Legislature Acts On Education
The Des Moines Register has a good wrap-up of the items being passed in the final days of the legislative session. Of particular interest (more so than TouchPlay or CIETC) were a few items relating to education:
A compromise was reached between House Republicans and the Senate. In: increases in average teacher pay to bring the average salary up to 32nd nationally, and in a sea change, the introduction of statewide graduation requirements:
The most notable change was a massive policy amendment that creates graduation requirements for high schools, which was part of an omnibus budget agreement crafted last week by legislative leaders.Rep. Roger Wendt, a Sioux City Democrat, praised the policy change. “It sets some goals we feel will increase the rigor in our schools,” he said.
Under the bill, students will be required to complete four years of English and three years of mathematics, science and social studies. The new requirements would go into effect for the 2010-11 graduating class.
In reality, this means that students will be required to take higher level math and science classes. In most school districts this means a year of advanced algebra, and a year of chemistry will be added. The trouble with adopting “year” standards is that it does not address curriculum components in the way that other states have defined. (Such as “Being able to derive information from a graph”, etc.) Time will tell how these new standards will be implemented, but all in all this is a good start – particularly as school districts will need to address curriculum and teaching needs with the likely coming rounds of consolidation.
The compromise also included a pilot project for merit pay, which will probably yield predictable results. (Teachers in “good districts” will see the higher bonuses, etc.)
- Sousy