Culver Feels Education Bill 'Levels Playing Field'
Posted on: Friday, 2 May 2008, 12:00 CDT
By James Q. Lynch, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
May 2--INDEPENDENCE -- There is no shortage of ideas about how to improve education, "but I am very confident we're making the right move, we're headed in the right direction," Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday before signing legislation establishing a model core curriculum for Iowa schools.
"We're not always necessarily 100 percent right in the steps we want to take, but our hearts are certainly in the right place," he said about Senate File 2216, which he signed at Hawkeye Community College in Independence.
Although many people don't understand the concept, the model core curriculum creates a pathway for teachers and local school districts to follow to reach the standards and benchmarks previously adopted, said Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, D-Arlington, the bill's sponsor and a classroom teacher for 33 years.
The Iowa Core Curriculum will provide local school districts a guide to delivering instructional content that is challenging and meaningful to students, he said. It will be required of all 364 public school districts as well as non-public schools.
It's a matter of equity, Culver said. "We want a level playing field ... so it doesn't matter if you are growing up in McGregor or Des Moines or Waterloo, we're going to give you a chance and a fair opportunity." Now, he said, the expectations from district to district are not necessarily the same.
In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, core curriculum address "real life" skills, such as health, civic and financial literacy, higher level thinking skills and employability skills, Culver said. Over time, it will be expanded to other curriculum areas to "serve as a guideline or blueprint for local school districts to use to ensure that teachers are teaching and students are learning at a world-class level." The legislation is not the "end-all" but a good first step toward improving students' achievement, according to former Lt. Gov. Bob Anderson, now with the Institute for Tomorrow's Workforce. As a result of the legislation, he said at the bill signing, "the emphasis on student achievement will be reinforced at every level." He believes the core curriculum will encourage more collaboration among teachers and administrators. It will make it clear to teachers what's expected and provide models for them to follow.
The Department of Education is developing a Web site to help parents understand expectations for their children, according to the department's legislative liaison, Jeff Berger. "A parent will be able to click on fifth grade, for example, and see what baseline skills are expected of fifth graders," he said.
Contact the writer: (319) 398-8375 or at james.lynch@gazcomm.com
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Source: The Gazette - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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