Student Standards | Iowa Department of Education (2024)

On this page...

A Common Set of Expectations For Students, Districts

A great educational system begins with a clear and rigorous set of standards that educators use to help ensure that all students are college, career, and citizen ready. Standards provide a set of common expectations for school districts across the state. Iowa has two types of standards: program standards and academic standards.

Iowa Program Standards

Program standards are criteria for the quality of, and conditions for, district and school programs. In Iowa, program standards include, but are not limited to: Iowa Quality Preschool Program Standards, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Talented and Gifted.

Iowa Academic Standards

Academic and learning standards are clear and rigorous expectations that educators use to help ensure that all students are college, career, and citizen ready. Standards provide a set of common expectations for school districts across the state. These standards include the Iowa Early Learning Standards, Iowa Core Standards, Iowa Core Essential Elements, Iowa English Language Proficiency Standards, career and technical education standards, and recommended standards in the areas of fine arts and computer science.

Some Academic Standards Are Required, Others Are Not

Iowa Core -IowaCore.gov

All students in Iowa are required to learn the Iowa Core Standards, also known as the Iowa Academic Standards. Content areas included in the are English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, 21st Century Skills, and the Universal Constructs.

Special Populations

Several sets of standards are required for special populations of students. Those include the Early Learning Standards, English Language Proficiency, and Iowa Core Essential Elements.

Recommended

The Department has also been asked to develop recommended standards in the following content areas: Computer Science,Fine Arts, Physical Education and Health Education. These standards are recommended but not required for districts to use in developing curriculum in Grades K-12.

Career and Technical Education

To be eligible for Perkins funding, districts must follow academic standards put forth for the CTE program area.

Iowa Academic Standards Are High Quality

Because the Iowa content standards provide the framework that guides instructional decisions at the local level, their quality is very important. Throughout the standards adoption process, the Iowa Department of Education ensures that standards meet these expectations: are measurable, focused, challenging, synchronized, connected, and specific.

Measurable

Standards provide yearly expectations against which student progress toward learning goals can be measured. Teachers need a clear sense of what students must know and be able to do in order to measure their progress. Content area standards support consistent assessment of student learning across schools and districts.

Focused

The Iowa Academic Standards are aimed at preparing students for the rigorous challenges in postsecondary education and careers. They demonstrate priorities about the concepts and skills that are required learning in our K-12 system. These are the minimal expectations all students are required to know and able to do.

Challenging

Standards must build in complexity so that by the end of high school, students are prepared for post-secondary education and the workforce. Standards outline the level of thinking that is appropriate for the content and expected developmental level. At the same time, it must be considered that students develop skills and conceptual understandings at different rates.

Synchronized

In Iowa, standards are synchronized across grade levels and spans. The concepts and skills required across disciplines are coordinated so students are not required to know information in one discipline not yet learned in another. For example, in learning a science standard, students would not be asked to perform a mathematics concept not yet learned.

Connected

Student learning of content standards is most effective when it is relevant, connecting knowledge and skills to real-world applications in preparation for careers and civic life. The universal constructs (such as critical thinking and being able to effectively collaborate) and 21st Century Skills transcend content disciplines to focus on the skills students will need to succeed in life. The universal constructs were identified following an analysis of the competencies and habits of mind needed for future success in careers, college and citizenry: critical thinking, complex communication, creativity, collaboration, flexibility and adaptability, productivity, and accountability. The Iowa Legislature established the Iowa 21st century skills as civic literacy, employability skills, financial literacy, health literacy, and technology literacy. To ensure students are college and career ready in Iowa, student mastery of the Iowa Academic Standards, including skills, content, concepts, and application, are necessary.

Specific

The Iowa Academic Standards are precise and provide enough detail to set the level of performance expected without being overly prescriptive.

Standards, Curriculum: Complementary But Not the Same

Curriculum can be divided into four categories: intended, enacted, assessed, and learned.

Intended curriculum is the knowledge and skill targets for the enacted curriculum, often captured in Iowa’s Academic and Learning Standards or other similar documents.

Enacted curriculum is the knowledge and skills actually delivered during instruction in the classroom and other learning settingsand how it is taught.

Assessed curriculum is the knowledge and skills that are assessed to determine achievement.

Learned curriculum is the knowledge and skills students actually acquire.

The Iowa Academic Standards set expectations for students to learn within a local curriculum. These standards describe the content, skills, and concepts that students should learn, but they do not prescribe particular curriculum such as lessons, instructional materials, teaching techniques, or activities. The local curriculum describes how educators will teach students the standards. Decisions about curriculum and instruction are made locally by individual school districts, leadership, and teachers. The Iowa Department of Education does not mandate the curriculum used within a local district or school.

MTSS Helps Students Learn The Standards

A multi-tiered system of support, or MTSS, is designed to help all students learn the Iowa Academic Standards and be appropriately challenging. It is a decision-making framework of evidence-based practices in instruction and assessment that addresses the needs of all students. To be effective, screeners, progress monitors, formative assessment, and summative assessments should be aligned to the Iowa Academic Standards. Read detailed information about MTSS in Iowa.

Iowa Academic Standards Are Reviewed On An Ongoing Basis

Implementation Resources For The Academic Standards

Implementation Plans

Implementation of standards is a multi-year process beginning with awareness and exploration and ending with ensuring all students have the opportunity to learn the standards. Depending on the extent of the changes in the standards and the related instructional shifts, it is not uncommon for the beginning stages (exploration, installation, and initial implementation) to take three or four years, with full implementation taking additional time. Districts will be in full implementation when all aspects of curriculum, instruction and assessment are designed to ensure equitable opportunities so that all students meet all standards. This process is described in an implementation created by the Iowa Department of Education in collaboration with the appropriate content leadership teams. This plan describes the roles of various stakeholders (students, teachers, teacher leaders, districts, AEAs, external partners of the Department of Education) in the process. These plans are developed for the Iowa Core subjects. Examples of science and social studies are available.

Instructional Shifts

To put the standards into practice, the place to begin is attending to the major shifts in instruction and learning that the new or revised standards will compel. These shifts should guide all aspects of implementing the standards: professional development, instructional design, assessment, and curriculum. When educators attend to core shifts in each content area, the expectations for teaching and learning will be clear, consistent, and tightly aligned to the goals of the standards.

Parent Guides

Parents and guardians play an important role in supporting their children’s success in learning the standards. The Department has created parent guides for students in K-12 in the areas of English/Language Arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and 21st Century Skills. These guides are available in both English and Spanish versions. Adult supports are included as a component of the Iowa Early Learning Standards.

Communications and Instructional Resources

To support educators in continual improvement, the Department of Education has developed many resources, networks, and communication tools. The IowaCore.gov website has the required standards plus many resources for instruction, assessment, and professional learning in the core content areas.

The History of the Iowa Academic Standards

Student Standards | Iowa Department of Education (2024)

FAQs

What is the purpose of student learning standards? ›

Learning standards lay out expectations for the specific information and skills students at each grade level should learn, ensuring that the topics, skills, and rigor for each grade level are age-appropriate. Learning standards function as goals.

What are the types of standards in Education? ›

What are the Different Types of Standards in Education?
  • Content Standards. Broad statements that describe specific content areas that groups of students should learn at each grade level are called CONTENT Standards. ...
  • Performance Standards. ...
  • Benchmarks. ...
  • Opportunity to Learn Standards. ...
  • Learn more: Take a course.

What are examples of learning standards? ›

Learning standards such as “determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes” do not tell teachers what texts to assign, how to teach students about metaphors or similes, or even how to determine they have achieved the expected standard.

How are the Iowa core standards used in Education? ›

The Iowa Core works to ensure that students will have a deep understanding of the essential concepts and skills in the key areas of literacy, math, science, and social studies, as well as in areas civic literacy, financial literacy, technology literacy, health literacy, and employability skills that are critical to ...

What are the benefits of learning standards? ›

Standards ensure better accountability – holding teachers and schools responsible for what goes on in the classrooms. The practice of aligning learning to standards also helps ensure that a higher level of learning is attained, guides teachers in the process of assessment and helps keep them on track.

What is the purpose of the standards? ›

The point of a standard is to provide a reliable basis for people to share the same expectations about a product or service. This helps to: facilitate trade. provide a framework for achieving economies, efficiencies and interoperability.

What are 5 examples of standards? ›

Below are a few examples of standards you can set.
...
Learning/Growth
  • Read at least 30 books every year.
  • Listen to one new science podcast every week.
  • Attend science or informational events in the community.
  • Meet up with individuals who are experienced in their field through networking.

What are the 4 types of standards? ›

Standards can also be classified according to their degree of formality, depending on who initiates the standardisation process.
  • Formal standards. ...
  • Informal standards. ...
  • Proprietary standards.

What are the 5 standards? ›

4 The five standards are: higher-order thinking, depth of knowledge, connectedness to the world beyond the classroom, substantive conversation, and social support for student achievement (see fig. 1.).

What are the three types of standards in education? ›

I distinguish between three types of standards: content standards. process standards. value standards.

What are the 10 standards? ›

The 10 Professional Standards All Effective Teachers Must Meet
  • Learner development. The teacher understands how students learn and how they develop. ...
  • Learning differences. ...
  • Learning environments. ...
  • Content knowledge. ...
  • Application of content. ...
  • Assessment. ...
  • Planning for instruction. ...
  • Instructional strategies.

What are the 7 standards of teaching? ›

The Standards
  • Know your students and how they learn.
  • Know the content and how to teach it.
  • Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.
  • Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.
  • Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning.
  • Engage in professional learning.

Can parents opt out of standardized testing in Iowa? ›

Iowa provides clear guidance on its Department of Education website, prohibiting opt-outs under state and federal law. The department provides that school districts determine the consequences for parents who choose to opt their children out. Opt-out issues are handled at the local level.

What are 2 benefits of the Common Core Standards? ›

Common core standards offer the following benefits to students: Allow students moving from one state to another a smoother academic transition. Help students understand what is expected of them in terms of academic performance. Provides students with necessary skills and knowledge for college and the workforce.

What are the benefits of the common core standards for students? ›

Pros of the Common Core
  • U.S. educational rankings will improve on a global scale.
  • The educational community will benefit from more professional development opportunities.
  • Costs to create tests will be lower due to standardized formats and scoring.
  • Students will have improved critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
15 Jun 2020

What are the 3 importance of standards? ›

Benefits of Using Standards

Standards ensure the safety, quality and reliability of products and services; they facilitate trade and protect our health and the health of the environment. For business, standards improve systems and processes; they reduce waste, cut costs and ensure consistency.

Which type of standards are the expectations for student learning? ›

Educational standards describe what students should know and be able to do. They come in two flavors: content standards and performance standards.

What are the aims and objectives of the standard based education? ›

"The idea behind standards-based curriculum is to set clear standards for what we want students to learn and to use those academic standards to drive other changes in the system and for life -long learning and living."

What are the three types of standards? ›

Following are different types of standards: 1)Basic standards. 2)Normal standards. 3)Current standards.

What are the 8 standards? ›

The eight Standards are:
  • Consumer dignity and choice. What this means for you. ...
  • Ongoing assessment and planning. What this means for you. ...
  • Personal care and clinical care. ...
  • Services and supports for daily living. ...
  • Organisation's service environment. ...
  • Feedback and complaints. ...
  • Human resources. ...
  • Organisational governance.

What are basic standards? ›

A basic standard is a standard that is established for use over a long period of time and does not change from year to. year. Basic standards are not commonly used for control purposes and are more appropriate for monitoring changes in efficiency and prices over time.

What are the levels of standards? ›

Broadly, there are four levels of standardization: Compatibility. Interchangeability. Commonality.

How many standards are there? ›

ISO stands for International Organization of Standardization. The ISO is an international body responsible for creating, setting, and promoting standards. To date it has published more than 22,600 standards and related documents that apply to all kinds of industries, such as manufacturing, healthcare, and accounting.

What are the three most popular standards? ›

What are the most popular standards? According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the top three standards are ISO/IEC 17025, the ISO 9000 family, and ISO/IEC 27001.

What are content standards in education? ›

Content Standards describe the knowledge and skills that students should attain, often called the "what" of "what students should know and be able to do." They indicate the ways of thinking, working, communicating, reasoning and investigating the important and enduring ideas, concepts, issues, dilemmas and knowledge ...

What are standards and best practices? ›

“Best Practices” are the best known method, technique or proven processes used to achieve an end goal – a 'standard'. “Standards: are usually established by an authority (a rule or principle) or by general consent (defacto standards) as a basis of comparison.

What is the purpose of standard 5? ›

This Standard is for organisations providing a physical service environment. It makes sure that the service environment, furniture and equipment support a consumer's quality of life, as well as their independence, ability and enjoyment.

How many school standards are there? ›

Middle school: Fifth to eighth standard/class/grade (for 11- to 14-year-olds) Secondary school: Ninth and tenth standard/class/grade (for 14- to 16-year-olds) Higher secondary or pre-university: 11th and 12th standard/class/grade (for 16- to 17-year-olds). This is when students choose an academic area on which to focus.

What is the 10 rule for school? ›

This tool helps prevent the number of times students ask to leave the room during important informational times. This is done by implementing the 10/10 rule where students don't leave the room during the first or last ten minutes of class.

What are the six standards of conduct? ›

Standards of Conduct
  • Fiduciary Duty. ...
  • Integrity. ...
  • Competence. ...
  • Diligence. ...
  • Disclose and Manage Conflicts of Interest. ...
  • Sound and Objective Professional Judgment. ...
  • Professionalism. ...
  • Comply With the Law.

How many teachers standards are there? ›

Appraisal protocols make it clear that the eight statutory standards for teaching only will be applied to the appraisal of teaching.

What are the 5 C's for teachers? ›

Instead of teaching the same lesson plan to an entire class, educators should focus on the 5 Cs—collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical and computational thinking—to foster greater learning.

What are the 5 principles of education? ›

Principles of Education
  • 1.Preparation for change.
  • 2.Development of individuality.
  • 3.Awareness and understanding of the world and environment.
  • 4.Acquisition and application of knowledge and skills.
  • 5.Grouping and Assimilation.
17 Jan 2022

What are the 4 pillars of teaching? ›

A central argument is that if education is to succeed in its tasks, curriculum as its core should be restructured or repacked around the four pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be.

What age can you dropout of school with parental consent in Iowa? ›

Children in Iowa are required to attend school between the ages of 6 and 16 by September 15th of each year.

Are Iowa Assessments mandatory? ›

Both Yerkes and Oberbreckling received a phone call from their children's principals saying they were required to take the tests in person. According to the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa law requires all students to take the test with no option of opting out.

Why are standardized tests being removed? ›

In spring 2021, a system advisory body began evaluating standardized assessments, and determined they presented negligible benefits for Cal State's admissions processes. The panel recommended they be nixed. The advisory council cited research demonstrating high school GPA better predicts academic prowess over testing.

Why do people oppose Common Core? ›

The Common Core State Standards establishes a high bar for America's students, but it doesn't provide teachers and schools with the financial support necessary to help millions of students achieve at that level. Very few experienced teachers who've taught in the trenches were consulted in establishing these standards.

What does Common Core not teach? ›

By sixth grade, students should then be able to begin developing their own writing style. While the Common Core does integrate reading and writing, it does not ask students to learn how to write by first imitating someone else's style before inventing their own.

What are the disadvantages of standard based education? ›

Cons for standards & national curriculums
  • Not every school is the same.
  • Student achievement based solely on external tests.
  • Focus on product instead of process (lack of critical thinking, problem solving)
  • Focus on societal needs as compared to individual.

What is the purpose of common core standards? ›

The goal of the Common Core is to help students graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college and in the workforce. Another goal is to make sure students are getting a strong education, no matter which state they live in.

Why standard assessment is important? ›

Standards-based assessment is meant to offer a way that teachers can identify the skills that matter most, can evaluate student work fairly, can give feedback to students that is helpful and actionable, and can use data to revise upcoming lessons to meet their students' needs.

What are the reasons parents and students are opting out of Common Core standardized testing? ›

There are several reasons why parents are rejecting Common Core Testing: Parents believe students suffer unnecessary stress due to hours of testing. Teachers are forced to “teach to the test” which limits what students learn.

What is the purpose of learning standards in the intermediate grades? ›

The basic idea is to make sure that students are learning age-appropriate material (knowledge and skills that are neither too advanced nor too rudimentary), and that teachers are sequencing learning effectively or avoiding the inadvertent repetition of material that was taught in earlier grades.

What are two purposes of standards based education? ›

Standards establish clear goals. They allow teachers, students, parents and administration to speak the same language around expectations. They create consistency across teachers, schools, districts and provinces or states.

What are the three types of standards that are specific to teacher education? ›

The authors encourage users of the CSTP to refer to all three levels of the standards (narrative, elements, and reflective questions) to facilitate conversations about teacher practice, to set goals for ongoing professional development, and to guide the collection of evidence of growth over time.

What are the two basic types of standards? ›

Following are different types of standards: Basic standards. Normal standards.

What are the three main purposes of standardized testing? ›

The Three Primary Purposes of Tests
  • Comparisons among test takers. One primary purpose of educational testing is to compare students' test performances in order to identify score-based differences among individual students or groups of students. ...
  • Improvement of ongoing instruction and learning. ...
  • Evaluation of instruction.
1 Apr 2016

What is the focus of standard based education? ›

A Standards Based curriculum is a body of knowledge and set of competencies that form the basis for a quality education. It defines what students should know, understand and be able to do and includes the accompanying teaching content.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Dr. Pierre Goyette

Last Updated:

Views: 5972

Rating: 5 / 5 (70 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Dr. Pierre Goyette

Birthday: 1998-01-29

Address: Apt. 611 3357 Yong Plain, West Audra, IL 70053

Phone: +5819954278378

Job: Construction Director

Hobby: Embroidery, Creative writing, Shopping, Driving, Stand-up comedy, Coffee roasting, Scrapbooking

Introduction: My name is Dr. Pierre Goyette, I am a enchanting, powerful, jolly, rich, graceful, colorful, zany person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.