Understanding Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Need information to share with all stakeholders regarding the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)?  The Iowa Department of Education has shared a great power-point that explains what ESSA does, its guiding principles, how current state initiatives fit into ESSA, and much more!  Click here to access Iowa's Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Getting to Know Our New State Assessment

Well, do we proceed with caution or jump right into learning more about our new state assessment?  In my last post, I shared a news release from the Iowa Department of Education that announced the "winning bidder" of our 2018-2019 statewide assessment.  The American Institutes for Research assessment called "Independent College and Career Readiness Solution" (to be named something different in the near future) is "expected to run one year and eight months-the time needed to prepare for and administer a new state test--with an option to renew annually for four more years."
So....I'm proposing both....let's proceed with caution as we jump into learning more.

Want to learn a little bit about AIR Assessments?  Click here
Ready to try an online practice test featuring AIRCore ELA and Math?  Click here

IDOE Announces New Statewide Assessment

Iowa Department of Education News Release

For Immediate Release September 28, 2017

Contact:

Staci Hupp 515-281-5651 staci.hupp@iowa.gov

Iowa Department of Education announces winning bid for new statewide assessments

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Education today announced the winning bidder for new statewide assessments of student progress in English language arts, mathematics and science to be given in the 2018-19 school year.

A formal notice of intent to award was issued naming a proposal from American Institutes for Research, an independent nonprofit organization. AIR’s proposal for an assessment called Independent College and Career Readiness Solution scored highest overall in a competitive-bidding process that followed criteria set by Iowa lawmakers this year.

Iowa will re-name the assessment once a contract is awarded.

A request for proposals was required by 2017 state legislation (Senate File 240). The Iowa Department of Administrative Services issued the RFP on the education department’s behalf in June.

Selection criteria followed requirements outlined in Senate File 240. For each bid, reviewers considered alignment with Iowa’s academic standards and federal law, ability to measure student progress and proficiency, costs, feasibility of implementation for school districts, time required to administer the assessments, and infrastructure and technology needs. Assessments must be available in both paper-and-pencil and computer-based formats.

Eight proposals from six vendors were considered by a review team made up of Iowa school administrators and educators, as well as staff from the Iowa Department of Education.

The vendors who submitted bids were ACT Inc., American Institutes for Research, Data Recognition Corporation, Pearson, Questar, and the University of Kansas.

An appeal period of five business days is underway, as required by law. Following this period, an assessment proposal will be taken to the State Board of Education to start the formal administrative rule-making process required for adoption.

A contract for new statewide assessments is expected to run one year and eight months – the time needed to prepare for and administer a new state test -- with an option to renew annually for four more years.

Iowa students will take new state assessments for the first time in the spring semester of the 2018-19 school year.

ISEA Journey to Excellence Training Opportunity

Contact Colleen Heinz @ Colleen.Heinz@isea.org for more information

Formally Designated SINA or DINA Funds Update

Within the next couple of weeks, districts that have been previously identified as being a School in Need of Assistance will be receiving notification of allocated Section 1003/Title 1 SINA funds.   Once these determinations have been made,  a Section 1003/SINA tab will appear on your Title 1 Application page.  You will need to complete this section as it aligns to your 2015-2016 SINA plan to be approved.  All funds must be used by June 30th.  These allocations can not be carried over. 


Guidance
For the 2017-2018 school year, the Department will continue to use the list of schools that would have been on the SINA list generated from the 2015-2016 Iowa Assessment data had the SINA designation continued. The sole purpose of this list is to determine the distribution of funds from ESSA Sec. 1003 (formerly SINA).

Schools that would have been designated as SINA will receive these funds, but no list will be published.Per U.S. Department of Education guidance, the Department has chosen not to collect new plans from districts or schools formerly designated as SINA or DINA. Schools that receive funds under ESSA Sec. 1003 will be required to submit a budget and a brief description in their Title I application of how the school improvement funds will be used to improve reading and math achievement.
 
NOTE:  The above guidance went to districts via email from Amy Williamson on 9/7/17

Sign Up for Differentiated Accountability Sessions NOW

Just a quick reminder to sign up for our upcoming Differentiated Accountability (DA) sessions.  Do you need to attend all 3 sessions?  District decision.  Here's a couple of things to think about:

1.  The FASTBridge session will not only cover use & interpretation of FAST data for fall screening,  but you'll also learn about report features, setting up interventions & progress monitoring.

2.  The Universal Instruction 2 day sessions are a repeat of last year's materials.  IF your DA data for % at Benchmark falls in the Intensive (0-59%) range, then we would strongly suggest you attend this 2 day training.

3.  IF you attended last year's Universal Instruction sessions and your data falls into the Supplemental (60-79%) or Universal (80-100%) then we would strongly recommend that:

• your team is meeting on a regular basis to start working the Differentiated Accountability action plan.  
• all PK-6 students are completing the Universal Screening assessment (i.e., FAST) 3 x per year.
• classwide interventions are being used with classrooms that struggle to meet benchmarks
• students that are not meeting benchmark are provided with a research-based interventions that will remediate the identified skill deficit
• weekly progress monitoring occurs and is recorded properly
• you CELEBRATE the successes you see. 

​4.  Make plans to attend the Intervention System training.  This session will focus on content learning, skill development, and action planning to further develop an effective Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to benefit all learners.  Determining and monitoring intervention effectiveness and alignment of interventions to student need will also be addressed. 

5.  Who should attend?  District/school team (3-5 members) is recommended because successful implementation of the work requires collaboration.  Consider including staff who make decisions about instruction, assessment and data use.  -

Mentoring and Induction for CASA

Here are a few important pieces of information I picked up yesterday when I tuned into the Mentoring and Induction webinar that I thought I'd share.

1.  Click here  for resouces that will help you with this work.  A recording of the webinar will be made available @ https://www.educateiowa.gov/pk-12/educator-quality/mentoring-induction-beginning-educators

2.  The bottom line was this.  If districts choose to continue with the Mentoring and Induction Program as stated in the plan that was put on the required template last year, they will upload that.

3.  If schools choose to use their TLC Part 4 structures for Mentoring and Induction, they would upload nothing.  Rather, they would review Part 4 of their TLC plan to make sure it addresses their support of beginning teachers accurately.  If their current Part 4 is accurate, they are good to go and continue the work. If their Part 4 needs to be adjusted, they will need to submit a Plan of Change for Part 4 of their TLC plan.

4.  Below you will find a few of the pertinent slides that were shared and serve as great reminders.  Again, you can find the link to the entire ppt when you click for resources in #1.