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Thousands of talented Iowa educators lead and inspire their students, but only one is chosen annually as the state’s top teacher. The deadline to nominate the 2016 Iowa Teacher of the Year is April 25. The award is an opportunity to recognize an exceptional Iowa teacher who is helping to redefine education. Nomina…

Iowa Department of Education Director Brad Buck today announced a meeting of the Science Standards Review Team on Thursday, March 5, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The meeting will take place at the Science Center of Iowa, 401 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, in Des Moines. The meeting is open to the public. Buck establ…

This National School Breakfast Week, survey shows a third of Iowa kids skip breakfast Students who eat a healthy breakfast are more likely to pay attention and excel in school, research shows. But thousands of students are starting the school day with an empty stomach, according to a new survey from the Iowa Dep…

Iowa is a national leader in providing opportunities for high school students to enroll in college coursework, according to two publications released by the Iowa Department of Education. Iowa leads the nation in the percentage of students under age 18 enrolled in community colleges or in all public institutions comb…

Members of the State Board of Education today endorsed a state task force’s recommendation to adopt the Smarter Balanced assessments as Iowa’s new state test. The endorsement was part of a board resolution that was adopted in a unanimous vote during a meeting by telephone. The resolution will be sent to Iowa leg…

Every school district and community college receiving federal financial assistance in Iowa is required to assign an equity coordinator to oversee compliance activities under federal civil rights laws, which includes gender, disability, race and national origin equity. Over the last several years, equity citations are t…

Does your school offer a summer school program? Iowa Learning Online can help you begin or expand your program at no cost to your district.   With more than 30 semesters of courses available this summer, Iowa Learning Online is available as a supplemental or full summer school program.  Courses include gov…

Jason Volmer’s life from student to teacher Jason Volmer, Special Education Coordinator for the Urbandale Community School District If it hadn’t been for the few advocates in Jason Volmer’s life, he would’ve been destined for a low-wage job. Or much, much worse. But those advocates – in the form…

In an effort to head off hunger, the Iowa Department of Education is seeking sponsors for a federally funded program that provides nutritious meals and snacks to children in low-income areas during the summer months. About 90 percent of the more than 195,000 Iowa students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch…

The Iowa Department of Education has been working to fulfill a legislative requirement to develop a system for evaluating and ranking all public schools based on their performance on nine specific measures. This requirement, known as the Attendance Center Rankings, also requires the Department to post this information …