Work-Based Learning Conference

The 2018-2019 year is a very exciting time for Work-Based Learning Coordinators. With the Future Ready Iowa Initiative, the Iowa Clearinghouse for WBL coming to fruition and the multitude of new programs across the state, we want to be your go-to place for all things Work-Based Learning.  We have a great team, including current and past executive officers, that have a wide range of experiences and knowledge to offer.  Please continue to use our PD source of Schoology and check out our website:  http://www.iowawbl.org/

At our annual conference, old friends come together to share their past year's ups and downs and new friends are made.  IWBL members from all over the state come to learn, collaborate and network to provide high-quality work-based learning programs.  We have grown from 40 attendees at our first conference 5 years ago, to expecting over 200 at this year’s conference.  This year we are excited to add a strand of breakouts to include Work Experience Coordinators in addition to our already full conference of information and best program practices for Iowa Work Based Learning Coordinators.
Please pass on the registration information to anyone in your district that would benefit from this year’s Iowa Work Based Learning Coordinators Conference, being held April 2&3 at the Airport Holiday Inn.
I hope to see and meet you on April 2&3!!
Kristen Bandy

IWBL President

Mental Health Survey

Dear Colleague, As you know, youth mental health in Iowa is dismal.  We have countless people across the state working relentlessly to improve school mental health.  Please Pass the Love is attempting to collect a large amount of data to better understand what school mental health looks like at buildings and districts across the state.  We cannot create sustainable, effective school mental health systems without your insight.  We are asking that school counselors across the state to take ten minutes to complete this survey.  Multiple school counselors in a building can collaborate, but we only need ONE submission per building. This is your opportunity to have voice for the needs of your students, school, and yourself.  All data will be compiled into a report due to be released in the spring.  Again, we cannot accurately tell the story of school mental health in Iowa without your help.  If you have any questions, please contact Jen@pleasepassthelove.org.  We have extended the deadline to this upcoming Friday, December 21st.  Thank you so much for your efforts to improve lives for our youth! Survey Link: https://pleasepassthelove.wufoo.com/forms/zeovun1172sc3f/

HS Credit in Middle School - fixed link

Please see below for the corrected link -
As you may or may not be aware, the legislature recently passed a bill authorizing HS credits to be earned in Middle School. For more information, please see the DE guidance found here.

HS SEL

A new report was recently published by CASEL regarding the perspectives of high school students on social-emotional learning. Access the report here.

HS Credit in Middle School

As you may or may not be aware, the legislature recently passed a bill authorizing HS credits to be earned in Middle School. For more information, please see the DE guidance found here.

ISCA Board Positions Available

In January we will elect three members to serve on the ISCA Board. But first, we need to find those members.
Today we announce the opening of applications for the following ISCA Board Positions.
Open Positions - Click to read position descriptions:

• President Elect-Elect (Term July 2019 - June 2023)
• Vice President – Secondary (Term July 2019 - June 2022)
• Vice President – Counselor Director/Coordinator (Term July 2019 - June 2022)

Board ResponsibilitiesWhile there are some meetings, most duties of board members are accomplished using technology -- telephone, e-mail, or webinars. All Governing Board members are expected to participate in three ISCA Board meetings held on Saturdays usually in January, April and September, the annual conference in November in Des Moines, and the Summer Leadership Development Institute (LDI) usually held for two days in July (location varies). Board members may also be asked to represent ISCA at state or regional meetings, professional development, and other professional activities. Members of the Governing Board do not receive any financial compensation for their service.  However, they are reimbursed for travel expenses and other costs. All Governing Board members are expected to pay for their ISCA conference registration, travel, and hotel. Those who have been involved in the ISCA Board have recognized many benefits of this leadership experience that include networking; learning about school counseling issues and strategies to advocate for the profession and for school counseling issues; collegiality; and professional and personal development.
How to ApplyIf you are a school counselor serving in one of these areas and are interested in serving on the ISCA Board, download the application at www.iowaschoolcounselors.org/Open-Board-Positions and submit to Aimee Hospodarsky at aimee.hospodarsky@monticello.k12.ia.us. 

Applications are due by January 7, 2019.

Poverty Simulation

Center for Social Ministry  is offering a poverty simulation on Thursday, November 29.

This simulation is on Thursday, November 29, from 6-9 p.m. at the Catholic Pastoral Center (601 Grand Avenue, Des Moines). This is a fantastic opportunity to get a small glimpse into the life of someone living in poverty. This simulation is open to all members of the general public. Below are links to more information and the registration form. 

Information about the Poverty Simulation

Register for the Poverty Simulation

If you have questions email: centerforsocialministry@gmail.com

Iowa CCR Academy!!

Registration open for 2019 Iowa College and Career Readiness Academy

November 15, 2018 New college & career readiness training courses start in January Registration is now open for 2019 sessions of the Iowa College and Career Readiness Academy. These facilitated online courses are perfect for administrators, school counselors and other college access professionals. Participants can earn professional certification as well as license renewal or graduate credit. Courses are listed below. Find detailed descriptions and prerequisite information here. 101: FOUNDATIONS OF COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS IN IOWA Dates: January 7-March 10 Registration deadline: January 1 Sign up here. 201: CREATING IOWA’S COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS CULTURE Prerequisite: 101 Dates: January 7-March 10 Registration deadline: January 1 Sign up here. 301: SYSTEMS AND OPTIMIZATION Sign up here to receive notification when registration opens. 401: PLANNING AND THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR’S ROLE IN ICAP ADVISING Dates: March 11-May 5 Sign up here. 501: PLANNING, ACCESSING AND FINANCING POSTSECONDARY OPPORTUNITIES Dates: January 7-March 10 Registration deadline: January 1 Sign up here.  Iowa College Aid offers this continuing education program in partnership with AEA Iowa, the Iowa Department of Education and the Iowa School Counselor Association.

Please pass the love survey

Dear Colleague,

As you know, youth mental health in Iowa is dismal.  We have countless people across the state working relentlessly to improve school mental health.  Please Pass the Love is attempting to collect a large amount of data to better understand what school mental health looks like at buildings and districts across the state.  We cannot create sustainable, effective school mental health systems without your insight.  We are asking that school counselors across the state to take ten minutes to complete this survey.  Multiple school counselors in a building can collaborate, but we only need ONE submission per building. This is your opportunity to have voice for the needs of your students, school, and yourself.  All data will be compiled into a report due to be released in the spring.  Again, we cannot accurately tell the story of school mental health in Iowa without your help.  If you have any questions, please contact Jen@pleasepassthelove.org.  We need all surveys completed by December 12^th.

Thank you so much for your efforts to improve lives for our youth!

Survey Link: https://pleasepassthelove.wufoo.com/forms/zeovun1172sc3f/

SEL Assessments

New assessment guide released today The SEL Assessment Guide from The Assessment Work Group (AWG) is now live! Released today, the online guide: Offers advice to districts and schools on how to choose and use student SEL competency assessments; Provides a curated catalog of 23 assessments currently used in practice; and Features real-world examples of how practitioners are using SEL competency assessments. The catalog provides detailed information about measures of SEL knowledge, skills, and mindsets that are currently being used in schools or afterschool settings. Users can search by: SEL competency (such as self-management and social awareness); Grade level; and Assessment type (student self-report, teacher-staff survey, peer survey, performance measure, family survey). “With this guide, we are trying to help educators determine which currently available SEL competency assessments are right for them, based on their approach to SEL and how they are looking to use their data."  Jeremy Taylor, CASEL’s Director of Assessment and Continuous Improvement An accompanying Practitioner Guidance Report, created jointly by the AWG and RAND Corporation, also aims to helps schools and districts choose and use SEL competency assessments. As one school counselor expressed, "This is better than anything I have accessed and I'm so thankful and impressed. This is going to save many practitioners time in research trying to find/compare SEL assessments.” The Assessment Work Group is supported by the Funders Collaborative for Innovative Measurement (FCIM), which includes 15 private foundations. FCIM also is supporting two related projects. This suite of online tools provides common SEL language and enhanced access to assessment instruments with the goal of creating practices that promote intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. Learn more. The Taxonomy Project Developed by the EASEL Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, it showcases the points of alignment and divergence across SEL frameworks, in a way that enables users to both identify common ground and to see what is distinct within any particular framework. The RAND Assessment Finder The tool lists more than 200 assessments of interpersonal, intrapersonal, and higher-order cognitive competencies, including associated descriptive and evaluative information. These assessments include those found in research or in current practice. This tool enables practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to explore what assessments are available and obtain key information about what they are designed to measure, how they operate, what demands they place on students and teachers, and what kinds of uses their scores support. The scope of RAND’s Assessment Finder is not limited to measures currently being used in schools, and includes measures of higher-order cognitive competencies. The Assessment Work Group is a multidisciplinary collaborative of leading education researchers and practitioners, managed by CASEL with leaders from the RAND Corporation, Harvard University, the California CORE Districts, Transforming Education, xSEL Labs, and several universities, nonprofit organizations, and school districts across the country. ‌ ‌

AEA PREP Dashboards

Recently, the Iowa Department of Education released AEA PREP Dashboards providing a portrait of how prepared Iowa high school graduates are for success in postsecondary education and training. The dashboards are intended to help guide school and district school improvement efforts using statewide, AEA, district and building level data. Schools can use their local information to benchmark and monitor progress toward locally defined goals as they relate to postsecondary readiness and success, including enrollment, persistence and completion of postsecondary programs. The AEA PREP Dashboards are highly interactive in nature and allow schools to examine the postsecondary success of their students through a variety of postsecondary readiness and demographic filters. The dashboards are housed within EdInsight; if you desire access to these dashboards and currently do not have an EdInsight (also known as an “A & A” account), please see these instructions for creating a user account and/or requesting access.

I have spoken with many of you about the dashboards and the information that it holds and how you can be the leaders of the data understanding in your buildings. I am so excited to share that it is now available!! A letter went to your superintendents and HS Principals last week about this information. Also, please remember this is a K-12 issue - not just high school!!

What data are included/what data are excluded
Data included: PREP Dashboards include postsecondary readiness and demographic data provided by Iowa school districts through State Reporting in Iowa (SRI). In addition, postsecondary enrollment and award data are provided through three sources: Iowa Board of Regents (for public Regent universities in Iowa); Iowa Division of Community Colleges & Workforce Preparation (for public community colleges in Iowa); and the National Student Clearinghouse (for in-state private colleges and universities and all out-of-state colleges and universities).

Data excluded: Postsecondary enrollment data is considered directory-level data and thus does not include any postsecondary performance data, including but not limited to college GPA, college credit accrual, financial aid information, or other course-specific performance data.

How to use or interpret PREP Dashboards
Specifically, AEA PREP Dashboards are intended to help guide districts in establishing and monitoring postsecondary readiness goals aligned with both the Iowa College and Career Readiness definition and overall school improvement efforts. The information contained in the dashboards can be used to identify programmatic areas of success in relation to increasing postsecondary enrollment and award/completion. These reports are intended to support the entire school improvement process in conjunction with the other data sources already in use (i.e. ESSA reporting, school report cards and DA/Healthy Indicators). Please note: AEA PREP Dashboards are intended for in-district use only and are not intended for public distribution due to their inclusion of small cell size data.

Reach Higher - New Tool!!

Hello friends, We have an exciting FREE tool to help answer your high school students’ about college, and we wanted to make sure that you were the first to know about it. We’ve partnered with AdmitHub and the Michelson 20MM Foundation to create a chatbot (Bo! ) that will answer students’ questions about all things related to college. This is a free tool that is available 24/7 on our Better Make Room Facebook page and can answer unlimited questions about the FAFSA, the college application process, college life, and many more topics! In order for your students to use the chatbot, just have them click "send message" to our Better Make Room Facebook page and ask their questions about college. Our automated chatbot, Bo, will take it from there! This does not require you or your student to enroll in or send any personal information to participate. If you have any questions about using this tool, please email us at bettermakeroom@civicnation.org. We hope this tool helps your students on their journey to higher education! Best, The Reach Higher Team

Course to College

If you haven't signed up your school for Course to College - there is still time!!! This is one of the greatest initiatives out there!!! 

Course to College is a program that consists of five initiatives - Application Campaign, FAFSA Completion, Decision Day, Summer Transition and Early Awareness. For this, Iowa College Aid hosts a weekly call on various topics throughout the school year and sends out a weekly update email with links in it that lead to other resources, webinars, etc. The call schedule is every Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this great program, you can sign up at any time during the year! Registration Link

Spread the Word!

Counselors - Please share this information with your students!! A great opportunity to learn and share!!

RISE!! An innovative education conference, RISE provides a stage to the voice of our students with the support of our educators. This student leadership conference includes a variety of sessions including keynotes from educators and leaders from all over the country and is followed by breakout sessions in the afternoon. We welcome students of all ages throughout Iowa to come and make their voice heard in this annual student education conference.

IowaSLI's RISE Student Leadership Conference will take place from 9:00am-4:00pm on Saturday, November 10th. Register now for free. Students, educators, and community members welcome.

CCR Academy - New course!

Our first class ended up with over 80 folks enrolled - if you missed it - here's your shot!!!

October 18, 2018

Fall college & career readiness course expanded Due to high demand, the Iowa College & Career Readiness Academy has added an additional session of 101: Foundations of College and Career Readiness in Iowa. The course runs November 12 through December 30 and provides an overview of the current state of college and career readiness in Iowa. 101 is a prerequisite for all other Academy classes. Register today! The Iowa College & Career Readiness Academy is the state’s premier college and career readiness training program. Iowa College Aid offers the Academy in partnership with AEA Iowa, the Iowa Department of Education and the Iowa School Counselor Association. This suite of facilitated online courses is perfect for administrators, school counselors and college access professionals. Participants can earn professional certification as well as license renewal or graduate credit. Find more information, including course descriptions, here.

Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention Training Available

New Module Now Available: Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention

As of yesterday, the Training System features a new module on suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.  This module meets the requirement set forth in Senate File 2113, requiring all districts to provide a one-hour training in this area to faculty starting July 1 of 2019.  More specifically, the code states: By July 1, 2019, the board of directors of a school district shall require annual, evidence-based training at least one hour in length on suicide prevention and postvention for all school personnel who hold a license, certificate, authorization, or statement of recognition issued by the board of educational examiners and who have regular contact with students in kindergarten through grade twelve. Participants can find the training by searching the catalog for any of the terms in the title: While the training is live, more formal information about the training provided by the statewide team--who developed the training--will be forthcoming in November.  A big thank you to the work that group did in preparing a high-quality training well before the code-mandated deadline. Reminder: District Pages This is another great opportunity to mention our district page feature, since that is an item on the new Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention training.  Within our system, you can customize any statewide training with your own district-specific information.  You will specifically want to do so for this training. To do so, the person doing the customization must have Developer access, and thus see the DEV tab at the top, next to the ADMIN tab.  Please contact us at support@aealearningonline.org if you need to have that access added to your account. With this access, you will search for the course you are customizing and click the District Page button.  On the next page, you will select the district page you want to edit (there currently is only page 35 in the training).  You will then have a chance to edit that page.  Whatever you put in there, all employees of your district--and your district only--will see that content instead of the generic disclaimer that normally appears on page 35.  And much like Bloodborne Pathogens, you can either type in directly or link out to an external document the information that is specific to your district, including any contact people for the district. But, what if you want to add information in a different location in the training, and there isn't a district page there?  No problem.  Just contact us at our support email and we can add that district page wherever you would like. For more information, please check out page 5 of our Developer Tutorial at http://bit.ly/developertutorial.  Also, feel free to contact us at support@aealearningonline.org for additional questions.