Author: lthomas

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) are pleased to announce that for the 2017-18 school year, students and educators will continue to have access to many of the same digital resources they have come to depend on as high-quality, reliable instructional resources. In addition, two new resources will be available for upper elementary and middle school students.

Statewide resources continuing in the next school year:

• AEA Digital Library
• BookFLIX
• Britannica School
• CultureGrams
• Gale Resources
• iClipArt for Schools
• Learn360
• SIRS Issues Researcher
• Soundzabound
• TeachingBooks.net
• Teen Health & Wellness
• TrueFLIX
  

New resources coming for upper elementary and middle school students:

• FreedomFLIX
• ScienceFLIX

Two resources will be discontinued at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year:

• Atomic Learning
• AP Images

For more information or assistance with AEA Digital Resources, Cheryl Carruthers.

Selection Process Note: The statewide selection committee and RFP review process included AEA library professionals, Iowa Department of Education consultants, AEA content experts and teachers. Final selections were made after surveying teachers and students for their patterns of usage and preferences, examining past years of database usage and receiving and reviewing proposals from more than 30 vendors.

AEA PD Online is celebrating one million completed courses. This accomplishment represents millions of hours of professional learning and reflects Iowa educators’ dedication to ensuring all Iowa students experience high-quality learning opportunities and environments.

Agency staff may have seen news headlines related to the Department of Education’s use of FAST/TIER. We want to share this notice from Dave Tilly of the Iowa DE to ensure our staff has the latest information on this decision.

School administrators were notified last week of the Department’s decision to terminate the contract with TIES, the developer of the Iowa TIER data system. For the 2017-18 school year the Department will be working with FASTBridge, and districts and schools, to transfer all district and nonpublic school users directly into the FASTBridge data system. As our state transitions to the FASTBridge data system over the summer, the Department will be communicating important information with districts and schools in order to keep you updated on our progress and to make you aware of tasks for which you will be responsible.

District and School Summer Communication Contacts
The Department will include all superintendents and principals that we have on file when communicating about the transition to FASTBridge over the summer. If there are additional people from your district or school that you would like to receive communication updates, please forward this email to them and they can click here to subscribe to future emails. Please make sure that you have at least one contact at your district/school who will be checking email regularly over the summer and will be able to respond to requests from the Department during this transition.

Closing of the Iowa TIER Data System/Summer Interventions and Progress Monitoring
Our intent is that the Iowa TIER data system will not be available for screening, progress monitoring, or scheduling interventions after June 9, 2017, except for three extended school year elementary schools that will be finishing spring screening and literacy status certification activities through June 23rd. However, the system will remain open until June 30th for downloading information such as one-click reports, progress monitoring graphs, student profile page data, and summary reports.

Because of the closure of Iowa TIER, the Department will not be able to offer on-line assessment administration, scoring, and reports for summer school. Schools that will be having summer school are encouraged to track interventions and progress monitoring data locally and to administer progress monitoring assessments with paper and pencil. If interested in paper/pencil administration, see the Progress Monitoring Using FAST: Paper and Pencil Administration document for a brief explanation and key points and the Progress Monitoring Using FAST: Paper and Pencil Materials folder for the necessary administration, scoring, and recording forms. We are exploring options for entering or uploading summer data into the FASTBridge data system sometime during the 2017-18 school year.

Historical Data Housed in Iowa TIER
The Department and the State’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) will be working with TIES to obtain all of the historical data that has been stored in Iowa TIER since the 2013-14 school year. We are unsure when the data will be available in a consumable format for districts and schools, but it is unlikely that historical data for students will be accessible right away in the fall. Before June 30th, we encourage (but do not require) schools to export information from Iowa TIER that may be useful for the beginning of next school year – this may include one-click reports, progress monitoring graphs, student profile page data, and summary reports. Please see the Iowa TIER Export Instructions for information on the most efficient way to export data.

Preschool Screening
The FASTBridge data system will not include on-line administration of the IGDIs assessments for preschool students. The Department encourages preschool classrooms that use IGDIs to administer it with paper and pencil during the 2017-18 school year, and track student data locally. We are exploring possibilities for accommodating data collection of the IGDIs data and will keep you informed with any updates we have.

Screening with Approved Measures Other than FAST
Districts and schools will still have the option to use other approved measures besides the FAST assessments. The Department is exploring how we will have these schools report required data. Again, we will keep you informed as we have updates available.

Thanks for your support during this transition. We know it will be a summer and fall of new learning but believe we are all headed in the right direction for learners in Iowa. We remain committed to our efforts in early literacy as a state and partnering with you as we continue on that journey together.

Throughout this transition, the Department will continue to be the first line of communication and support for districts. As you have questions related to the transition, please use the contacts below. We ask that you do not use the Iowa TIER knowledge base or ticket system for questions or comments related to this transition.

• Administrative issues:  Dave Tilly
• Differentiated Accountability issues:  Amy Williamson
• Technical issues:  Janell Brandhorst
• Media requests: Staci Hupp

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met Wednesday, June 7, 2017, in the Cedar Falls Conference Center. The board packet is available online and the minutes will be published online after approval at the next month’s board meeting.

Last month, ten AEA 267 staff members participated in No Shave November and in the spirit of fun, each put up $10 for the man who was able to grow the best beard in 30 days. It was a difficult decision, but the ladies of Ad Cabinet, the business office, and HR determined that one man, above the rest, grew the best beard!

Congratulations to the winner Dean Baldwin, Lead Custodian/Maintenance in the Marshalltown office! And kudos to Sam Miller, Karl Kurt, Dave Nicholson, Jerry Schnabel, Chad Pinkston, Greg Ehrig, Bryan Knecht, Matt Webber, and Shane Wolf for helping raise awareness of men’s health!

Of special note is that Dean is graciously donating all the money he won from the other men to the memorial fund for the fallen Des Moines police officers. Way to go Dean!

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met Wednesday, December 7, 2016 in the Cedar Falls Conference Center. The board packet is available online and the minutes will be published online after approval at the next month’s board meeting.

Uncommon Sense, a project rooted in Iowa stories about Iowa families and communities affected by life on the spectrum, is premiering January 21 & 22,  2017 at the Gallagher Bluedorn on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls. This three-year collaboration began with interviews of Iowans and captures the stories of the people in the narrative of the play with humor, love, and understanding. Uncommon Sense has been valued for its capacity to affect a vast audience and is devoted to elevating public awareness of neurodiversity through its story.

For more information and to request your complimentary tickets, visit UNI’s Uncommon Sense website and select, GET TICKETS.

To support a timely staff replacement process and assist in budget planning, a retirement incentive is being provided for Certified and Administrative Staff who provide early notification of their intent to resign or retire at the end of the 2016-17 work year.

The proposed incentive would be administered as follows:

Commitments of separation by resignation or retirement at the end of the 2016-17 work year submitted by Certified or Administrative Staff, and received in the Human Resources Office between October 3, 2016, and December 2, 2016, and accepted by the Board no later than the regular meeting on December 7, 2016, will receive an early notification incentive payment of $1,500 to be payable June 30, 2017 subject to the employee fulfilling their individual employment contract obligations for the 2016-17 work year.

This incentive is only being offered to Certified and Administrative staff due to the challenge in securing replacement licensed staff in these categories.

 In an effort to raise awareness for men’s health issues, as well as have a little fun, 10 AEA 267 team members are joining with countless others by participating in No Shave November.

The rules are simple, on November 1st the men agree to shave their faces and then put down the razor for an entire month. At the end of the month, the women of Ad Cabinet, the Business Office, and Human Resources will be the judges as to who was able to grow the best beard.

The winner will be announced in the December edition of Intersections.