The 2024 Annual Guided Pathways Convening will be held at Marshalltown Community College on May 20. Iowa’s community colleges can bring teams of up to seven members to continue to focus on work specific to their Guided Pathways implementation, and official invitations have been sent to the Guided Pathways leads, CAOs and CSSOs for each college.

During the morning session, Vlad Bassis, administrative consultant, will present and demonstrate new Tableau dashboard visualizations of the Guided Pathways Momentum KPIs. College teams will have the opportunity to utilize these dashboards to create questions and action items to take back to their institutions.

During the afternoon session, all colleges will be able to share with and learn from each other regarding Guided Pathways related initiatives. Each college will prepare information related to the following two questions to share in a format similar to a poster presentation:

1. What is one innovation related to Guided Pathways the institution is proud of?
2. What is an area that is difficult, challenging, or stumping your institution?

A handout template will be provided a few weeks prior to the event to be submitted before the convening, which will allow for all attendees to receive a packet with handouts from all colleges. This will be an opportunity for colleges to engage in conversation with each other about what is or isn't working well related to Guided Pathways implementation.

Since 2018, Iowa's community colleges have been learning about the national guided pathways movement and implementing strategies to put them into place locally. Each college has a unique work plan and strategy and has also been a part of a statewide initiative to learn and share ideas with each other through a grant received by the Iowa Department of Education in 2019 from Ascendium. This in-person convening provides college teams the dedicated time and space to reflect on and make additional plans for their work plans and strategies while participating in a community of practice with the other colleges.

For more information on the 2024 Annual Guided Pathways Convening, contact Kelly Friesleben at kelly.friesleben@iowa.gov or 515-868-2847.

The Iowa Department of Education has awarded over $1.7 million in competitive grants to 20 Iowa school districts focused on aligning secondary career and technical education programs with student attainment of industry-recognized credentials. The Credentials to Careers grant awards will support high school students earning credentials with labor market value.

“By expanding opportunities to attain an industry-recognized credential in high school, the Credentials to Careers grant helps connect the classroom to the workforce,” said Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow. “Students earning portable, stackable credentials will be ready to succeed in high-wage and public-good careers, changing lives and strengthening communities. We commend the awardees for their leadership in realizing our shared priority to expand multiple pathways to postsecondary success.”

The 2023 Annual Condition of Community Colleges report has been posted to the Iowa Department of Education's website. 

This year's condition report tells a cohesive story about the programs and services offered by Iowa's 15 community colleges. An overview of several areas are provided in the report, including programs that meet student and workforce needs, college admission and enrollment, student success and completion, costs and affordability, and systems and infrastructure.

Notable data points from the 2023 condition report included: 

• There were 117,172 students enrolled in credit programs taking 1,538,451 credit hours, a slight decrease in headcount enrollment of 0.3 percent.
• Career and technical education (CTE) accounted for 24.6 percent of students, 31.8 percent of whom were enrolled in health sciences with 1,401 CTE award options available.
• Joint enrollment increased by 5.6 percent, with 52,814 high school students accounting for 45.1 percent of total enrollees and 29.9 percent of total credit hours.
• 157,572 students participated in 5,030,766 contact hours of instruction in noncredit programs.
• Total credit awards increased 5.6 percent to 18,438.
• Over 2,400 high school students earned awards simultaneously with their high school diploma, representing a 32.3 percent increase.
• Graduation, transfer and success rates each saw increases over the previous year with an overall credit graduation rate of 42.1 percent (up from 40.2 percent), a transfer rate of 27.3 percent (up from 25.3 percent) and a success rate (graduated, transferred or both) of 52.8 percent (up from 49.8 percent).
• The current (AY 2023-24) average instate tuition is $198.15 per credit hour, an increase of 3.5 percent over AY 2022-23.

For more information on the 2023 Annual Condition of Community College report, contact Vlad Bassis at vladimir.bassis@iowa.gov or 515-281-3671.

On January 10, 2023, Gov. Reynolds issued Executive Order Number 10 that includes a comprehensive review of all existing administrative rules. The State Board of Education has approved rescinding the original Chapter 21, “Community Colleges,” and Chapter 24, “Community College Accreditation,” and replacing those chapters with a new Chapter 21 titled “Community Colleges.”

The new Chapter 21 consolidates two chapters into one allowing common language across rules and removes unnecessarily restrictive language, references to obsolete standards and degree types and verbatim statutory language. Concurrent with the drafting of the proposed rules, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) made changes to its faculty qualifications requirements. The Department incorporated this additional flexibility and revised subrule 26.62(1) to conform to HLC and reference already established Iowa Code language. The rulemaking will become effective on May 22, 2024.

For more information, contact Lora Vargason at lora.vargason@iowa.gov or 515-729-0859.

In exciting news, two additional $50,000 grants have been awarded to Iowa community colleges to support two additional college and career transition counselor (CCTC) positions.

Iowa Central Community College and North Iowa Area Community College will receive start-up funds as part of the latest round of CCTC grants, which will help to increase the number of CCTC positions in their region. CCTCs work directly with students in grades 11-12 to support college transition and career exploration through targeted connections during crucial time frames, including preparation, transition to enrollment and persistence through their postsecondary experience.

For the 2023-2024 school year, there are over 50 CCTCs across the 15 community college regions and serve students in over 100 high schools. The additional positions generated under this grant round will increase the number of CCTCs and extend their support into additional high schools beginning with the 2024-2025 school year.

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

The most recent Faculty Advisory Committee meeting convened on April 8. During this meeting, faculty representatives were given updates in several areas.

Section chief Amy Gieseke provided an overview on faculty qualifications and accreditation. Education program consultants Heather Meissen and Kelly Friesleben presented new transfer major data and Guided Pathways work, respectively. Administrative consultant Lora Varguson and Community Colleges for Iowa executive director Emily Shields also provided a legislative update to the attendees. 

During the meeting, faculty representatives had opportunities to share successes and best practices seen at the colleges for onboarding and mentoring new faculty members. 

According to Iowa Code 260C.36, faculty members at community colleges in Iowa must be kept informed of higher education issues and Iowa Department of Education updates and initiatives via a community college Faculty Advisory Committee. This committee consists of one member and one alternate from each of Iowa’s 15 community colleges. The committee is equally represented by individuals from the liberal arts and sciences faculty and the career and technical faculty. This committee not only keeps the faculty members at their community college updated regarding issues in higher education but also facilitates communication between their faculty and the Department on an ongoing basis and serves as an advisory committee to the Department and community colleges on faculty issues. 

Questions regarding the Faculty Advisory Committee can be directed to Heather Meissen at heather.meissen@iowa.gov or 515-326-5378 or Amy Gieseke at amy.gieseke@iowa.gov or 515-858-2234.

At the Iowa FFA Convention on April 15, John Daniels from Belle Plaine Community School District was named the Golden Owl Award winner for 2023-24. 

Sponsored by the Iowa FFA Foundation, Nationwide Insurance and other partners in agriculture, the annual Golden Owl Award celebrates the outstanding work of secondary and postsecondary agriculture education leaders in Iowa. Students, fellow teachers, faculty and other partners submitted a record number of 468 nominations for exceptional educators in the field. 

Daniels was selected from seven finalists for the award. The other six finalists were also recognized during the convention and included: 

• Carlton Ness, South Hamilton Community School District     
• Ashley Wolfe, Grinnell-Newburg Community School District
• Barb Lemmer, Linn-Mar Community School District    
• Amber Greiman, Hawkeye Community College
• Matthew Schroeder, Estherville Lincoln Central Community School District    
• Casey Allen, Lenox Community School District

Congratulations to John Daniels and the six finalists! 

Iowa Code 260C.47 and Iowa Administrative Code Chapter 24 ensures that community colleges deliver high quality programming through the state accreditation process. The eight state standards for accreditation include faculty qualifications; faculty load; special needs and protected classes; career and technical education evaluation; facilities, parking lots and roads; strategic planning; quality faculty plan and senior year plus.

During fiscal year 2024, a state accreditation team that included Bureau of Community College section chief Amy Gieseke, education program consultant Heather Meissen and other Department team members conducted state accreditation evaluations for Iowa Valley Community College District, Iowa Lakes Community College and Northeast Iowa Community College. The team was joined by external representatives from community colleges undergoing a review the following academic year.

In fiscal year 2025, Kirkwood Community College, Hawkeye Community College and Eastern Iowa Community Colleges will have accreditation reviews.

Along with meeting the requirements of Iowa Code, state accreditation confirms that community colleges are in good standing with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). The accreditation process includes a desk review component, where the accreditation team reviews documents prior to visiting, and a site visit, where interviews are conducted with multiple groups of staff and faculty members. Community colleges undergo accreditation every five years, meaning that three community colleges are reviewed each academic year.

For more information about community college state accreditation, visit the Department's webpage. For additional questions, contact Heather Meissen at heather.meissen@iowa.gov or 515-326-5378) or Amy Gieseke at amy.gieseke@iowa.gov or 515-858-2234.

Looking for a new career opportunity? The Division of Higher Education is seeking passionate, qualified candidates for two open positions within our team.

Applications are now being accepted for an Education Program Consultant for the Senior Year Plus program. This position will oversee all components of the Senior Year Plus program as well as the Career Academy Incentive Fund and the summer college credit program. The deadline to apply is May 5. 

Additionally, a job opening for an Executive Officer 1 is now available. This position provides project management and serves as the executive assistant to the division administrator. The deadline to apply is May 12. 

For more information on this position and other Department job postings, visit the Iowa Department of Administrative Services website. For specific questions on the two positions, contact Amy Gieseke at amy.gieseke@iowa.gov or 515-858-2234.