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Meeting Public Comments

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SF 42
A bill for an act relating to the Iowa core curriculum and to assessment and content standards for school districts and accredited nonpublic schools and including effective date provisions.
Agenda
Subcommittee members: Zaun-CH, Celsi, Johnson
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Time: 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: 217 Conference Room
Comments Submitted:
The purpose of comments is to provide information to members of the subcommittee.
Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

01-26-2021
Margaret Buckton [Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa]
Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments. RSAI and UEN are opposed to SF 42. Replacing the word "core" in the Iowa Code with "Iowa Academic" to modify educational standards may initially seem to be an exercise of semantics, but the concept of the core is important to school leaders and educators. The core content standards were initially developed over a decade ago by chief state officers of states across the country, with Iowa's CSSO as chair of the group. Much of the Iowa standards formed a basis for the core. Now the term provides a baseline for demonstrating that curriculum materials, lessons and assessments are aligned to the expectations of what students are to accomplish. We urge you to resist this bill, which would create confusion and redirect local staff energies toward curriculum alignment and assessment conversations rather than on studying student learning and instructional strategies to improve student outcomes.