Connecting with the Classroom

Pictured here, Iowa Department of Education’s Mary Beth Schroeder Fracek and Des Moines  Monroe Elementary School’s instructional coach, Kelly Ruden, discuss student data during a collaboration among teachers. Ruden keeps everyone on task and ensures they are meeting goals.

Like teachers and students, dozens of Iowa Department of Education employees are about to bid the school year farewell. They have been in schools and classrooms each month since the beginning of the school year as a way of staying in touch with day-to-day operations.

2013 Our Kids Summer Institute

Register for the 2013 Our Kids Summer Institute to be held June 18 and 19 at Waukee High School in Waukee.

The institute will provide participants with the opportunity to network with other educational professionals and to discover new strategies for working with English Language Learners (ELL) throughout Iowa.

Topics include brain-based research, Response to Intervention, literacy, bridging ELL and the common core, and technology.

Leave the slide on the playground!

Did you know students can back slide in their reading abilities by a full month during the summer break? Even worse: A student can lose 2.6 months in math skills in the same time period!

Avoid the summer slide by joining the Council of Chief State Schools Officers’ summer reading and math challenges.

Iowa will convene task force to review science standards

Iowa’s role in the Next Generation Science Standards initiative will shift from guiding the development of the new science standards to determining whether they are the right fit for Iowa.

Iowa school districts honored for 'green' efforts

Two Iowa school districts have been honored for their efforts to create campuses and education programs that stress environmentally sound practices.

Learning the ropes of effective mathematics instruction

Registration is under way for the Cognitively Guided Instruction 7th Biennial National Mathematics Conference to be held July 10-12 in Des Moines.

Cognitively Guided Instruction, or CGI, emphasizes teaching mathematics in a way that taps into how children think in order to maximize their understanding. It is particularly important in elementary school to ensure they will have a firm foundation upon which they can learn more advanced mathematics.

Iowa's Response to Intervention (RtI)

Response to Intervention (RtI) in Iowa is an every-education decision-making framework of evidence-based practices in instruction and assessment that addresses the needs of all students starting in general education.