Be sure to check out Iowa ASCD's newest website.   

Our web site has many new features.  A couple of these include the following:

• About:  You can access information about Iowa ASCD, including our goal of becoming the source for educational leadership and helping you "translate information and research into your daily practice."
• Under "Events" on the web site you can access registration for upcoming webinars, including the one offered by Ed Week that features Iowa's own Sarah  Brown Wesssling, "What Common Core Means for Our Language Arts Teachers."  Grant Wiggins is also featured in an ASCD webinar, focused on "Meeting Standards by Design:  Embedding Standards in the UbD Framework for Curriculum, Assessment, and Learning." 
• Especially for You is a resource for you in your many roles as an educator.  Check out Michael Fullan's latest 9-page article especially for superintendents, "The Role of the District in Tri-Level Reform."  We also have Fullan's 4-page article on "The Awesome Power of the Principal."  
• All about the Content is bound to have something for your content area.  For instance, there is a great Wiki by Mary Schmidt, Heartland AEA Consultant for Gifted, that focuses on the connection of RtI with the gifted.  
• Advocacy and Influence:  Are you thinking about contacting your legislator about education reform?  Check out our support for your work in this area. 

Enjoy!  And let us know "your take" with Iowa ASCD's new web site. 

Register now (There are only a few spaces available!) for a special conference, Impacting Learning in My Classroom, just for you! ISEA and Iowa ASCD are collaborating to offer a hands-on day of learning for, and by, second- and third-grade teachers.

• April 26 - Impacting Learning in My Second-Grade Classroom
• Focus - See First Hand Best Practices in Iowa Core Literacy, Iowa Core Math, Technology with My Students, and RtI with My Students; time for networking as well.
• 8:00 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. (continental breakfast and lunch served)
• Stoney Creek Inn, Johnston, IA
• $90 if ISEA or Iowa ASCD member; $150 for non-members
• Includes opportunities for follow-up webinars and twitter chats as well as Grade 2 web site resources

• April 27 - Impacting Learning in My Third-Grade Classroom
• Focus - See First Hand Best Practices in Iowa Core Literacy, Iowa Core Math, Technology with My Students, and RtI with My Students; time for networking as well.
• 8:00 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. (continental breakfast and lunch served)
• Stoney Creek Inn, Johnston, IA
• $90 if ISEA or Iowa ASCD member; $150 for non-members
• Includes opportunities for follow-up webinars and twitter chats as well as Grade 3 web site resources

Iowa ASCD member Stacie Stokes shares the following summary of Hattie's book, Visible Learning for Teachers.

The major theme in Visible learning for Teachers by John Hattie is that quality teaching makes the difference. Hattie states, "Everything works: if the criterion of success is 'enhancing achievement,' then 95% of all effect sizes in education are positive." (p 2) Therefore, in teaching we need to be more discriminating. "We need to identify a level of evidence that might be considered the minimum level for claiming a worthwhile positive effect," states Hattie. (p 13) An effect size of 0.40, also known as the hinge-point, the point that is needed to positively impact the expected growth over a school year.

Learning is collaborative and requires dialogue of teachers with teachers, teachers with administrators, and teachers with students. Like cogs that turn gears smoothly and efficiently, collaboration, cooperation, collectiveness, and genuine dialogue are the cogs in schools that turn the culture into a learning organization resulting in students achieving measurable results. Hattie references Darling-Hammond's research (2010) that argued that countries that have made the greatest progress in school achievement allow teachers with "15-25 hours a week... to plan cooperatively and engage in analyses of student learning, lesson study, action research, and observation of each other's classrooms that help them continually improve their practice." (p 68) Hattie does clarify that we use the hinge-point, the effect size of 0.40, not as a sole factor in making decisions, but rather as a catalyst in starting collaborative dialogue about the effects of teaching on learning. It is vital for teachers to see themselves as evaluators of their effects on students. Hence, Hattie's phrase throughout the book is repeated, "Know thy impact."

Hattie specifies that expert teachers are different from experienced teachers. In addition to their passion and inspiring qualities, they exhibit five abilities that separate them from experienced teachers. Expert teachers...

• Identify the most important ways in which to represent the subject they teach,
• Are proficient at creating optimal classroom climate for learning,
• Monitor learning and provide timely and quality feedback,
• Believe all students can reach the success criteria, and
• Influence surface and deep student outcomes. (pp 25-27)

In regards to effective leadership, the impact of instructional leadership has an effect size of 0.42. Hattie stresses an important distinctive move in his book from the notion of "instructional leader" to "learning leader." A learning leader places emphasis on student and adult learning. The focus is then on the following questions:

• Did students acquire essential knowledge and skills?
• How do we know?
• How can we use the evidence of student learning to improve instruction? (p 154)

When moving the mind frame to a more collaborative learning-based system rather than an individual teaching-based system, consider the following recommendations by John Hattie in starting the change process:

• Invite administrators to discuss and evaluate their mind frames. The administrators need to be '"learning leaders" or all other efforts are likely to fail.
• Invite teachers to discuss and evaluate their own mind frames. Allow conversations to compare mind frames with others.
• Invite dialogue about teachers' and students' conceptions of feedback. Evaluate the conceptions with the three levels of feedback (task/product, process, and self-regulation.)
• Calculate effect sizes on the school, each class, and each student. Invite dialogue about the value of the interpretations.
• Involve all staff in shared success of the effects on all students in school.
• The process must be seen as supportive of teachers. In addition, administrators must provide opportunities for teachers to discuss beliefs and concerns about the nature of the collected evidence of student impact. (p 166)

Visible Learning for Teachers is a valuable resource for all schools to use in their school improvement efforts. John Hattie aligns research with applicable teaching practice into one 269-page handbook. Some of the overarching tools and resources include the following:

• Checklist for "visible learning inside" (survey),
• 900+ meta-analyses,
• A list of influences on achievement,
• Calculating effect sizes (formula to use in Excel),
• Student evaluation of accomplished teaching scale (survey), and
• Explicit direction for teachers in preparing, starting, directing the flow, and ending a lesson.

Stokes invites all our Iowa ASCD readers to explore the webinar and resources AEA 267 has developed on this work of Hattie.  Check it out!  

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. New York: Routledge.

The 11^th Annual Iowa ASCD Curriculum Academy was held April 11 and 12 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Johnston, IA.  Iowa ASCD Director Sue Wood of Fort Dodge Community Schools chaired this event. 

Iowa ASCD, in collaboration with the Iowa Department of Education, featured Connie Maxson, Dave Tilly, and the State's RtI team throughout the Curriculum Academy. Jason Glass, Director of Education at the Iowa Department of Education, presented an afternoon keynote on the relationship of Iowa's Blueprint and RtI. Troyce Fisher challenged all participants in recognizing their true commitment to change.  The Cedar Rapids, Mason City, and North Polk School Districts provided information about their use of data teams and professional learning communities in managing RtI. Lynnville-Sully Elementary presented their RtI program which includes programs for advanced learners. East Sac School District reported on their continued progress in the implementation of RtI.

You can access the PowerPoints and handouts of the presenters on our Iowa ASCD web site.    

Stay current with learning! Follow Iowa ASCD on Twitter!   

http://twitter.com/#!/IowaASCD  

Iowa ASCD is the source for developing instructional leadership. Serving more than 790 educators - teachers, principals, superintendents, directors of curriculum, technology specialists, college professors, AEA staff - Iowa ASCD strives to develop the collaborative capacity to impact the learning of each and every student in Iowa.