Name of Project: Iowa Core Curriculum
Name of Initiative: #1 Comprehensive Services to Schools, Children & Families
Team members:
Heartland Core Team
Julie Hukee, Becca Lindahl
Lynn McCartney, Brad Niebling
Linda Hoobin, Teresa Bellinghausen
Jen Reidemann, Kim Thuente
Sharon Kurns, Cindy Yelick
Additional Members (Communications Committee)
Dana Strother, Sue Severson
Nina Rasmusson, Leanne Thill
Susan Schrader, Brenda Gustafson
Sheila King, Dave Tilly
AdHoc: Sarah Brown, Cheryl Risen
Give the gist of what your project is about including the long-term goal.
The Iowa Core Curriculum project is focusing on how the Agency can assist schools to fully implement the Core Curriculum in high schools by July 1, 2012, and in grades K-8 by 2014–15 by providing Iowa educators with support and tools to assure that essential subject matters being taught and essential knowledge and skills are being learned in Iowa classrooms for each and every K-12 student.
What are the things that your team has been working on?
The team has been developing and delivering training modules for district leadership teams that include administrators and teachers. Participation in the six training modules will result in the development of a district implementation plan for the Core Curriculum. In addition to district leadership teams, Heartland staff has also been participating in the training so that they can support administrators and teachers at the local school level.
Several team members are collaborating with the Curriculum Network Advisory Committee to design content and activities that are shared with districts via the Curriculum Network and Heartland Web sites. This work is intended to assist districts in differentiating their implementation and professional development planning in their districts. The communication sub-committee is developing a plan to assure two-way communication and feedback as agency staff and districts continue to learn more about the Core Curriculum, develop implementation plans and plan for professional development and district structures that will support full implementation of the Core Curriculum.
What has your team accomplished?
By mid-January, 100% of the public and non-public districts/schools in the Heartland area have registered leadership teams for the Core Curriculum training with over 90% of participants attending each module. The six colleges in central Iowa with teacher preparation programs are also sending a leadership team to the training. A Web page has been created for the Core Curriculum. Included on the page are all the materials from the training modules so that information can easily be shared with staff who is not able to attend the training. The Web address for the page is http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ICC/index.html. The team is also continuing to work on developing a communication plan and a Core Curriculum implementation plan for the Agency.
Why are these important to Agency’s goal of increasing student achievement?
The purpose of implementing the Core Curriculum is to raise student expectations and change teaching behaviors to impact student achievement.
What can staff expect in the future?
Work will continue on the development of action plans and additional training modules. There are also plans to create opportunities for agency staff to develop deeper knowledge and understanding of the Core Curriculum and how to support schools through teacher quality professional learning opportunities. This project will continue to collaborate with Curriculum and Instruction work teams and Media/Technology work teams to develop resources for agency staff to use to support teachers and administrators.
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