Continued Focus on Universal Desk Audit Preparation

As promised, each month, we will focus on 1-2 documents that will be required for the 2016-2017 Universal Desk Audit.  This desk audit will be an examination of documents and records, limited in scope, and conducted off-site, the purpose of which is to determine compliance with state and/or federal requirements.

Impact on our Keystone AEA Schools: This month we will focus on School Calendars.  The data entered in BEDS will be checked against school calendars that are posted on the school/district website. Below you will find the documents we've highlighted in previous months as well as a link to the entire list of the 2015-2016 Universal Desk Audit Documents.

•  Annual and Continuous Nondiscrimination Notices

• Board Policies for Accessibility and Confidentiality of Student Records and Graduation Requirements 

To view the entire list of 2015-2016 Universal Desk Audit Documents, click here 

Differentiated Accountability Identification

As our state moves closer towards Differentiated Accountability to replace past comprehensive site visits, we know that the focus for the 2016-2017 school year will included the school improvement components of Assessment & Data Based Decision Making and Universal Instruction.

Impact on our Keystone AEA Schools: 
 1.  There will be three levels of visits/support: Universal, Targeted and Intensive/Focused.   

• Those schools that are identified for universal support will be provided with self-paced tools to help work through critical elements of Assessment & Data Based Decision Making and Universal Instruction if you wish to do so as a team.
• If identified for a Targeted visit, a member of the State-wide School Improvement Team (SSIT) will be in contact with you to set up a remote meeting with your leadership team to provide supports in the identified area.
• During the Intensive/focused visit, members of the State-wide School Improvement Team (SSIT) will join your district/nonpublic school’s leadership team to work through tools that have been developed through Collaborating for Iowa’s Kids (C4K) and create an action plan
  to help your district/school implement the actions you want to take next through a collaborative inquiry process.

2.  The level of support will be determined by the indicators listed in the chart below

SMARTER BALANCED ASSSESSMENTS

Recent information shared by the Iowa Department of Education has reignited peoples curiosity of the Smarter Balanced Assessments.  

Click here to view the Iowa Department of Educations Press Release focused on the Smarter Balanced Assessment

Want to get your staff and stakeholders thinking about the Smarter Balanced Assessment tests?  Here's some suggestions:

1.  Visit the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium  site @ http://www.smarterbalanced.org/smarter-balanced-assessments/
2.  Review the general information on the home page
3.  On the right side of the home page you will see "Publications & Resources"...check out the Smarter Balanced Fact-sheet and the Smarter Balanced Presentation
4.  ALSO-giving teachers some time to dig into the tests is critical...to do so, click on the Smarter Balanced Assessments tab at the top of the page and then click "Practice and Training Tests"