Iowa School Performance Profiles Updated and Released with New Features

Last week the Iowa Department of Education announced new features have been added to a recently launched online school accountability reporting system.   

The Iowa School Performance Profiles website first launched in December to meet a federal education law called the Every Student Succeeds Act. ESSA, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, requires all states to publish report cards reflecting the performance of public schools. 

The initial version of the website included each school’s scores on a set of accountability measures, such as graduation rates, and specified schools that were identified for additional support and improvement based on their performance. 

The new features include additional data required by ESSA, such as student suspensions and expulsions and chronic absenteeism, and a feature to compare school and district performance. The website also folds in data and ratings from the former Iowa School Report Card, developed to meet a 2013 state law. 

“School report cards make it easier for education stakeholders to understand how their schools are serving students,” Director Ryan Wise said. “Our goal was to have one school performance reporting tool that fully meets both state and federal requirements.” 

The new features did not change the school accountability scores calculated in December. Those scores will be updated later this year as part of an annual update to the website. 

This fact sheet summarizes the new features that users will find on the updated Iowa School Performance Profiles.