Iowa Core Discussion

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.

People watch their leaders far more closely than most leaders will ever realize.

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 <

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.