. Meeting topics include a session with SAI Legal Counsel Matt Carver about school safety and related legal issues and breakouts dealing with district-wide technology and negotiations.

October 2013 AEA PD Online & AEA K-12 Online Updates

The October 2013 AEA PD Online and AEA K-12 Online updates are now available. For real time updates, follow AEA PD Online on Twitter @aeapdonline or download our app at http://myapp.is/aeapdonline. 

AEA PD Online 
• Find out how Moodle 2.5's Drag and Drop Feature makes adding images and files easier 
• Now Available: AEA PD Online Training System Level One Investigator Training 
• Upcoming Courses: November 1-December 15, 2013 
• External Partner Webinars and Events 

AEA K-12 Online 
• Connected Educator Month: Network to Learn, to Collaborate, and to Innovate 
• A View from the Field: Angie Emerick

Iowa ASCD to Host 4th/5th Grade Teacher Conference

Are you looking for opportunities for your fourth- and fifth-grade teachers to see quality implementation of the Iowa Core? Are you wanting to impact the learning of your teachers and their students? Register your teachers now so they can learn from practitioners - other fourth- and fifth-grade teachers - and go home with ideas, tools, strategies, information, and networking opportunities. (And be sure to watch the tweets from @IowaASCD - lots of tips for fourth- and fifth-grade teachers of reading!) 

Iowa Teachers will provide learning opportunities around these 3 strands: 

• Teaching for Understanding – Curriculum Strand: What do all students need to learn, know and be able to do? How do we in our building/grade level connect our teaching with the students’ learning expectations identified around “the core”?  
• Assessment for Learning – Assessment Strand: How do we know that students have learned? How do we use assessments to assess and diagnose our students’ progress in learning? How do we adjust our instruction based on the results of the formative assessments to implement the Iowa Core?  
• Teaching for Learner Differences – Instruction Strand: How do we plan and deliver instruction so that we meet the needs of all learners in our classroom? How do we respond if students struggle or don’t learn and how do we respond when students have already learned?

Iowa ASCD and ISEA are sponsoring this conference: 

• Date: December 4, 2013; Registration is from 7:45-8:30. Starting at 8:30 .
• Location: Prairie Meadows Conference Center in Altoona, IA (just east of Des Moines)  
• Fee: $100 for members of Iowa ASCD or ISEA; $150 for non-members

Four ways to register: 

• Register on line with a credit card at https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1317768  
• Mail a check/purchase order with names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith, Room 123, Drake University School of Education, 3206 University, Des Moines, IA 50311  
• Email with attached purchased order with names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith at bridget.arrasmith@drake.edu.  
• FAX purchase order with names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith at 515.271.2233.

And - if you send four or more teachers to the conference, you attend the conference free.

ESL Family Literacy/Parent Involvement Mini-Grant Opportunity

Districts with ESL students are eligible to write for additional money to support sustained activities that promote family literacy and/or parent involvement of their ESL students and families. Please consider submitting a proposal. Click here to view the guidelines. If you have any questions, contact ESL/Diversity Consultants Stephaney Jones-Vo (sjones-vo@heartlandaea.org) or Pat Latham (platham@heartlandaea.org).

2013-14 Staff & Schools Directory Now Available

Click here to download the 2013-14 Staff & Schools Directory. Updates to our PeopleBox database and the conversion of staff to new email addresses delayed the completion of the directory, but it is finally complete!