Our Mission
To provide services and leadership, in partnership with families, schools and communities, that improve
the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth.
Our Goals
• Increase learning growth for students
• Decrease the gap in achievement
• Increase annual graduation rates
• Increase gateways to post-secondary success
The February 2015 issue of the School Leader Update is now available from the Iowa Department of Education. Inside, Dr. Buck asks for your help to get a survey out that focuses on the state’s science standards. Legislative Liaison Shan Sievert gives you a rundown of everything education in the Legislature, and Attorney Nicole Proesch gives you a primer aplenty on everything legal.
Welcome to the February 2015 issue of Each and Every Child. In this issue, read about a literacy push showing very promising results within Green Hills Area Education Agency. It also addresses, albeit indirectly, the importance of having strong leadership in place, even if the leadership is not by title.
Last week Iowa Department of Education Director Brad Buck announced he’s seeking input from Iowans on a preliminary proposal to update Iowa’s science standards.
Buck announced a series of February public forums and an online survey following a state panel’s recommendation to get public feedback on the Next Generation Science Standards. This is the name of science standards developed by 26 states, including Iowa, that all states can consider adopting and adapting to meet their needs.
Academic standards represent expectations for what students should know and be able to do from kindergarten through high school. Iowa’s academic standards are being reviewed, starting with science, as part of Executive Order 83.
The process began last fall when Buck convened a team of education and business leaders to review Iowa’s science standards, as well as rigorous science standards from other states, and to make a preliminary recommendation for improvement to take to the public for feedback.
The science standards review team’s preliminary recommendation came in December, following three public meetings.
Feedback from the February public forums and survey will be used to provide guidance to the science standards review team, which is expected to submit a final recommendation regarding science standards to the State Board of Education later this year.
Buck said fine-tuning Iowa’s science standards is especially critical as the state works to bolster its commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education so that students can compete for a growing number of STEM-related jobs.
The survey will be open through Feb. 27.
Iowans also can provide feedback in person at any of the four public forums in February.
To read the Next Generation Science Standards, visit the Next Generation website.
To read Iowa’s academic standards, visit the Iowa Core website.
For the fourth year in a row, the overall number of students enrolled in Iowa’s public schools for the 2014-15 school year increased from the year before, according to the official certified enrollment report released last week by the Iowa Department of Education.
This pattern follows 17 years of declining enrollment. However, the rate of growth is slowing and is expected to plateau in the years to come.
A total of 480,772 students in kindergarten through 12th grade enrolled in public schools during the 2014-15 school year, compared to 478,921 students in 2013-14 (an increase of about .4 percent).
The statewide enrollment increase is due in part to an upsurge in birth rates from 2003 to 2008. Birth rates spiked in 2007 but have decreased in recent years.
Despite the statewide enrollment increase in 2014-15, a majority of the state’s 338 school districts (52 percent) had declining enrollment. The smallest districts faced the largest losses: Well over 60 percent of districts with fewer than 600 students saw enrollment decline in 2014-15 from the year before. Of those smallest districts, well over 70 percent experienced declining enrollment in the past five years, from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
However, a majority of larger districts with student populations of 1,000 or more posted enrollment gains in 2014-15 – with the larger the district classification, the larger the gain.
Of the largest district classification (7,500 students or more), nearly 73 percent experienced enrollment increases. The increase is even more noteworthy when incorporating enrollment counts from the last five years: Nearly 82 percent of the largest districts experienced enrollment increases.
The 2014-15 certified enrollment summary by school district is available on the Department of Education’s website.
The following are updates about the FitBit you can receive if you complete your health assessment.
Validate your health assessment to see if you have earned your Fitbit by checking to see if either there is a confirmation # or if it says “Still in progress.”
There are two ways for the member to validate for him/herself that he/she has completed all of the steps:
• Log on to the Wellmark Wellness Center and click on the Rewards Page.
• If you have completed all of the required activities, your reward home page will look like this:
• If you do not see this, you can click on the Fit Bit reward tab, and it will expand to show you what is required to earn the reward. If it is complete, it will have a green check mark and say “done.” If a certain lab value has not been entered, the lab value will be listed under activities but will not have a green check mark.
• If you still are not sure, you can call the Wellness Help Desk at 1-877-252-8412. They can tell you what activities you have completed and what is still missing, if anything. They are available 24/7, 365.
Deadlines
The deadline for completing your health assessment in order to receive a Fitbit is April 30, 2015.
The deadline for completing Wellness Challenge activities in order to receive a gift card is May 31, 2015.
FitBit Challenges
If you have a FitBit, check out the FitforFood website. Sign up for FitForFood and the calories you burn by being active will count toward meals for people in need!
Also check out new Fitbit Challenges in the Fitbit app!
Heartland AEA is pleased to announce that it will hold its first-ever Education Career Fair in March 2015!
March 4, 2015
2:00-5:00 p.m.
Heartland Area Education Agency
Johnston Regional Education Center
6500 Corporate Drive
Johnston, IA 50131
- The job fair will be an opportunity for teachers and other education professionals to meet with over 15 central Iowa school districts at one location to apply for jobs for the next school year. Positions will range from administration to teaching to support positions.
- Heartland AEA will also be recruiting for careers such as speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, school psychologists, school social workers and special education consultants.
- The job fair will be packed with opportunities for job seekers, including mock interviews, resume critiques and graduate program information from area universities. A number of districts will also be offering candidates interviews right on the spot!
Visit www.heartlandaea.org/career-opportunities to view a list of the districts that will be participating in the fair as well as the positions they will be hiring for. There is no registration required, and the fair is free of charge.
Last fall it was announced that the Agency Planning Council (APC) would allow all staff members up to 4 hours of agency time per year to do volunteer/community service work. A number of staff members took advantage of this new opportunity and it was decided to continue the volunteer time through the 2014-15 school year.
Staff members must follow these procedures for volunteering during agency hours:
- There must be at least three Heartland AEA staff members (you and at least two other staff) working at the same volunteer opportunity together.
- Staff members are encouraged to wear Heartland AEA-logo clothing or our “Heartland Cares” stickers that were created for this purpose. You can request stickers by contacting the Communications Department at comms@heartlandaea.org. (Please request your stickers so others can see who you are!)
- Of course, you must approve your leave with your supervisor before taking the time off.
- Finally, to celebrate our work, please take a photo of your group during the volunteer activity and send it to the Communications Department with information about the activity and who was involved.
Each week during the Iowa legislative session, we will bring you an AEA Legislative Update from the AEA system’s lobbyists, Tom Lane, Matt Eide and John Pederson.
During the legislative session, the Joint Education Allowable Growth Group (IASB, UEN, AEAs, SAI, ISEA) will once again be creating weekly factoids about the need for consistent growth in the state’s annual education spending rate. These “Facts About Education Funding” will be sent to all legislators, Gov. Branstad and Dept. of Education Director Buck highlighting a pertinent fact about education spending in Iowa. Each week this link will also be shared in The Connection.
Money Matters
Please join us for conversations about Chapter 62 Early Literacy Implementation legislation and the connections and considerations specific to Special Education.
Target Audience: Elementary Special Education Directors, Student Services Coordinators, Special Education teachers, etc. AEA staff members are invited to attend to enhance understanding and support teacher/district partners at the discretion of their regional director.
Topic: Special Education and Chapter 62: Connections and Considerations for individual students and system decisions. The session will provide an overview of Chapter 62 legislation, discussion of the intersection of Chapter 62 and special education, considerations for goal setting and progress monitoring and data-based decisions for intensifying instruction.
Click here to learn more and register.
If you have any questions, contact Martha Condon at mcondon@heartlandaea.org.
The Agency’s Internal Technology Department has been fielding a lot of calls and emails about problems caused by malware and adware. These types of programs cause a wide range of problems, including large numbers of pop-up ads, slowing down your computer and allowing hackers to steal your passwords and credit card information. Some examples of these programs that are showing up on agency computers in growing numbers include MacKeeper, Revir, Jacksbot, CallMe or MacSweeper.
Unlike many schools and agencies, our agency allows employees to be the administrators of their computers and iPads, allowing more freedom in how they can be used. However, employees need to be very careful in downloading or installing programs on their machines. Please read any messages on the screen and any user agreements before installing a program. If friends or family sometimes use your devices, make sure they follow those guidelines, as well.
If you suspect malware or adware has been installed on your computer, or if you have questions about software you want to install, contact Mike Permann, Greg Wilcox, Judy Cleveland or Julie Sypersma.
This information was emailed to staff on Jan. 29 and is being repeated here for your information.
The Agency is in the process of upgrading the vast majority of our Mac computers to OS 10.9. IF you have already had that upgrade done, OR if you have just received a new computer, you can disregard the rest of this email. If you’re not sure what OS (operating system) you have, follow the instructions here to verify what version you have installed.
For those of you who have OS 10.8 or lower, we are ready to start upgrading your computer to OS 10.9. As with any major upgrade, the first key step in the process is backing up your data. To make this easy for you, the Agency is providing you with an external hard drive. These hard drives are now available in your assigned regional office and can be picked up from your tech support lead. Along with the hard drive, there will be directions about how to backup your computer.
The next step is to sign up for a morning or afternoon appointment in Johnston. The Internal Technology Department will need your computer and hard drive for half a day to complete this upgrade. In the Universal Registration system, you will find a large number of times to sign up.
Please note:
- If you sign up for a morning appointment, you will need to have your computer and hard drive to the Internal Tech Department no later than 8:00 a.m.
- If you sign up for an afternoon appointment, both devices need to be to the Internal Tech Department no later than 11:00 a.m.
- If the devices arrive later than those deadlines, we cannot guarantee we will be able to finish upgrading your machine in half a day.
- A member of our Internal Tech Department will contact you when your machine and external drive are ready to be picked up.
Please go to this link to sign up for an appointment. The appointment dates run from Feb. 16 through March 31. The deadline for signing up for these appointments will be 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 9.
Some of you may be wondering, “Could some of this work be done at my regional office, saving me a trip to Johnston?” The Internal Technology Department gave serious consideration to that question and determined that it was best to complete the updates in Johnston. This is a network-intensive process, and even doing a few computers at a time would greatly slow down the network in the regional offices, which would also increase the time it would take to complete each upgrade.
If you have any questions about this process, contact Lance Wilhelm, Director of Technology, at lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org.
