A Message from Dr. McCormick 4/14/17

Indiana Department of Education
Friday, April 14, 2017

 

Dear Educators:

ISTEP+ Part 2 opens on Monday. The Office of Student Assessment placed staff members' direct lines on the public website for assistance.  

Thank you for your hard work and your support!

Sincerely,
Dr. Jennifer McCormick
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Indiana Department of Education

Dr. Jennifer McCormick

Assessment
Monitoring for ISTEP+ Part 2, ISTAR and ECA begins the week of April 17. The Office of Student Assessment will be conducting unannounced onsite monitoring visits to ensure the fidelity of the assessment administration. Please ensure that school administrators and staff are aware that these onsite visits will be conducted. 

The ISTAR assessment administration continues until May 19. The ISTAR Standard Setting committee needs additional general education content participants in the following areas: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. Standard Setting is scheduled June 19-21 and 26-28. Nominations may be submitted by accessing this link

Pearson notified the Office of Student Assessment of an error involving two student documents for the upcoming ISTEP+ Part 2 administration. Mathematics documents for grades 4 and 10 reference the administration year as 2016 in error. The content of the document is accurate and can be used for the upcoming administration. The Department of Education has requested follow up from the vendor to address quality concerns and corrective action in the future to address this type of concern. 

Congratulatory Letters
Congratulatory letters for 2017 Honors Diploma Graduates are now posted in the DOE Secure Online for schools to print. School officials with the role of "School Administrator" or "Corporation Administrator" have access to the letter. Click
here to view.

Title Grants
The Office of Title Grants and Support provides this fiscal memorandum to inform LEAs regarding regarding important federal funding updates for the 2017-2018 school year. Important changes include impacts to appropriation levels and equitable share provisions for nonpublic schools for Title funding. A detailed recording will be provided in an upcoming weekly update with LEA-level scenarios utilizing the tools found on our Federal Fiscal Updates website.    

Indiana Teacher of the Year 
The 2018 Indiana Teacher of the Year (INTOY) application is now available. Applications are due at July 1, 2017. New for 2018: the IDOE is excited to announce that districts are invited to submit both an elementary and secondary candidate! To learn more about the chance to recognize two district candidates and many other exciting changes, click here

Talent Pool Recommendation  
The IDOE wants to know who the emerging educational leaders are in your district. Please see the attached memo to learn more.

School Food Service
All schools participating in the National School Lunch Program are required to establish a local school wellness policy. USDA Food and Nutrition Service finalized regulations to create a framework and guidelines for written wellness policies. Schools will have until July 1, 2017 to make the necessary modifications to their wellness policy. Below provides a summary of the added/modified changes to the rule. Click here for our wellness policy website. 

Hiring and training standards for school food service personnel became effective July 1, 2015 as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2015. The regulation requires specific hiring criteria for new School Nutrition Program Directors and requires all food service staff to obtain annual training. For schools that will be hiring a new Food Service Director, there is a comprehensive guide available titled The Ins and Outs of Hiring the School Nutrition Director. Click here to access our Professional Standards website. 

Office of Educator Effectiveness
The 2016-17 DOE-EE data collection will open on Monday, April 17. The purpose of this data collection is to identify student-to-teacher linkages to generate Individual Growth Measure (IGM) ratings for use in educator evaluations as required by 511 IAC 10-6-4(a)(1). As a reminder, this data collection applies only to grades 4-8 math and English/language arts teachers and any other teacher that may impact instruction in these areas (e.g. special education co-teacher). Please visit this website for STN Application Center support or contact the Office of Education Effectiveness for program area support. 

Computer Science Licensure
The recent focus on STEM education has created a surge for teaching interest in licensure for computer science and engineering and technology. Please see the attached memo for information about becoming appropriately licensed. 

Office of Special Education 
The Office of Special Education publishes a biweekly newsletter filled with updates and information about special education. Take a look at this link for the latest news from OSE. 
 

Social Media
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Weekly Updates
Miss an update? View previous weekly updates here.

 
 

A message from Dr. McCormick will be sent every Friday.