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 "Elementary Program, grade 1-6". Schools will be expected to provide evidence of building master schedules or teacher schedules. What might this look like in your district? Will a master schedule be posted on each building's website? Will teachers be expected to have up-to-date schedules on their websites?
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.
School Calendars
Annualand
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
Differentiated Accountability in a word: “Fabulous.”
Date:
Monday, November 9, 2015
Superintendent reacts to new Department site visits
Approximately 30 Iowa Department of Education officials and another
20-or-so consultants from the state’s Area Education Agencies descended
upon a Centerville elementary school.
Centerville
Superintendent Tony Ryan welcomes educators to the state’s first-ever
pilot of Differentiated Accountability, a new approach to school site
visits.An intimidating image? Not to Centerville Superintendent Tony Ryan. He welcomed the sight.
Ryan’s district is the first in the state to launch into
Differentiated Accountability, a system designed to replace the former
mandate of on-site visits every five years by the Department. The short
concept of Differentiated Accountability, or DA, is that site visits are
now focused on need. If a district is performing well, it may receive
no visit, enabling districts with more needs to receive more coaching.
“As with anything, there is always a bit of apprehension,” Ryan said.
“It comes down to your belief statement of doing what is best for kids.
And we believe if the state is going to support us in such a way, we
will take the step to do what’s best for kids. In the end, we want to
assure teachers that we are not doing a ‘I gotcha,’ but instead doing
what’s right for kids.”
Heartland Area Education Agency’s Mark Crady tells participants what to expect in learning about Differentiated Accountability.The
Centerville schools volunteered for the pre-pilot of DA; the Carroll
Community School District will go next, followed by another 40-some
schools in the official pilot in the spring. The pre-pilots are designed
to iron out any unexpected wrinkles in the system.
"Differentiated Accountability allows us to collectively and
collaboratively improve our practice,” Mark Crady of Heartland Area
Education Agency (AEA) told the Centerville gathering. “We are going to
do it together.”
And that is just the point of DA: Instead of a prescriptive, top-down
list of corrective actions, the school will be an active participant in
determining what’s working well, what needs improvement, and how to
remedy it. Site visits under DA involve a team of educators from the
Department and AEAs who partner with personnel from the school.
In determining whether a school or district needs a site visit,
schools throughout the state annually complete for the Department what
are called desk audits in which schools submit information about their
compliance with state and federal law. Schools also submit data through
the state’s early warning system on four pieces of information – known
as Healthy Indicators – which are examined to determine the overall
health of a school or district. The Healthy Indicators measure:
The percent of learners assessed with a valid and reliable
universal screener, which is a system that is used to determine whether
students are falling through the cracks;
The percent of learners not at benchmark – or where they need to be
academically – who are regularly assessed with a valid and reliable
progress monitoring tool;
The percent of learners at benchmark on a universal screening assessment; and
The percent of learners at benchmark remaining at or above benchmark in subsequent screening periods.
Boiled down, the Healthy Indicators measure the ability of
school’s assessment system to screen students for literacy needs,
monitor the progress of their students, and provide for good literacy
instruction for all kids.
At the end of the visit, the Centerville team had created its own action plan:
Develop a better approach to including the district’s preschool partners in universal screening.
Create a consistent approach to interpreting data from building to building.
Ensure principals at the schools coordinate when assessments are taken to avoid a shortage in substitute teachers.
Introduce new technology into universal screening by using iPads.
Schedule a common time for teams to review progress monitoring data.
Explore implementing class-wide interventions.
Examine instructional practices to ensure educators are being
effective in their instruction and that their instruction is aligned to
the Iowa Core.
Iowa
Department of Education’s Amy Williamson explains to educators the
overall concept of Differentiated Accountability, a new approach to the
state’s school-site visits.What struck Iowa Department of Education’s Amy Williamson was the enthusiasm of the Centerville team.
“They already are doing some great educational practices, but they
knew they needed improvement,” said Williamson, who is one of the chief
architects of the state’s DA system. “They had groups of people from
each building, from teachers to administrators. They had some
disagreements, but worked hard to build consensus.”
Though most initially believed the four-day visit would be exhausting, by the end of the visit people wanted more.
“We had one teacher who planned on being there only two days, but she
liked it so much that she ended up staying for the full four days,”
Williamson said.
And Superintendent Ryan’s reaction to the visit? One word: “Fabulous.
“We thought it would go well, but it went a lot better than we could
ever have dreamt. The collaboration between teachers, AEA and Department
was fabulous. It was an experience that was uplifting to the staff, a
morale booster.”
The perception of the visit, Ryan said, was that the collaboration created a team environment.
“We were working together rather than feeling something was ‘done to
me,’” he said. “That was the big takeaway from the teachers because they
felt the support was there.
“The teachers left motivated, eager and ready to go.”
The teachers themselves will create the action plan and roll it out.
But first they plan to have a celebration observing the good things the
district is doing.
“The teachers left inspired, and they want to take it in a positive direction and not let the momentum slip,” Ryan said.
The Centerville superintendent offered this bit of advice for other districts:
“As we move forward, I would suggest districts not to put up a
defense, but seize the opportunity and tap into the AEA and the
Department as a resource,” he said. “The actual experience was a
positive experience focused on kids.”
I'm
guessing many of you have seen this great new updated addition to the
Iowa Department of Educations website-->Data & Reporting-->
District and School Profile
Reports but I wanted to pass it on in case you hadn't. FANTASTIC data
in the areas of proficiency, demographics, indicators, finance, &
C-Plan. Want to see how your district proficiency compares to state and AEA proficiency data? No worries, it can do that too! Check it out @ http://reports.educateiowa.gov/Home
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.
Annualand
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
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
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"
