Iowa Area Education Agencies (AEAs) are accredited every five years by the Iowa State Board of Education as reviewed and recommended by the Iowa Department of Education. This session will provide an overview of the service agency accreditation review process in Iowa and showcase how Great Prairie AEA streamlined this process through the development of an interactive self-study and dynamic document review system. The system developed uses a combination of Google Sites, Drive, along with several locally developed Google Apps to simplify the organization and retrieval of documents used during the accreditation review process. The power of Google search replaces the need for a separate database, minimizes staff time to locate, upload, and re-enter document information. The system also offers the visiting accreditation team members an easy way to review documents in the actual context of the self-study. Further, the visiting team can access the system from anywhere on the Internet through a login and web browser as well as from most mobile devices!
IOWA AREA EDUCATION AGENCIES
Background Iowa AEAs develop and implement a Comprehensive Improvement Plan and are accredited every 5 years by the Dept. of Education. The accreditation process consists of three parts: • Self Study • Document Review • Site Visit
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About Iowa AEA Accreditation- Overview of the Accreditation process for AEAs.
IOWA AREA EDUCATION AGENCIES
AEA Accreditation Standards • School Community Planning • Professional Development • Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment • Diverse Learner Needs • Multicultural Gender Fair • Media Services • School Technology • Leadership • Management*
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About Iowa AEA Accreditation- Each AEA must provide services within the eight required standard areas of service. Management as an optional standard area of service.
IOWA AREA EDUCATION AGENCIES
AEA Accreditation Criteria for Services • AEA services are supported by aligned agency
resources. • AEA services are equitably available. • AEA services include a process to monitor the
implementation of the service. • AEA services include a system for measuring the
effectiveness of services provided. • AEA services include a system for measuring the
efficiency of services provided.
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About Iowa AEA Accreditation- The criteria for each standard of services.
GREAT PRAIRIE AEA
Vision • Great Prairie Area Education Agency will be the
recognized leader in services that improve student performance.
Mission • Great Prairie Area Education Agency improves
teaching and learning by developing leaders, discovering solutions and delivering services through collaboration with students, families, schools, and communities.
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About GPAEA- Great Prairie Vision and Mission
GREAT PRAIRIE AEA
About the Agency • 35,700* public students • 1,200 non-public students • 3,700* teachers/administrators • 33 school districts • 6 approved, non-public schools • 285 staff members (headcount) • 6,360 square miles • 14 counties • 9 board members • Budget: $28 million
*approximate
Trent receives Physical Therapy services from GPAEA PT Janet Hurt.
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About GPAEA- Great Prairie AEA provides leadership and service to nearly 37,000 students, 3,700 teachers and administrators, and 33 school districts and 6 approved, non-publics in Southeast Iowa. 285 staff members cover 6,360 square miles and 14 counties. GPAEA is governed by a nine-member board of directors with a budget of $28 million.
FTE EMPLOYEES AT GREAT PRAIRIE AEA GENERAL FUND ONLY
Job Classification FTE 2007-08 FTE 2012-13 % Change Over 5 Years
Management Staff 21.0 15.0 -28.57%
Management Support Staff
14.0 8.84 -36.86%
Classified Bargaining
80.59 58.86 -26.96%
Certified Bargaining Staff & COTA's/PTA's
172.05 177.4 3.11%
Total FTE 287.64 260.10 -9.57%
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About GPAEA- Percent of change in the FTE Employees at GPAEA from 2007-2013
GREAT PRAIRIE AEA • 2 Major Service Centers
• Burlington & Ottumwa
• 6 Satellite Offices • Albia (Harold L. Mick), Fairfield, Fort Madison, Keokuk, Mt. Pleasant, Oskaloosa
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GPAEA operates 2 major service centers and 6 satellite offices.
DECLINING ENROLLMENT
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GPAEA has declining enrollment- a common trend.
GOALS
All students will improve their performance. • Student achievement is reported each year in the GPAEA's Annual
Progress Report • Trend data show the greatest need at the 4th and 8th grade levels for
Reading, Math and Science. • Services have been organized to focus support at these levels, Data
Teams have been created to assist this work.
All agency services will improve their quality. • Overall customer satisfaction has increased since the merger in 2007. • GPAEA Chief Administrator and Cabinet visits to Districts, Advisory
Board feedback, Parent Survey, Walk-through data, along with event and activity participant feedback and program evaluation data are used continuously to improve services.
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GPAEA has two goals. Actions taken by GPAEA are highlighted. Details will be found in the Self-Study.
GOAL 1: IMPROVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE
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Sparkline Trend Analysis showing the percentage of students proficient over 5 years for all students, students with IEP and Low SES students.
GOAL 2: IMPROVE SERVICE QUALITY
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Sparkline Trend Analysis of Customer Survey data showing percentage of respondents that strongly agree or agree to various indicators of service quality over 5 years.
THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS- 2001
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The Accreditation Process 2001-The Self Study is a lengthy document, and the Document Review is time consuming. Staff time is spend locating, copying and organizing documents into boxes for each of the standard of service. It was a messy process to prepare and for the reviewers who had to ultimately dig through all this stuff!
THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS- 2006
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The Accreditation Process 2006-The Self Study is still a lengthy and separate document, and the Document Review is now “data based” to allow the reviewers an easier methods to “search” for evidence of services. Document locations were included, so that if a reviewer wanted to see a particular document, they knew who to ask or where it was located. Although using a database was an enhancement to the accreditation process, it will still time consuming for both staff and reviewers.
THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS- 2013
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The Accreditation Process 2013- A simple eBook App that is accessible from any device, anywhere!
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
SO…….How we did it…….
Databases were used to make searching for information easier.
FLASH FORWARD 2010
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Concept- Google is known for its searches….Google is a giant world wide database! GPAEA adopted Google Education as its core technology.
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
Each staff member has a Google Login.
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Each staff member has their own Google login that provides tools such as Google Email (GPAEA has its own domain, gpaea.org), Google Drive (formerly Google docs), Google Sites, and Google Calendar. Each of these Google tools are in the cloud, but managed by GPAEA as its own organization and security.
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
All staff have been using Google Docs (Drive)
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Concept- The idea was this: Since staff have documents already in their goggle drive, since GPAEA manages all Drive Space within our Google Domain; GPAEA could leverage what Google does base to “Search” for documents that support AEA Accreditation.
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
Google Docs can be displayed in miniature view.
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Learning that documents searched and displayed in miniature view and that documents can contain a description to aid in searching created a new way of thinking about the Document Review portion of the accreditation process- It became known as “Tag & Bag” !
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
The Tag & Bag App
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The Tag & Bag App was developed to make identifying documents to be used as artifacts and evidence easy and simple for staff. Staff simply, logged into their own Google docs, used the app to “Tag” a document with keywords matched up to service standards and criteria and then wrote a brief description about what the document represents and clicked OK. The document was put in the “Bag” in a manner of speaking.
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
The Self Study
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Google Sites became the Self Study. The Document Review became an interactive part of the Self Study.
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
The Self Study contains the Document Review
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Services are really links to Google Search RESULTS of all the documents that have been Tagged and Bagged!
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
Link Generator Tool pre-searches for documents.
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Rather than having every reviewer do their own searching (They would all be searching for the same things), searches were pre-built using the Link Generator APP.
ACCREDITATION EBOOK STYLE!
Clicking on a Link within the Self Study causes Google to Search and Display Documents.
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The APP creates a link to pre-determined search results around programs and services. Over time, as new documents are added, the search link displays new results creating an interactive or dynamic self-study and document review- all in one nice EBook!
www.gpaea.org Like GPAEA on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/gpaea Follow GPAEA on Twitter
http://twitter.com/gpaea
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For further information about Iowa AEA Accreditation Process or GPAEA’s Accreditation EBook Style! Please contact: Dr. Jon Sheldahl Chief Administrator Great Prairie AEA [email protected] Or Dr. Sally Lindgren Administrator of Technology & Programs Great Prairie AEA [email protected]
