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
Heartland
AEA staff members are invited to share their input on the criteria the
Board of Directors should consider in seeking a new chief administrator.
The Board initiated conversations on this topic at its Jan. 10 meeting
and a working draft of those proposed criteria has been developed.
Please take a few minutes to complete this survey
to see the proposed criteria and identify your top three priorities in
each section. Your input by Jan. 25 would be appreciated.
If you
have any questions about the chief administrator search process or any
specific feedback to provide, contact John Kinley, board president, at jckinley@gmail.com or (515) 689-7904.
The Iowa Department of Education last week released the latest edition of the annual Condition of Education report.
The report provides a wide range of state-level data, including shifts in student populations and demographics, teacher salaries and characteristics, student achievement results and school financial information. The Condition of Education report contains the most recent data through the 2015-16 school year, unless otherwise noted.
Highlights include:
Students in Public Schools
- 483,451: The number of students enrolled in Iowa’s public schools during the 2015-16 school year, up from 480,772 the year before. This represents the fifth enrollment increase in as many years, following a 17-year decline in enrollment.
- 41.8%: The percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in 2015-16, up from 41 percent from the year before.
- 22.6%: The percent of minority student enrollment in 2015-16, up from 21.8 percent the year before.
- 5.7%: The percent of public school students whose primary language is not English (English Language Learners) in the 2015-16 school year. This represents no change from the year before.
- 71%: The percent of students from the Class of 2016 who took chemistry, up from 67.4 percent the year before. From the Class of 2016, 30.7 percent of students took physics, up from 28.8 percent the year before.
- 45.3%: The percent of students from the Class of 2016 who took higher-level mathematics, including calculus, statistics and trigonometry. This is up from 41.3 percent the year before.
- 22.1: The ACT composite score among students in the Class of 2015 who took the college-entrance exam, down from 22.2 the year before.
- 68%: The percent of students in the Class of 2016 who took the ACT, up from 67 percent the year before.
- 90.8%: The percent of students in the Class of 2015 who graduated in four years, up slightly from 90.5 percent the year before.
Technology Readiness
- 76.2%: The percent of schools in the state that have a bandwidth of at least 100 MB, which is considered the minimum bandwidth requirement for digital learning.
Schools, Teachers, Finance
- Iowa’s average teacher salary increased 2 percent in 2015-16 to $56,449, up from $55,356 in 2014-15.
- Iowa’s average teacher salary climbed to 23rd in the national rankings from 25th the year before; the Midwestern ranking remained the same at sixth out of 12 states.
- There were 34,727 teachers during the 2015-16 school year, essentially the same from the year before (34,725).
- There were 336 school districts in 2015-16, down two from the year before. There are 333 districts in the current school year.
- The state’s total per-pupil expense was $10,622 in the 2014-15 school year, up from $10,240 in the 2013-14 school year. That puts Iowa at 27th nationally.
The full report is available on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.
Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds last week announced a new state website that shows how prepared students are for success in postsecondary education and training upon graduation from public high schools in Iowa. Lt. Gov. Reynolds was joined by Ryan Wise, director of the Iowa Department of Education and D.T. Magee, Superintendent of the Norwalk Community School District at the Administration’s weekly press conference.
Iowa’s Postsecondary Readiness Report provides student enrollment in college and career training, postsecondary remedial course-taking rates, and postsecondary retention and completion rates that can be connected to every public high school in Iowa.
“This new resource supports our Future Ready Iowa initiative, which is about ensuring more Iowans have great career opportunities and employers have a workforce that is ready to fill the high-quality, well-paying jobs and careers of today and tomorrow,” Branstad said. “With more than two-thirds of all jobs in Iowa expected to require postsecondary education or training beyond high school, it’s critical that our students graduate from high school prepared for success at the next level. The new Postsecondary Readiness Report helps us understand whether that’s happening.”
Reynolds, co-chair of the Future Ready Iowa Alliance added, “Iowa needs all of today’s high school graduates to be genuinely ready for college or career training so they can succeed in a knowledge-based, technology-driven economy. That will open up great opportunities in their personal and professional lives, and will help close the skills gap that employers tell us about when we travel the state.”
The Postsecondary Readiness Report is a collaboration between the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Workforce Development and the Board of Regents.
Specifically, the website provides the percentage of students who enroll in college or career training as well as remedial math and/or English courses in the first year after high school graduation at Iowa community colleges or public universities. It also pinpoints postsecondary retention/completion by grouping student outcomes into one of four categories each year for five years after high school graduation: No enrollment found, enrolled, no longer enrolled and no award, and award. An award is defined as a degree, certificate or postsecondary diploma.
Data are available statewide and by Iowa high school, as well as by student demographic subgroup, such as race/ethnicity and eligibility for free and reduced-price meals.
“While we are proud that Iowa has the best high school graduation rate in the nation, our education system is focused on ensuring all students have the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in education and training beyond high school,” Wise said. “The Postsecondary Readiness Report is not meant to rate schools. Instead, they provide valuable information to help guide improvement efforts both locally and at the state level.”
A findings summary released with the new Postsecondary Readiness Report shows:
- 71.1 percent of Iowa high school graduates enrolled in college or training programs within one year of high school graduation.
- 18.9 percent of those students took a remedial math class within one year of high school graduation.
- 9.2 percent of those students took a remedial English class within one year of high school graduation.
- 90.1 percent of college-bound students enroll within the first year and 95.2 percent within two years of high school graduation.
- Rates of postsecondary enrollment differ greatly by students’ family income, race/ethnicity, first language spoken, and special education status.
The report will be updated each year in the spring. The Postsecondary Readiness Report is located at http://educateiowa.gov/postsecondaryreadiness.
We are excited to announce that beginning Feb. 15, we will begin the Stash the Cash Savings Challenge. Stash the Cash Savings Challenge will help encourage and promote you to save money and pay off debt! The challenge will run through April 14.
How It Works:
- Log on to the Stash the Cash website.
- Choose the date of payday to report.
- Report total amount saved during that pay period and total amount of EXTRA money that was used to pay off debt.
- By participating, you agree to receive an email notification on or about payday to remind you to report. You may opt out of these reminders at any time.
Good luck "stashing the cash!"
Heartland
AEA is offering a third opportunity for employees to participate in the
Naturally Slim® program.
Naturally Slim is a 10-week online program
that helps you lose weight plus improve your overall health – all while
eating the foods you love! With Naturally Slim, you will learn that you
don’t have to starve yourself or count calories to lose weight and keep
it off forever.
How does the Naturally Slim program work?
Naturally
Slim is a mindful-eating program that helps you change how you eat
instead of what you eat. It is not a diet. And, as you lose weight, you
also improve your health by improving the risk factors that can lead to
serious, chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and
more.
Why not give it a try?
You
can still eat the foods you love and this could be the solution that
you’ve been looking for. Thousands of people have used the Naturally
Slim program to successfully lose weight. The average weight loss in
just 10 weeks is 10.1 pounds. In fact, 15% of participants lose more
than 20 pounds in that time.
How do I apply?
The program begins on Feb. 6, 2017 but participation is limited. Applications will be accepted from Jan. 23 until Jan. 29, so fill out the online application today!
Please note: By submitting the online application, you are committing to participate in the program, if accepted.
Frequently Asked Questions
How will participants be selected?
Program
professionals select participants based on pre-determined criteria and a
willingness to meet all program completion requirements as outlined
below. You will be notified of your application status via email by Jan.
31, 2017.
What are the program completion requirements?
In order to
successfully complete the program, you must:
- Submit the online application and sign all appropriate releases by their associated deadlines.
- Complete
at least 8 of the 10 online video courses for Naturally Slim
Foundations within their set weekly time frames. It will be your
responsibility to ensure your participation is accurately recorded each
week.
- Complete a pre- and post-program biometric screening.
- Pre
biometric screening must be obtained and submitted to the Wellmark
portal by January 29, 2017. (You may use your current screening if it
was completed after Jan. 1, 2017.)
- Post biometric screening must be obtained at a local Hy-Vee by May 1st. (2 weeks after Foundations class concludes).
What is the cost for the program?
There
is no cost to you for the Naturally Slim Program. Your participation
will help Heartland AEA achieve our goal of becoming a more
health-conscious agency.
However, if you do not meet the program
completion requirements as defined above, you will be responsible for
reimbursing Heartland AEA $75, a portion of the program fee originally
paid on your behalf.
A
Note about Confidentiality…
The information that you provide to
Naturally Slim will be considered confidential and will be available
only to you and the program professionals. Heartland AEA will receive
participation reports for administration of payroll and billing
processes. Otherwise, the information you provide to Naturally Slim is
confidential and available only to you and Naturally Slim and its
affiliates involved in conducting or evaluating the program. Naturally
Slim cannot sell or otherwise divulge any participant information to any
unauthorized party.
If you have any questions, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, or Katie Streff, Human Resources Coordinator, at ext. 14315.
Agency staff who have double insurance coverage or are covered by their spouse's Wellmark plan, as well as Heartland AEA’s Blue Choice plan, may experience difficulty logging in to get to their Wellness page and may temporarily be unable to sign up for the Five to Thrive Challenge. Wellmark has notified us that they are experiencing a glitch with their system due to an update that they ran earlier this month. Wellmark suggests the following:
The member should select their AEA policy from the drop down menu after logging in at Wellmark.com. They will click “Go,” wait for the screen to refresh, click “Go” again and once the screen refreshes the second time, they should be able to access their Wellness Center for AEA. There is a fix going in at the end of January that will solve the ongoing issue but this was the workaround for our members until that fix on myWellmark goes into effect.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes. If you are unable to sign up for the Five to Thrive Challenge, contact Katie Streff or Juliette Houseman.
Are you participating in the Tacking Debt session and Stash the Cash Challenge? If so, you might want to check out the “Money” tab on the LifeWorks EAP website. You’ll find all sorts of useful information relating to money! Start under the “Money” tab on the homepage!
Website: heartlandaea.lifeworks.com
Username: heartlandaea
Password: lifeworks
It’s not something you probably think about often, but do you know how to call 911 from a phone in an agency office? Hopefully you never need to use this information, but we all know it's good to be prepared.
With regular long distance calls, you need to dial “8” first and then an account code. In the case of calling 911, you DO NOT need to dial “8” or enter an account code. You simply dial 911.
Do
you know someone who has made outstanding contributions to education
and the system of Iowa Area Education Agencies (AEAs)? Please take a few
minutes to nominate this person for recognition by Iowa’s AEAs. This is
the inaugural year for the AEA awards -- the Friend of the AEA Award,
the E. Robert Stephens Award and the Innovative Creator Award -- which
recognize outstanding candidates for their contributions to education
and the AEA system.
To submit a nomination, complete this application by Feb. 3, 2017.
Anyone is welcome to submit a nomination. The nominations will be
reviewed by a selected group of AEA personnel in February. Both the
nominating individual and those who are selected to be recognized will
be notified by March 1. The awards will be presented at the Iowa AEA
Boards of Directors’ Conference on March 30-31, 2017 in Des Moines.
More information about the three awards and criteria can be found on the Iowa AEA website.
