While the science of reading offers a powerful approach to literacy, implementing it can be both beneficial and challenging. This Spotlight will help readers identify how state leaders have approached reading policy implementation; review districts' experience moving to a 'knowledge-building' curriculum; evaluate best practices for teaching…

Students, teachers, and school leaders are seeking flexibility and supports to enable powerful, personalized learning experiences both inside and outside of the traditional classroom. In personalized learning, instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests--including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when,…

Improving the nation's public schools is one of the highest priorities of federal, state, and local government in America. Recent research has shown that the quality of the principal is, among school-based factors, second only to the quality of the teacher in contributing to what students learn in the classroom. The Wallace Foundation, which has…

In 1988 the State Historical Society of Iowa appointed a Blue Ribbon task force composed of 45 Iowans to study the teaching of Iowa history at all levels of the educational system and to make recommendations. The task force formed committees to study in detail four specific areas of concern: (1) comparable studies of other states; (2) curriculum;…

This booklet reviews the literature and examines issues associated with providing services to students who exhibit externalizing or acting-out behaviors in the schools. Considered are the following issues: eligibility (whether socially maladjusted or conduct-disordered students are eligible for special education); legal intent (intent of the…

The quality of high schools--how well they prepare students for productive employment as well as active citizenship--has been part of the state and national agendas for several years. To help complete an action plan for addressing the issue of high school quality, the Iowa Department of Education and State Board of Education during the spring of…

This inventory was developed to serve as a working tool to help local education agencies review existing policies and practices that may negatively affect students' achievement and encourage their dropping out, especially in grades 7 through 12. The following areas are covered: (1) instruction; (2) discipline; (3) support services; (4) attendance;…

This report examines the types of professional development necessary to implement successful online learning initiatives. The potential for schools utilizing online learning is tremendous: schools can develop new distribution methods to enable equity and access for all students, they can provide high quality content for all students and they can…