Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

The Civil War ended in 1865. From 2011-2015, Civil War sesquicentennial events took place around the nation. The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium used the opportunity to feature two exhibits on the critical role that the river played during the Civil War. Both exhibits highlighted contributions to the war effort by the surrounding…

It is well-documented that students of color, and other historically underserved students, have had less access to an equitable and supportive learning environment, perpetuating school failure and, too often, a school-to-prison pipeline that is difficult to escape. This report shows how a number of states are taking advantage of opportunities in…

Since 2012, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has supported educational enrichment in rural areas by awarding over $3.3 million in grants to six outstanding organizations operating in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In this report, the authors combine the experiences of these organizations with findings from the…

This key is designed to help identify the most common trees found in Iowa. It is based on vegetative characteristics such as leaves, fruits, and bark and is illustrated with black and white line drawings. Since vegetative characteristics vary due to climate, age, soil fertility, and other conditions, the numerical sizes listed, such as length and…

The Sioux City Community Schools Office of Indian Education provides American Indian students with tutoring services through funds from Title V, Part C of the Indian Education Act of 1988 and the Johnson-O'Malley programs. The goal is to reduce the high dropout rate among Indian youth. This tutor handbook contains introductory information for the…

To help industrial arts teachers make decisions about the use of computer programs in classes containing disabled students, critical elements of appropriate computer software are discussed, includingpurpose and objectives, principles of learning, and major software problems. Recommendations are also presented for developing software and joining a…

This guide provides a variety of tools that can help educators, building staff, or school districts decide how to include environmental education in their curriculum. Chapter 1 identifies important environmental education concepts. Chapter 2 describes different general approaches and the advantages of each. Two models and the key components of…

Designed for use with secondary level learning disabled students and slow learners, this guide contains materials for familiarizing students with the Iowa Basic Driver's Manual. The following materials are included: pre- and posttests, chapter tests, vocabulary drills, worksheets to accompany each chapter of the Iowa driver's manual, and answer…

This publication highlights the opportunities to celebrate statewide diversity experienced by the 1998-99 Iowa Teacher of the Year, an African-American woman. Section 1 highlights her visits to 16 colleges around Iowa. Section 2 discusses her visits to 400 classrooms in 93 K-12 schools in 50 districts. Section 3 discusses the conferences and…

This document describes how to construct and compare choropleth maps for selected Iowa communities and the construction and use of scatter diagrams as a supplement to map comparisons. These tools can be used to compare social, economic, and political variations between neighborhoods and to determine if associations exist between selected…

The Iowa Clean SWEEP program is designed to provide educators, K-12, with a series of activities focusing upon critical concepts related to Iowa's solid waste problem. This activity packet contains 19 activities for grades K-6, and 25 activities for grades 7-12. Key concepts addressed throughout the activity packet include: (1) an overview, the…

This guide (developed in response to a mandate from the Iowa General Assembly) is designed to help faculties and administrators in developing curriculum and improving instruction in higher order thinking skills. The guide synthesizes the varied and not always consistent ideas about thinking into an approach that will be useful to educators as they…