Collecting Data and Preparing for an Accreditation Visit: An AESA Presentation

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Collecting Data and Preparing for an
Accreditation Visit An AESA Presentation

• Connie Maxson, Chief Administrator GVAEA 14
• Sharon Hawthorne, Iowa Department of Education
  Consultant
• Tom Cooley, Iowa Department of Education
  Consultant
• David VanHorn, Associate Administrator GVAEA 14

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Introductions and Overview

• Connie Maxson, GVAEA 14 Chief Administrator
• Sharon Hawthorne, Iowa Department of Education
  Consultant
• Tom Cooley, Iowa Department of Education
  Consultant
• David VanHorn, GVAEA 14 Associate Administrator

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Intent of Iowas Area Education Agencies

• Area Education Agencies (AEAs), as a part of Iowa
  early childhood through twelfth grade educational
  system, exist to provide leadership and equitable
  services for school improvement to schools and
  school districts to enable every learner to
  perform at higher educational levels.

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History of the Accreditation process

• Chapter 1172 of the Iowa Code was passed spring
  of 1974. Set specific details of future AEAs
• Organization
• Governance
• Programs and Services
• Funding
• Boundaries

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History of the Accreditation process

• The purpose of the Iowas Area Education Agencies
  is to ensure that every child in Iowa had access
  to equal educational opportunities.

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History of the Accreditation process

• The mission of the AEAs is to provide
• an effective, efficient and economical means of
  identifying and serving children under five years
  of age through grade twelve who require special
  education
• provide for media services and other programs and
  services for pupils in grades kindergarten
  through twelve.

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History of the Accreditation process

• Iowa Department of Education (DE)
• Area Education Agencies (AEA)
• Local Education Agencies (LEA)

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History of the Accreditation process

• Iowas
• Area Education Agencies
• July 1, 1975

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History of the Accreditation process

• First Revision 1996 Included Six Standards
• School/Community Planning
• Curriculum
• Professional Development
• Special Education
• Instructional Media
• School Technology

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History of the Accreditation process

• Second Revision 2001 Chapter 72 -
  Established nine standards for services
• School-Community Planning
• Professional Development
• Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
• Diverse Learning Needs of all Children and Youth

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History of the Accreditation process

• Multi-Cultural, Gender Fair Approaches
• Media
• School Technology
• Leadership
• Requested Management Services

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Purpose of AEA Accreditation

• The AEA Accreditation requirements
• establish a basis for Accountability
• Provide for Continuous Improvement of AEA
  programs and services, and
• Establish nine common areas in which AEAs must
  provide program and services to LEAs

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Vision for AEA Accreditation

• Iowa education institutions at all levels will
  function as a system to improve student learning.

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Indicators of Quality

• The programs and services address specific
  student, teacher and school needs evidence in
  local school improvement plans.
• The programs and services assist schools in
  improving student learning evidenced through
  student performance.

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Indicators of Quality

• The programs and services assist school in
  improving teaching evidences through the adoption
  or application of practices, strategies and
  information.
• The programs and services are cost efficient and
  timely.
• Levels of use and quality measures are used to
  determine customer satisfaction with programs and
  services.

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AEA Accreditation Components

• AEA Comprehensive Improvement Plan
• AEA Annual Budget
• AEA Annual Progress Report
• AEA Standards for Service

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Comprehensive Improvement Plan (CIP)

• The AEA CIP provides a framework for the agency
  to continuously improve the services it provides.
  The plan services to focus agency services,
  actions and resources for identified agency-wide
  needs.

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Comprehensive Improvement Plan (CIP)

• Needs Assessment
• Needs Assessment Summary
• Agency-wide Goals
• Services
• Action Plans
• Provisions for Management Services

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Annual Progress Report (APR)

• The APR is designed to communicate the annual
  progress with, at a minimum, aggregated
  agency-wide data for agency-wide goals and
  indicators of quality.
• The APR is the agencys accountability document
  for the schools and school districts it serves,
  its board, the community and the Iowa Department
  of Education.

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AEA Services Support FOR Standards

• Prior to 2007-08 each AEA was required to meet 11
  criteria for each of the eight required
  standards.
• These criteria were developed by an AEA Work
  Group consisting of DE Staff and representatives
  from various AEAs.
• Information was used from Chapter 72, the AEA
  Technical Assistance Guide, and documents
  developed when Chapter 72 was written.

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AEA Services Support FOR Standards
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AEA Accreditation 2008-09

• The emphasis of the 2008-09 Accreditation Site
  Visits will switch from each AEA being required
  to meet the 11 criteria for each standard to each
  AEA meeting the standard descriptors for each
  standard as outlined in Chapter 72.

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Alignment of AEA Accreditation
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Success of IowaS AEAs

• The success of Iowas Area Education Agencies
  depends upon their ability to anticipate and
  guide the changes that are necessary for Iowas
  students to have the opportunity to reach their
  highest potential.

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AEA 14 Accreditation Planning

• The Team
• Connie Maxson, Chief Administrator
• David VanHorn, Associate Administrator
• Gary Boswell, East Region Supervisor
• Lorna Paxson, School Improvement Consultant
• Mary Craig, Support Services Coordinator
• The Process
• Preparing for the site visit
• Navigating the site visit
• Following up to a site visit

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Preparing for a site visit

• Data collection over time.
• Each consultant has to input their own data
• Data are collected for services that are provided
  at a building or higher level
• What data do they collect.
• Gathering documents and other needed information
  into one place
• Providing an overview to the site visit team of
  the work of the agency (pull in some slides from
  our overview)
• Demonstrating how standards are met

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OUR STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS

• 10,151.2 Total students served
• 10,018.2 Public students
• 133 Non-public students
• 4,158 Low SES
• 1,743 IEP students
• 270 ELL students

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Iowa area education agencies
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Districts served by green valley aea 14
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AEA 14 Vision and Mission

• Vision
• To work together as a team, through collaboration
  and commitment, to provide quality leadership,
  educational opportunities and services that
  successfully impact student achievement.
• Mission
• The mission of GVAEA is to provide educational
  leadership, services and support for the
  continuous improvement of educators, families and
  students of all ages.

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GVAEA AGENCY WIDE GOALS

• 1. Increase the percentage of 4th, 8th, and 11th
  grade students scoring in the proficient range in
  reading achievement, as measured by standardized
  tests.
• 2. Increase the percentage of 4th, 8th, and 11th
  grade students scoring in the proficient range in
  math achievement, as measured by standardized
  tests.
• 3. Increase the percentage of 5th, 8th, and 11th
  grade students scoring in the proficient range in
  science achievement, as measured by standardized
  tests.
• 4. Increase the percentage of students feeling
  school connectedness.

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LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE

• Challenges
• Find solutions to problems associated with
• rural poverty,
• sparsity, and
• achievement gaps
• Solutions
• Focus on research-based strategies
• Willingness to restructure ourselves to meet the
  needs of students
• Acknowledge the systemic nature of the problems
  and will take time to solve

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GVAEA PROGRAM SERVICE CYCLES

• GVAEA sets its CIP goals based on district goals
  established in their CSIPs
• Reading
• Math
• Science
• Learning Supports School Connectedness
• LRE
• Respect

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Needs assessment process

• District Support plans are developed with each
  district
• In-building needs assessments
• AEA Customer Survey
• Leadership and Planning Team (LAP) review and
  Team Action Plan development

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Annual Progress report-goal 1 reading (4th
grade)
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Annual progress report- goal 2 Math (8th grade)
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Annual progress report-goal 3-science (11th grade)
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ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT GOAL 4--CONNECTEDNESS

• Goal 4 Increase the percentage of students
  feeling school connectedness
• School connectedness" refers to the belief by
  students that adults in the school care about
  their learning and about them as individuals.
• When students feel connected to their schools,
  they show better health and academic outcomes
• At GVAEA there are two aspects of connectedness
  measured Respect and LRE

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APRCONNTECTEDNESS, CONTD.

• The percentage of students scoring outside of the
  proficient range has remained relatively constant
  in all content areas
• Gaps between subgroups have not been
  satisfactorily reduced
• More students reported not feeling respected by
  other students
• LRE on an upward trajectory

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ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT--CONCLUSIONS

• The percentage of students scoring outside of the
  proficient range has remained relatively constant
  in all content areas
• Gaps between subgroups have not been
  satisfactorily reduced
• More students reported not feeling respected by
  other students
• LRE on an upward trajectory

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Accreditation Database data

• Why the database was developed
• There was a need to substantiate how standards
  were met
• Service definition
• Further development of data to be included

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AEA Staff training

• Services provided to AEA staff only
• For example
• General Education Interventions Overview for AEA
  staff only.
• Social Emotional Learning Integration into other
  services/professional development.
• Such service data is captured in the system to
  help us determine how our investment has paid
  off. In other words, to help determine the
  impact of professional development with our staff
  on student and teacher outcomes.

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The database
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeWithin the AEA

• A difference for how and what the AEAs do
• The final accreditation report is reviewed by a
  team comprised of the AEA administrative council
  and leads of different content or discipline
  areas. This is known as our Leadership and
  Planning team.
• An action with a focus on suggested areas of
  improvement is developed.
• Individuals are assigned responsibility for each
  of the suggested areas of improvement.
• The Leadership and Planning team is responsible
  for periodic review of progress on actions.

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What difference has the accreditation process
madeWithin the AEA

• Examples of differences as a result of our
  2002-2003 site visit--Suggested Area of
  Improvement Recommendations/services made are
  based on LEA needs--
• Media Resource Collection
• Single Search Catalog
• Print/Production Full-Service Shop

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What difference has the accreditation process
madeWithin the AEA

• Examples of differences as a result of our
  2002-2003 site visit--Suggested Area of
  Improvement Recommendations/services are
  data-based
• Utilize Statistics to Make Decisions
• Technology Integration Survey
• DVD Survey
• eWalk Palm Pilot Project

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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 4th grade reading
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 8th grade reading
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 11th grade reading
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 4th grade math
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 8th grade math
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 11th grade math
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 8th grade science
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students 11th Grade science
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students cohort comparison
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students cohort comparison
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students cohort comparison
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What difference has the accreditation process
madeFor Students cohort comparison
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Concluding Thoughts and QA

• Conclusions
• The online collection and review of data, showing
  the work that has been done, is essential in
  terms of efficiency
• Staff are more aware of what they do and the
  relationship to AEA accreditation standards
• Increased accountability of AEA staff for the
  services they provide
• Increased efficiency with data collected
• Makes continuous improvement a reality
• What questions do you have for us?

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CONTACT INFORMATION

• David VanHorn, dvanhorn_at_aea14.k12.ia.us
• Connie Maxson, cmaxson_at_aea14.k12.ia.us
• Sharon Hawthorne, sharon.hawthorne_at_iowa.gov
• Tom Cooley, tom.cooley_at_iowa.gov
• Web site www.aea14.k12.ia.us