Iowa Core Curriculum

The Iowa Core Curriculum is a set of learning goals for Iowa students. These are concepts and skills that students in grades kindergarten through 12^th must learn in the areas of literacy, mathematics, science, social studies and 21^st Century skills.

The Core Curriculum goes deeper into subject areas, and provides school districts with new ways to assess whether students are learning the content areas.

It does not require school districts to adopt specific textbooks; instead, school officials examine and adapt their teaching styles and assessment methods.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, the Core Curriculum does the following:

·    Mathematics: Moves from memorization and practice of facts and procedures to an understanding and application of concepts, practices and facts.

·    Literacy: Moves from a focus on reading and writing in only English or language arts classes to using reading, writing, speaking, viewing and listening in all content areas.

·    Science: Moves from a lecture format derived from a textbook to students investigating, designing their own experiments and then defending their conclusions.

·    Social studies: Moves from a lecture format and recitation of information to the understanding of skills and information that are relevant to today’s world.

·    21^st Century skills: Adds a new set of skills that has been deemed important to a student’s ability to be successful in today’s world. They are: employability skills, financial literacy, health literacy, technology literacy and civic literacy. In health literacy, for example, a student would learn how decisions such as lack of exercise, poor nutrition and substance abuse affect his or her health.

In 2008, legislation was enacted that requires all public and accredited nonpublic schools in Iowa to implement the Core Curriculum in high schools by July 1, 2012, and in elementary and middle schools by 2014-15.

School districts must have their implementation plans in place for high schools by July 1. Plans for elementary and middle schools must be in place by July 1, 2012. As part of this, districts were required to look at how they currently teach students in the core areas and compare it with the requirements set forth in the Core Curriculum.

Teachers have and will continue to receive training to specifically learn about the Core Curriculum and what they need to do to implement it. The process is designed to help school officials learn what content areas are critical and what areas they can eliminate.

Source: Iowa Department of Education