Alternative School/Program Administrators' Networking Meeting Announced

The next Alternative School/Program Administrators' Networking Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 10, 2011 from 9:30 - 2:00.  The meeting is a chance for administrators from across the state to update each other on current practices, issues, and happenings in alternative education. The meeting will be on the DMACC Ankeny Campus in the FFA Enrichment Center located at 1055 SW Prairie Trail Parkway, Ankeny, IA 50023 in rooms 114-115.

Please register by emailing Greg McCullough or by calling (515) 965-7348 by November 9, 2011.

Here is the agenda for the meeting:

9:30 - 10:00 AM          Check In

10:00 - 10:15 AM        Welcome and Introductions
                                      Greg McCullough, Consultant, DMACC Youth Consortium

10:15 - 10:35 AM        Education Options in Wisconsin
                                      Rick Carpenter, Director, DMACC High School Programs
                                      Gayle Gosch, Instructor, DMACC High School Programs

10:35 - 10:50 AM        IAAE Events, News and Updates
                                     IAAE Board Members

10:50 - 11:00 AM       Break

11:00 - 12:00               Department of Education News and Updates
                                     Susan Walkup, Consultant for Alternative Education and
                                     At-Risk Programs, Iowa Department of Education

12:00 - 12:30 PM        Lunch-- There will be a $7.00 charge for lunch. We will cater from HyVee. Choice of sandwich (turkey, ham, or roast beef.) Email your selection to Greg by Tuesday, November 8.

12:30 - 1:15 PM          Successful Strategies for Student Achievement
                                     Judy Hintz, Director, Educational Resource Associates

1:15 - 2:00 PM           Networking, General Discussion, Q & A Session

In case of cancellation due to inclement weather, you will be notified by email or you can call (515)965-7348 for a voicemail message.

Sponsored by:

Iowa Association of Alternative Education

DMACC Youth Consortium

Iowa Department of Education

Governor Branstad's Blueprint for Education

On October 3, Governor Terry Branstad and Director of Education Jason Glass released a new blueprint for transforming Iowa's education system.

New Logo for Iowa's World Class Education, World Class Workforce

A draft of recommendations stemming from the Iowa Education Summit comprise the plan to return Iowa to the top state for education. Those recommendations include:

• Attract and support talented educators with an increase in starting teacher pay, more selective teacher preparation programs and improved recruiting and hiring practices.
• Create educator leadership roles in schools and develop a meaningful peer-based evaluation system that requires annual and multiple evaluations of all educators.
• Develop a four-tier teacher compensation system with Apprentice, Career, Mentor and Master levels and substantial pay raises for teachers who move up. Add other options for increasing teacher pay, such as work in extended day or year programs.
• Establish a definition of educator effectiveness and tie job protections to an evaluation system based on this definition.
• Free up principals from some managerial tasks to lead and support great teaching.
• Improve and expand the Iowa Core to put Iowa’s standards on par with the highest-performing systems in the world.
• Develop an assessment framework that includes measuring whether children start kindergarten ready to learn and high-stakes End-of-Course assessments for core subjects in high school. Have all Iowa 11th graders take a state-funded college-entrance exam.
• Provide value-added measures for all districts, schools, grades and educators that take into account student background characteristics and consider student growth.
• Seek a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law and work with key education groups and leaders statewide to design a new accountability system.
• Ensure children learn basic literacy by the end of third grade with high-quality reading programs, supports for schools and students, and an end to social promotion for third-graders who read poorly.
• Nurture innovation with funding for transformative ideas, greater statutory waiver authority for the Iowa Department of Education and pathways to allow for high-quality charter schools in Iowa.
• Create a state clearinghouse of high-quality online courses available to any student in Iowa, and back the courses with licensed teachers and the best online learning technology available.
• Set goals for student outcomes, including a 95 percent high school graduation rate and top statewide performance on national standardized assessments.

To watch a video about the blueprint, or to leave a comment for the Department of Education, visit their website.

News stories about the blueprint for education can be found in:
The Des Moines Register
The Cedar Rapids Gazette
The Sioux City Journal
and more.

New Department of Education Director, Jason Glass, Opens IAAE 2011 Conference

2011 IAAE State Conference Participants were honored to hear new Department of Education director, Jason Glass, speak about his vision for the future of our great state.

Jason Glass

Director Glass said that he's spent his first months in office visiting as many schools, programs, educators and administrators as possible to listen to what we feel is important for the future of Iowa's students. He says that he is impressed by the passion of Iowa Educators and appreciates the fact that all educators in Iowa seem to embrace the idea of continuous change to improve our schools. Many attendees were impressed by his statement that "We have to find ways to make schools fit kids, not make kids fit schools." This statement (and many others) fits well with alternative education's student-centered approach. 


Some key points to Director Glass' vision for the future of education in Iowa include: 

• Shifting away from the industrial model of education--having less reliance on seat time and Carnegie Units as the structural basis for our schools
• Making the "human capital system" in education more effective.  Director Glass would like to encourage districts to change the way they evaluate teachers. Evaluations should include a variety of data, including student growth, parent input, student input, observation. Standardized test scores should only be a small part of the data.
• Creating a coalition of "Radical Moderates" to walk the middle ground in educational reform. He feels strongly that we need to walk the path between those who fight to keep the status quo and those want to abolish public education in favor of charter schools.

For more information about Jason Glass' history, visit his Iowa Department of Education page.
To read or comment on his thoughts about education, visit his blog, Education Elements. Follow Jason Glass on Twitter @jasonglassIA


How did the director's opening remarks strike you? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.