Articles from 08/2018

Registration is now open to attend Future Ready Iowa Regional Summits across the state, increasing opportunities for collaboration to address the state's shortage of skilled workers. The day-long summits are scheduled for this fall in Ames, Atlantic, Burlington, the Cedar Valley region, Centerville, Creston, Davenpo…

The Iowa Department of Education is seeking nominations for outstanding high school seniors for the 2018-19 U.S. Presidential Scholars selection cycle. We encourage you to nominate students who, while demonstrating outstanding scholarship, might not otherwise be nominated through the current SAT/ACT, arts, or CTE recog…

DES MOINES – Iowa Department of Education Director Ryan Wise kicks off his fourth year of weekly visits to Iowa schools and classrooms today in Carroll. Wise is scheduled to visit 27 school districts through December, bringing his total number of visits to 180 of 330 school districts. “When I became director thr…

Invisible, right in front of our eyes. Hidden in plain sight every day means Iowa's school children are vulnerable to the tragic realities of falling victim to human trafficking. This year, in an effort to identify, disrupt, and report human trafficking of Iowa's youth, every school bus driver in every school district …

You probably have heard it bandied about before – the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). At least conceptually. But the beginning of this school year, the tires hit the pavement: the state’s ESSA plan is now in effect. For some, the impact of the new federal accountability system will be substantial. But for most…

DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday announced the members of the new Iowa Clearinghouse for Work-Based Learning Advisory Board. The governor established the virtual clearinghouse by Executive Order No. 1 to expand high-quality, real-world work-based learning experiences for K-12 students. This is in keeping with…

Do you know a STEM teacher that goes above and beyond to engage students both in and out of the classroom? Nominations are now open for the 2019 I.O.W.A. STEM Teacher Award sponsored by Kemin Industries. The fifth year of this award, offered by the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, celebrates PreK-12 teachers…

(DES MOINES) – Forty-nine Iowa school districts and schools will receive money from a new $1 million fund to build their computer science teacher workforce, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on Tuesday. The funding is part of a broader effort to expand computer science education in schools across the state. This effort …

When school is in full session, the approximately 6,000 school buses in the state will haul 239,000 children (twice a day) over 227,000 miles. That’s comparable to driving all of the residents in the city of Des Moines to the moon in one day. And it’s that time of year where starting Thursday, buses will aga…

Gov. Kim Reynolds and Roger Hargens, CEO of Accumold, co-chairs of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, on Monday announced a project to launch six innovative computer science elementary schools. The six high-poverty schools will be competitively selected to transform existing buildings with engaging computer scienc…