Times have changed
• Iowa has slipped from number 1 or 2 in the
nation.
• Worse… when we compare achievement
of students with IEPs to those without,
Iowa ranks dead last.
(Rising to Greatness, Iowa Department
of Education, 2011)
Today, student achievement
is our business
• Measuring our
collective efforts
is vitally
important.
An Expanded Mission
• Huge socioeconomic, political and
educational tidal waves are underway
which will impact all levels of government
including:
– Support for competition and choice in how public
services are developed, produced and delivered.
– An insistence on more rigorous accountability and
transparency.
– The greater use of appropriate performance and
quality management systems.
An Expanded Mission
• Iowa’s AEA State System has recently
been faced with increasing challenges
related to categorical funding.
• Iowa’s changing demographics have
increased demand for AEA services.
• Stagnant state and federal student
performance indicators along with societal
pressures for reform demand a more
cohesive, focused AEA system.
One Overarching Goal
By 2018 every child who graduates from an
Iowa pre-k 12 public or non-public,
accredited school will be prepared for
success in post-secondary studies, a career,
and citizenship.
Four Vital Measures
1. Every Iowa child will be proficient in
reading by the end of third grade.
2. A numeracy goal will be determined after
sufficient progress has been made in
reaching the literacy goal identified
above.
Four Vital Measures
3. The learning gaps between students with
IEPs and those without and for those
students in disaggregated sub-groups will
be reduced by half by 2018.
4. A post-secondary readiness goal will be
established by 2014 that most accurately
identifies and tracks post-secondary
success.
Connection to DE Goals
• New Report – Overcoming the
Achievement Divide – mid-November
2012
• Identified problem – significant and
increasing achievement gaps for students
who face additional challenges
• Solution – Iowa’s Response to Intervention
System Commitments
We will…
• Provide supports and accountability for
implementation of evidence-based,
internationally benchmarked, scalable best
practices in Iowa schools.
• Advocate that the current AEA
accreditation standards be revised so that
they are consistent with the New Compact.
System Commitments
We will…
• Deliver specialized, quality services based on
individual student, building, and district needs
through a learning contract with each LEA.
• Re-purpose resources from programs that
are not aligned with our overarching goal and
vital few measures and/or not delivering
consistent student learning results.
System Commitments
We will…
• Build the collective, organizational capacity of
AEA personnel to deliver quality services as
co-owners of every student’s learning and to
decrease variability between AEAs.
• Maximize our resources.
• Advocate for efforts and remove policy,
structural and statutory barriers that stand in
the way of using resources in service to
student learning.
System Commitments
We will…
• Constantly and consistently use formative
and summative data to inform our progress
towards our goal.
• Meet all statutory requirements at both the
state and federal levels.
• Benchmark our progress against a common
dashboard and against standards identified in
the research about highly reliable
organizations.
Selection Criteria
Commitments must…
• Articulate ways the AEA State System
continues its charter responsibility to serve
the needs of special education
populations.
• Focus on the requirement that the AEA
State System’s services and programs
consistently raise student achievement.
Selection Criteria
Commitments must…
• Acknowledge the need for the AEA State
System’s to strengthen its collective
organizational capacity as well as the
capacity of each individual AEA.
• Help districts and the state provide for
ways to find efficiencies in noninstructional services in order to maximize
resources for instructional goals.
Selection Criteria
Commitments must…
• Emphasize the goal of holding the AEA
State System accountable to co-ownership
of student learning goals with its principal
stakeholders: LEAs, non-public accredited
schools, and the Department of Education.
• Be administratively, economically, legally,
and politically responsible.
Selection Criteria
Commitments must…
• Maintain the ability of the AEA to be
responsive to the needs and interests of
local districts and accredited non-public
schools in their catchment area.
• Represent the best to which human
behavior should aspire.
Accountability Measures
During the 2012-13 school year, the AEA
system, in collaboration with the DE, will
install a performance management system
that will define the goals, tactics, timelines,
metrics and a tracking mechanism that will
provide timely reporting to stakeholders.
Possible Data Sets
• Healthy Indicators Matrix
• Iowa Assessments (third grade literacy
rates)
• USDE’s calculation formula for graduate
rates
• Reports detailing the percentage of
students requiring post-secondary
remediation
A New Compact
“The test of the
morality of society
is what it does for
its children.”
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer