Iowa Core Curriculum
Right Work, Right Time, Right People
What is the Iowa Core Curriculum?
- literacy
- math
- science
- social studies
- 21st century skills (financial, health, technology, civic, employability and global literacy.
What does it have to offer for Iowan students?
- Challenging courses at the students level
- prepare them for postsecondary education
What does it have to offer Iowan educators?
What is a parent or community member's role?
Alignment
This thought comes from the idea that if district leaders and other educators monitor and increase the degree of alignment among the intended, enacted, and assessed curriculum, then the quality of instruction will improve and student learning and performance will increase.
Educators will need to know the following to understand the alignment:
Curriculum:
The curriculum can be divided into three categories:
- Intended curriculum: the content target for the enacted curriculum, often captured in content standards or other similar documents
- Enacted curriculum: the content actually delivered during instruction in the classroom and other learning settings
- Assessed curriculum: the content that is assessed to determine achievement
Alignment
The extent to which and how well all policy elements work together to guide instruction and, ultimately, student learning.
Directionality
The direction in which alignment is examined can be broken down into two approaches:
- Horizontal Alignment: degree of match across two components within a single level
- Vertical Alignment: degree of match within one component across multiple levels
Dimensions
There are a wide variety of approaches to examining alignment, each of which examine different aspects of alignment relationships. They can be summarized as three dimensions:
- Topical/Conceptual Knowledge: Topics and info that students have to learn.
- Cognitive Complexity/Demand: What students are expected to do with the above knowledge.
- Emphasis: The extent to which topical/conceptual knowledge with complexity/demand are used by the intended, enacted, or assessed curriculum.
Level of Analysis
When engaging in a test of alignment in any direction, along any dimensions, the specificity with which alignment is considered can vary along a continuum. This is referred to as "grain size."
- Coarse-Grained: Tends to be global or general in nature
- Fine-Grained: Specific, targeted, one-to-one correspondence.
Implementation.
Each school district and accredited non-public school in Iowa is required to develop a written plan to describe their implementation of the Iowa Core Curriculum. This document provides a process to facilitate planning and a protocol for meeting the requirements to develp an implementation plan. It is an ongoing process of striving to meet the needs of all students.
The Department of Education defines full implementation as:
it is accomplished when the school or district is able to provide evidence that an ongoing process is in place to ensure that each and every student is learning the Essential Concepts and the Skill Sets of the Iowa Core Curriculum.
The legislated deadlines for this are as follows:
1. Respond to all outcomes and targets of the implementation plan:
- July 1, 2010, for 9-12
- July 1, 2012, for K-8
2. Complete an initial alignment of local content with Iowa Core Curriculum
- July 1, 2012, for 9-12
- 2013-2014, for K-8
3. Complete initial analysis of content, instruction, assessment, and steps to address gaps
- July 1, 2012, for 9-12
- July 1, 2014, for K-8