Iowa Department of Education

11/13/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/13/2026 07:54

A golden opportunity for early childhood assessment professional learning

The Iowa Department of Education is offering two exciting virtual professional learning opportunities for early childhood programs to deepen their understanding of the GOLD Assessment System.

Provided by the Department's Bureau of Early Childhood, these online professional learning opportunities will help participants strengthen their use of the GOLD assessment data and provide opportunities to make connections and create collaborative communities. Early childhood program administrators, educators, coaches and paraprofessionals are highly encouraged to attend.

"We are excited to provide these new professional learning opportunities that focus specifically on the GOLD Assessment System," said Kimberly Villotti, chief for the Bureau of Early Childhood at the Department. "The GOLD assessment is a critical resource that provides valuable information regarding instructional decision making for all learning within early childhood programs. Ongoing and consistent assessment routines offer data for designing and delivering learning activities. By providing opportunities to learn together, we can ensure that programs across the state are maximizing the system and can use the information to strengthen services that impact a child's development and learning."

The SmartTeach Mobile App learning opportunity will explore the Teaching Strategies Teacher app, which helps streamline family communications, supercharge authentic assessments and lead Mighty Minutes. The three-hour session for returning curriculum and assessment users provides an overview of how to engage in two-way communication with families and send announcements using the Teaching Strategies Teacher app. Participants will also learn how to capture media and document children's development and learning.

The SmartTeach Mobile App professional learning sessions will be offered on the following dates:

Additionally, the Fostering Collaborative Reflection through PLCs learning opportunity will help participants build stronger professional learning communities by using collaborative reflection, shared problem solving and meaningful conversations to strengthen practice and support children's learning. This collaborative three-hour session will feature large and small group discussions and opportunities to consider assessment samples and connect examples to the objectives for development and learning.

The Fostering Collaborative Reflection through PLCs learning sessions will be offered on the following dates:

All learning sessions will be led by SmartTeach consultants and the Department team members. There is no cost to attend the professional learning opportunities.

More information on these and other upcoming early childhood learning opportunities can be found on the Department's Early Childhood Professional Learning webpage. Questions regarding the GOLD professional learning opportunities can be directed to Mary Breyfogle, administrative consultant at [email protected].

Iowa Department of Education published this content on November 13, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on November 13, 2026 at 13:55 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]