Smarter Balanced Talking Points

Get Ready, Get Set, GO!  As promised, I will be sharing Smarter Balanced information and resources as we begin the possible race to a new state test. Below you will find excellent "Smarter Balanced Assessment Talking Points" released by the Iowa Department of Education.  This resource would be great to share with all stakeholders: students, staff, Boards of Education and communities.

Need a copy of this resource?  Click here.

Upcoming TIER How-to Webinars

The Iowa Department of Education is hosting some great TIER How-to webinars throughout the next couple of months.  Each session will last an hour with the intent to record the webinars and post them in the TIER Knowledge base within a day or two of each session.  The webinar software has a limit of 100 participants, so to the extent possible, try to use one log in to the session for your school rather than have multiple people signing in separately. 
If your district has a middle school or preschool that has or will begin to use Iowa TIER please share this information with them. 

Join from https://IDOE.zoom.us/j/520100415

Smarter Balanced...Get Ready, Get Set, GO!

Over the next several months, I'd like to share Smarter Balanced updates, information and resources as we begin the possible race to a new state test.  Below you will find a link to the brief video "What is Smarter Balanced".  This video would be a great introduction to staffs, students, and stakeholders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anIOSuafpsg

Literacy Status Report

A question I get a lot is, "How are literacy status designations made by the Iowa TIER system?" The below is taken for the Iowa TIER Knowledge base, Article id 210890603

Why Use Text Exemplars in Your Classroom?

Many of you often hear me say, "If I could go back and try it again"!  In talking with my Literacy & School Improvement consultants, and rereading parts of the research supporting the key elements of the Common Core ELA Standards, I remain committed in making sure we get the titles of the Common Core Text Exemplars in the hands of kids in every single classroom across our state.  Furthermore, making sure we get these titles in multiple languages should be something we strive for.  Without a doubt, I'm positive teachers will continue the great work that they've always done in making sure this happens.  In closing, I'd like to share a portion of the research of the common core that was good for me to be reminded of.....why we're doing what we're doing.  Celebrate!
Additional Resources you might want to check out:
1.  Appendix A:  Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards
2.  Appendix B:  Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks

Vocabulary...Dolch, Fry, Zeno "Oh My"

I am curious by nature, but even more curious to find an answer to a question I do not know.  Recently I had a question about where the sight word list in FAST is generated from.  Through many conversations, some late nights of on-line searching and an email to FAST, here's what I have to share.  Looks like my next little research project will be to read the FAST Technical Manual.  

 
Technical Manual on the development for our Sight Words sub-tests.

This measure is designed to assess whether students are able to recognize common high-frequency words. This is distinct from a decodable word measure in that, though some sight words may be decodable, students recognize them with automaticity rather than utilizing cognitive resources to decode them. Test construction of the screening form and progress monitoring forms differ slightly. The words were selected after review of sight word lists and sight word literature that suggests that sight word lists primarily consist of high frequency words (Pratt, Martin & Christ, 2010). The primary source for high frequency words in printed American English is the Educator’s Word Frequency Guide (Zeno, Ivens, Millard, & Duvvuri, 1995). Prior to the development of sight word measures, a study was carried out to administer the first 1,000 words from Zeno's high frequency list to estimate the difficulty of those sight words. Subsequently, the first 50 or 150 sight words were selected for the measure based on an analysis of word difficulty and word frequency. This sight words list is essentially 50-150 of the easiest and highest frequency words.

Some ADDITIONAL "FUN STUFF" to check out:

1.   FAST Technical Manual  (Abbreviated for Iowa 2015-2016)

2.  The Words Students Need, ASCD October 2010 | Volume 68 | Number 2  NOTE:  Great article pertaining to Middle School

3.  The First 4,000 words.  NOTE:  The 4,000 words were drawn from two well-recognized vocabulary lists: Zeno et al.'s The Educator's Word Frequency Guide and Hiebert's Word Zones™ corpus.

4.  Sight Words from the University of Minnesota Research Institute for Problem Solving:  NOTE:  These materials are aligned with the Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST) assessments and guidance within each intervention guide is provided to help teachers decide which FAST assessment to use for intervention decision making and progress monitoring, but other assessment systems and tools can be used with the materials

 

A Universal Desk Audit Reminder~Due December 15

Long gone are the days of schools scrambling to pull together a file folder box of compliance evidence before the every five year state site visit.  Enter...the Universal Desk Audit. 
 
All AEAs, districts, preschool programs, and nonpublic schools will submit initial universal desk audit information for compliance with state and federal legal requirements. If needed, further compliance review through more detailed desk audit, remote interview, or on-site will be conducted at a targeted or intensive level.

AEA and K-12 desk audit information will be submitted through a web-based application which opened on September 15th and will close on December 15th. AEA's, individual schools and district leaders have received a link to the web-based application from the department.

Here are a few of additional points for clarification:
▪ Desk audit for Pre-K is the EC web application
▪ All K-12 sites and AEA have received a Google site to upload their documents
▪ For Title I and Special Education, the Iowa Department of Education will using information that is already collect
▪ For future use, the Iowa Department of Education is also working on desk audits for: Prison education, Neglected and Delinquent and Homeless

Resources to help with this Work:
  
To view a great Universal Desk Audit Guidance document, click here
To view Universal Desk Audit information from the Iowa Dept of Ed, click here

To view the entire list of 2016-2017 Universal Desk Audit Documents, click here

To view the entire list of all Annual Notices, click here
Another great resource to help with your Annual Notices, click here  

Impact on our Keystone AEA Schools:  We're here to help.  If you need any additional assistance, please don't hesitate to give us a call or contact

Cindy Butler at the Iowa Department of Education @ 515.281.5332 or cindy.butler@iowa.gov