The Iowa Department of Education has released the 2022 Fall Enrollment Report. This report includes enrollment information from all 15 Iowa community colleges as reported for the 2022 fall semester/quarter.

Enrollment for this fall increased to 82,251 students, up 0.6 percent from 2021; this is compared to a 0.4 percent decrease in enrollment nationally. The number of high school students participating in joint enrollment increased 4.2 percent, compared to an 11.5 percent increase nationally. Part-time enrollment continued to be the largest segment and reached an all-time high of 65.9 percent of fall enrollment. The proportion of minority students increased to a record high of 24.5 percent. With students largely being back in the classroom, online enrollment fell slightly by 4.0 percent after a 15.9 percent drop last fall.

From last fall, the number of male students increased 1.1 percent compared to a 0.9 percent increase nationally. Female students increased 0.2 percent, compared to 2.0 percent decrease nationally. Female students still account for the largest proportion of enrollment at 56.3 percent.

For more information, please contact Dan Li, Education Program Consultant, (dan.li@iowa.gov or (515) 281-3503) or Vlad Bassis (vladimir.bassis@iowa.gov or (515) 281-3671). 

The Iowa Department of Education announces a new webinar series to support the statewide Guided Pathways initiative titled Pathway Pillars in Practice. This new initiative will create communities of practice around specific topics related to one of the four pillars of Guided Pathways through a bi-semester webinar. Each session will be held over the lunch hour so anyone can participate and engage in discussion on a topic presented first by the Department and secondly by one of the 15 community college districts.

The first Pathway Pillars in Practice will be held on Tuesday, December 13th at noon on the topic of Meta Majors or Career and Academic Families. Some of the specific information presented will be on the institutional process for creating and implementing meta majors in addition to marketing them and organizing them on institutional websites. Kelly Friesleben, Education Program Consultant in the Bureau of Community Colleges, will share information and resources from other community colleges in the nation, and representatives from North Iowa Area Community College will share information on their process, current product and future plans.

To register for this webinar, click here.

For more information, contact Kelly Friesleben, Education Program Consultant (kelly.friesleben@iowa.gov or (515) 868-2847).

The third round of the Iowa Department of Education's College and Career Transition Counselor (CCTC) grant application is currently open. In Iowa's current CCTC model, CCTCs  work directly through the community college and secondary schools to support college transition and career exploration through targeted connections with students and families during crucial time frames, including preparation, transition to enrollment and persistence through their postsecondary experience. The CCTCs work closely with students in grades 11 and 12 in partner high schools, throughout the summer after high school graduation and as part of the first-year support system for students coming out of this program at the coordinating community college.  Five start-up grants will be awarded to community college-school district partnerships that create new CCTC positions for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The deadline for this application has been extended to Friday, December 23. To start an application, the partnering community college in connection with their partner school district(s) should log in or create a new account in IowaGrants. Note: IowaGrants will experience a planned outage and software migration from December 2 to December 12. All applications that are in progress will migrate to the new platform. See more details in the story below.

The College and Career Counselor Partnership Toolkit, which outlines the grant process, is also available on the Department website. 

For more information, contact Erica Woods-Schmitz, Education Program Consultant, (erica.woods-schmitz@iowa.gov or (515) 330-0185).

The new, upgraded IowaGrants.gov platform will officially go live Monday, December 12. To begin the transition to the new platform, IowaGrants will be down from Friday, December 2 at 5:00 p.m. through Monday, December 12 at 8:00 a.m. Users will have no access to either system (old or new) during this time.

Please ensure your organization plans accordingly for IowaGrants being unavailable by completing the following steps: 

• Perform any required tasks before the onset of the upgrade. This could include submitting claims or other contract-related activity.
• Save all login activity and log out by Friday, December 2, 4:59 p.m. 
• Do not attempt to log back into the system until the upgrade has been completed after December 12, 7:59 a.m.   

Though little impact is anticipated on your organization once the new platform is live, the upgrade will substantially change the appearance of IowaGrants. Notable improvements will include:

• A modern, fresh new look to the platform that powers IowaGrants
• Removal and replacement of the current main menu with content that is dynamic and continuously available to users via a side menu appended to the left side of the screen
• A new dashboard page that will be displayed after login where all workflow requiring your attention will be loaded and accessible
• All content being hyperlinked within each workflow 
• The ability to sort all assigned workflows in an ascending or descending format upon any single desired field column header
• Enhanced search navigation options

Click here for a brief preview of the system highlighting some of the new key features. Note: If the video is fuzzy, click the gear icon on the lower right side of the video screens and click Quality to update the video resolution. More information on this transition will be forthcoming.

For more information, contact Dr. Jeffrey Fletcher, Education Program Consultant (jeffrey.fletcher@iowa.gov or (515) 321-7309).

Iowans searching for work-based learning experience programs now have a new resource. A dashboard dedicated to statewide work-based learning activities that offer high school credits is now available and provides students, families and school districts with a comprehensive overview of work-based learning across the state.

Iowa is one of the first states in the country to offer an extensive dashboard focused on work-based learning credit programs that enhance classroom learning by connecting it to the workplace. With the launch of the work-based learning dashboard, Iowans can easily find information on work-based learning opportunities that earn credits for high school students, including internships, Registered Apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships and other career and technical education work-based learning courses.

“The work-based learning dashboard is a great resource that recognizes high-quality programs in Iowa,” said Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo. “This dashboard makes it easy for Iowans to learn about the more than 6,000 work-based learning credit opportunities that were available to students last year. These opportunities connect classroom learning to the workplace, develop our workforce talent pipeline and help students leave high school prepared for the workforce or further postsecondary education or training.”

The work-based learning dashboard is a new feature on the Iowa Student Outcomes website, which hosts several interactive dashboards detailing information on trends in K-12 schools, community colleges, adult education, Iowa public universities, registered apprenticeships and employment. The website is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Workforce Development, Iowa College Aid and the Iowa Board of Regents.

The Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Pilot Program, commonly known as TPRA, is a joint effort between Iowa Workforce Development and the Iowa Department of Education. Nineteen Iowa school districts and school consortia were awarded a total of over $45.6 million to implement registered apprenticeship pathways that provide new opportunities for current high school students and adult paraeducators to earn credentials all while learning and working in the classroom.

“This initiative seeks to create more than 500 new paraeducators and 500 new teachers,” said Paula Nissen, administrative consultant at the Iowa Department of Education. “Building a talent pipeline directly through our schools provides an accessible way for individuals to work towards certification, college degrees and a new career.”

The TPRA initiative is designed to allow high school students and adults to become certified paraeducators and even earn an associate degree. In turn, current paraeducators can work towards a bachelor’s degree in education. School districts partner with community colleges and four-year institutions to provide instruction, and all participants can learn and get valuable hands-on experience while working as a paraeducator or teacher’s aide in the classroom.

“TPRA is a great opportunity,” said Stacy Mentzer, vice president of instruction at Iowa Central Community College. “It fills the gaps for training and education for future teachers and paraeducators. Often, these areas are not covered under other scholarships or funding. This provides more incentive for individuals to pursue teaching and paraeducator careers.”

Many of Iowa’s community colleges play an important role in linking career-seeking students with apprenticeship opportunities. At Kirkwood Community College, they have seen great interest and success through their skilled health care apprenticeship programs, which are geared to address workforce shortages in their region.

“Our Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) apprenticeship program has 20 employer sponsors in seven counties surrounding Kirkwood’s campus,” said Norma Havlik-Smith, Workforce Initiatives Program Manager at Kirkwood. “This has been a great partnership with our communities and is a wonderful opportunity for individuals to become certified and enter into a high-demand job field.”

Kirkwood’s CNA apprenticeship program includes 144 hours of classroom instruction, state certification testing and an additional 2,000 hours of on-the-job training with an employer sponsor. A typical CNA apprenticeship program takes around one year to complete.