News Brief

11/13/12

Report Says Iowa Students Should Be Evaluated Three Times Yearly

Sioux City Journal (IA) (11/13/12) Wiser, Mike

Iowa Education Director Jason Glass released a 20-page report that, among other things, recommended the implementation of a Response to Intervention program to assess students three times per year and provide struggling students with additional small group or one-on-one instruction. Glass says the program would have "quality controls as to what those assessments look like," but each school can choose its own assessments. The goal of the program is to reduce the achievement gap between different socioeconomic, racial, and disability groups. Some schools already have Response to Intervention plans in place, and Glass says the programs should "use existing resources" for any training or associated costs. "Through accreditation and accountability systems, we'd be looking at districts that have large achievement gaps and increasingly become more proscriptive with those districts and what they're doing to close those achievement gaps. A district that is closing achievement gaps and consistently getting high levels of performance is going to get less involvement from the state than one that is not," he explained.

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