Relating to education, including by modifying provisions related to summative testing in schools and the educational program provided to students enrolled in kindergarten through grade twelve, and including applicability provisions

Current law requires the summative assessments administered to students be aligned with the Iowa common core standards in both content and rigor and meet the summative assessment requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The bill modifies this provision to require such summative assessments be aligned with the Iowa standards in both content and rigor. The summative assessments are still required to meet the summative assessment requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, if applicable. Current law requires the state board of education to adopt rules requiring school districts to adopt protocols for the identification of adverse childhood experiences and strategies to mitigate toxic stress response. The bill strikes this provision. Current law requires the director of the department of education to convene an advisory group to review the national assessment of educational progress standards and assessments used by other states and to consider the standards identified as best practices in the field of study by, among other entities, the national council for the social studies. The bill strikes the provision requiring the advisory group to consider the standards identified as best practices by the national council for the social studies. The bill strikes a requirement that the director of the department of education develop and distribute to school districts standards of practice for equity coordinators employed by school districts. Current law requires the state educational program to use, and be taught from, a multicultural and gender-fair approach and to incorporate global perspectives. The bill strikes these requirements. Current law requires the kindergarten program to include experiences designed to develop healthy emotional social habits and to include age-appropriate and research-based human growth and development. The bill strikes this requirement. The bill requires charter school and innovation zone school kindergarten programs to conform to these same requirements. The bill requires the health curriculum provided to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools, and innovation zone schools in grades one through eight to include physical fitness and nutrition. The bill provides that the two additional units of mathematics offered and taught to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools, and innovation zone schools in grades through may include instruction related to agriculture, which may be offered and taught through dedicated units of coursework or through units of coursework that also meet the requirements of the coursework required under the career and technical education curriculum. The bill requires that the one unit of health education offered and taught to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools, and innovation zone schools in grades through shall include instruction related to physical fitness, food and nutrition, and personal health. The bill provides that the one unit of health education offered and taught to such students may include instruction related to environmental health, safety and survival skills, consumer health, family life, human growth and development, substance use disorder and nonuse, health resources, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and prevention and control of disease. Current law requires that the one-half unit of personal finance literacy offered and taught to students enrolled in school districts and accredited nonpublic schools address certain specified subjects. The bill strikes the requirement that such instruction address certain subjects and applies the modified offer and teach requirements related to personal finance literacy to students enrolled in charter schools and innovation zone schools in grades through 12. Current law requires that the articulated sequential kindergarten through grade guidance and counseling program established by the state board of education be designed to ensure that the guidance counselor can work collaboratively to support the curricular goals of the school by offering responsive services that address the growth and development needs of students and the attainment of student competencies in social areas. The bill strikes this provision.74 (training and curriculum prohibited —— specific defined concepts), the director of the department of education is required to recommend, and the state board is authorized to do, one of the following within days of the finding of noncompliance: impose conditions on funding provided to the school district or withhold payment of state or federal funds to the school district. The bill requires the state board to take one of those actions in such circumstance. Current law establishes that it is the policy of the state of Iowa to provide an education system that prepares the children of this state to meet and exceed the technological, informational, and communications demands of our society, and as part of that policy, current law establishes findings related to the goals toward which the education system must strive to reach, including that students graduating from Iowa’s education system must demonstrate competency in challenging subject matter, and must have learned to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in a global economy. The bill modifies this provision to provide that students graduating from Iowa’s education system must be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in Iowa’s economy.3.16.2. The inclusion of this specification is intended to reinstate the requirement of political subdivisions to comply with any state mandates included in the bill.