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2.  The Iowa Core Curriculum doesn’t just set standards. Director Glass said, “On your point regarding the Iowa Core, I think it’s the state’s responsibility to set the bar for schools to achieve and then allow districts to determine how they get there.”  The problem with this is that the Iowa Core does tell districts how to get there.  Not only that, but the curriculum is problematic how it presents certain topics and what it leaves out – it is rife with bias and indoctrination. Not only that there was hardly any opportunity for educators and citizens to weigh in on its content and direction.  There is a white paper written on the subject and I would encourage Director Glass to read it.  I understand that he is new to his position, but I think he has an understanding of the Iowa Core that isn’t accurate.

This move to participate in the national standards [officially known as the “Common Core”] was part of a national trend.  So far, 48 states have adopted all or part of these national standards.  The reason?  The Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” program. “They put some big carrots out there for states,” Latham said, referring to the administration’s $4 billion competition. One of the ways states score points in the competition is doing exactly as Iowa did: adopt both state and national standards.  So far, 11 states and the District of Columbia have won funding in two rounds of competition. Iowa has not even been a finalist, and thus the state has not seen the tens of millions of dollars in aid that other states have won.  However, four Iowa schools with high poverty and low achievement rates did receive grants from the Race to the Top legislation.  Being committed to adopting state and national standards was key for those schools to receive the grants, Latham said.

Starting in 2012, Iowa’s schools will have to follow state standards in certain subjects and national standards in others.

States score a significant portion of Race to the Top points by opening up charter schools and pegging teacher pay to student performance—two features that are common in New York and D.C., but are virtually nonexistent in Iowa.

H.F. 45 17. CORE CURRICULUM AND CAREER INFORMATION AND 1 DECISION-MAKING SYSTEM 2 For purposes of implementing the statewide core curriculum 3 for school districts AND accredited nonpublic schools AND a 4 state-designated career information AND decision-making system: 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 1,901,556 6 75,556

The funding for implementation of the statewide core 16 curriculum for schools and for the career information and 17 decision-making system are eliminated and legislative intent is 18 stated for amending the law relating to the curriculum.

or eliminating the Iowa Core.&nbsp; Heidi Doellinger, the district's instructional strategist, said prior to the core curriculums each Iowa school district wrote its own curriculum but that changed when the Iowa Core was implemented. Doellinger said they aligned the district's curriculum with the Iowa core and again with the national core. “It's tedious doing this again and again,” she said. Related Topics: Ames Community School District, Curriculum, Dan Woodin, Legislators, Mandy Ross, No Child Left Behind, and Schools Email me updates about this story. [["validates_email_format_of",{"message":"Enter a valid email address e.g. janedoe@aol.com."}]] Website: Thanks. We'll email you the next time we update this story. &nbsp;Email &nbsp;Print Follow comments &nbsp;Submit tip &nbsp; Comment Leave a comment [["validates_presence_of",{"message":"Hey, you forgot to let us know how you feel \u2014 please enter a comment."}],["validates_length_of",{"too_long":"Easy there, Tolstoy. Your comment cannot exceed 1500 characters.","maximum":1500,"allow_blank":true}]] Website: Get Email Updates Send me email updates for this article Would you like to receive email updates about this article? Yes, please No thanks Make a new comment on this article Close Read More in Government <

What I will say is that any comparison of the Iowa Core to the Common Core is not an apples-to-apples comparison. The Iowa Core is not standards and benchmarks and has never pretended to be.

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Mastery of world languages and the weaving of global awareness into core subject areas are key components of their definition of success. Yet too often, as in President Obama's call to arms this week, the notion that part of a world-class education includes knowing something about the world gets left out of the reform rhetoric. It's time to include global competency—knowing how to compete, communicate and collaborate with the world—as a core 21st century skill that all students, indeed, have a right to learn

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Clear achievement targets or criteria for success are provided to students and parents in student friendly language before instruction begins. Doing so informs students what is expected of them upfront. Imagine how difficult it would be for a young person to build a log cabin for the first time without a picture, and then get graded on how similar their log home is to the picture they did not get to see. That would not be fair. However, providing clear achievement targets to students and parents before instruction begins can be a very efficient, effective, equitable formative assessment strategy.

There is a law in organizational theory called Parkinson’s law which says that work will expand to fill the amount of time we are willing to devote to it.

Which of my students is still struggling with this essential skill? Which of my students has mastered the essential skill? What is an area in which my students excelled, what strategies led to their success, and how might I share those strategies with my colleagues, and conversely what is an area of weakness where I might seek help from my colleagues? Is there an area where students struggled regardless of the teacher to whom they were assigned and if so, what steps can our team take to address our own professional learning regarding teaching that skill?

Teams should create their own assessments rather than using textbooks or commercial assessments and should use performance-based assessments when the skill or concepts requires such an assessment.

Ultimately, flipped learning is not about flipping the “when and where” instruction is delivered; it’s about flipping the attention away from the teacher and toward the learner.