AEAs Enter into New Compact with Iowa Schools and the Department of Education

Each of Iowa’s nine AEAs serves the special and unique needs of schools and children in a particular area of the state. Although there is still a need for support at the regional level, response to a 2011 legislative study and two consecutive years of $20 million budget reductions in state AEA funding have given reason for the AEAs to formalize a more system-wide mission and approach. 

Last school year, the leadership from the AEAs worked with the leadership from the Iowa Department of Education (DE) to define and strengthen the relationship between the AEA system and the DE. Building upon this collaborative work, the AEA chief administrators drafted a document entitled A New Compact with Iowa Schools and the Department of Education. 

This document announces a new, bold statement for AEA system co-ownership of student results and outlines a new direction in terms of accountability for Iowa’s AEAs. The document also is a statement of leadership for educational reform and is intended to be a vehicle for AEAs to be proactive and focused on student learning. 

The unified AEA Board of Directors and each of the nine individual AEA Boards have endorsed the Compact. Throughout this month the Compact is being shared with AEA staff across the state, DE staff, state elected officials and local school administrators and staff. 

The Compact identifies the commitment of the AEAs to work collaboratively to achieve one overarching goal: 

By 2018 every child who graduates from an Iowa PK-12 public or non-public accredited school will be prepared for success in post-secondary studies, a career and citizenship. 

Progress toward this overarching goal will be monitored through the use of a “vital few” or key measures (immediate focus will be on measures 1 and 2): 

1. Every Iowa child will be proficient in reading by the end of third grade. 

2. The learning gaps between students with IEPs and those without and for those students in disaggregated sub-groups will be reduced by half by 2018. 

3. A numeracy goal will be determined after sufficient progress has been made in reaching the literacy goal identified above. 

4. A post-secondary readiness goal will be established by 2014 that most accurately identifies and tracks post-secondary success. 

Seeing the goals of the Compact, I hope that you make connections to our goals at Heartland AEA that focus on increasing learning growth, decreasing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates and preparing gateways to post-secondary success. 

I invite you to think of this Compact as not only a way to strengthen our AEA system, but also a strategic avenue to achieve our goals here in central Iowa. 

Although many details are yet to come, I wanted you to have a chance to review this information. If you have any thoughts, ideas or questions about the Compact, please contact me at pvincent@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14314. 

Best regards, 

Paula 

Click here for the Compact document and here for a short PowerPoint that has been shared with Iowa superintendents. Click here for a short video outlining a summary of the Compact. The video was created by our AEA 267 colleagues and is narrated by Roark Horn, Chief Administrator at AEA 267.