Vilsack increases school standards

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By Todd Dorman | Friday, November 18, 2005 12:33 AM CST | () comments

DES MOINES — Iowa high schools are heeding Gov. Tom Vilsack’s call for more rigorous graduation requirements, according to a report issued Thursday.

The annual Condition of Education report showed that dozens of school districts are moving to require students to take more math and science before earning a diploma. Vilsack has urged schools to toughen standards in an effort to prepare pupils for global economic competition.

“If we want to raise student achievement, we need to raise our expectations,’’ said Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education, which released the report. “We were pretty adamant that this was their local responsibility.’’

By 2010, according to the department, 256 Iowa districts will require high school students to complete three or more units of math before graduation. That is more than double the 104 Iowa districts that required three or more units in the 2004-2005 school year. Iowa has 365 school districts.

“That’s a ‘wow,’ ’’ said Sally Frudden of Charles City, a member of the State Board of Education, which was briefed on the report Thursday.

The report also shows that 238 districts are on track to require three or more units of science by 2010, compared with 65 districts during 2004-2005.

A course that meets 50 minutes each school day for two semesters counts as one unit under state reporting rules.

Jeffrey said many other districts are considering changes. It takes districts years to put new standards in place because implementation must be staggered to avoid abruptly changing requirements for current students.

But it has been only about nine months since Vilsack began his crusade for more “rigorous and relevant’’ high schools. The Democratic governor has proposed toughening graduation requirements, lengthening the school year and providing incentives to high schools that find ways to offer students a broader array of courses.

Officials have been troubled by stagnant or lagging science and math test scores among 11th-grade students at the same time eighth-graders and fourth-graders were posting gains.

“If we’re going to prepare our students more adequately, we simply cannot have students taking their last year of math and science as sophomores,’’ Jeffrey said.

But she also raised concerns Thursday that schools may not have enough teachers to teach those rigorous courses, especially in science. Dozens of Iowa physics and chemistry teachers are eligible for retirement over the next three years and finding their replacements will be difficult.

Although 147 physics instructors are nearing retirement around the state, only 47 would-be physics teachers are enrolled in Iowa teacher training programs. And there is no guarantee those students will not opt for better-paying private-sector jobs.

Iowa’s average teacher salary of $40,344 annually ranks 42nd nationally, according to the department’s report.

Jeffrey is pushing legislation that would provide bonuses to new math and science teachers.

“It’s going to be very hard to recruit our best and brightest into the teaching profession,’’ she said.

Todd Dorman can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or todd.dorman@lee.net.