Recent Stories

Small Town Solutions: Staying Vital in Rural Iowa

Sac City, population 2,000, builds on its good bones

By |

SAC CITY – This city is home to the World’s Largest Popcorn Ball, but there’s more than that popping in Sac City. The city initiated a successful streetscape project, renovated a former school building into a community center recreation complex and has some rolling North Raccoon River Valley topography that lends itself to some picturesque recreational trails. It is a county-seat community with several agricultural-based industries, some classic older homes and a historic Chautauqua campground featuring the only Chautauqua building left in the state, constructed in 1908. The community also has been able to secure a major grant to study a possible re-use of a building that will no longer house a middle school after this academic year. Sac City is a town that, as the saying goes, has some “good bones” to build on.

rural Iowa

How 3 Iowa towns are getting smaller but smarter through Iowa State program

By |

A handful of Iowa communities and a group of Iowa State University researchers are trying to demonstrate that less can, in fact, be more, and small can, in fact, be vibrant. If you’re smart about it. In an outgrowth of community surveys begun a quarter century ago, ISU researchers have identified what they call “Shrink Smart” communities. Like so many others, particularly smaller free-standing rural communities, they have steadily lost population since the 1980s recession and farm crisis. With support from the Solutions Journalism Network

Yet, the Shrink Smart communities, according to survey data, are viewed by their residents as having a high quality of life.

biofuels

Evans: Lawmakers’ mixed message is puzzling

By |

I’m confused, and I have a hunch I am not the only one. Are government mandates a bad thing — or are they good? My confusion comes because I hear what leaders in the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds have said for months. It certainly seems as if, to a person, they agree mandates are bad. The governor often talks about how she believes Iowans will “do the right thing” when it comes to COVID vaccines and wearing masks.

Ruthven-Ayrshire school leaders focus on social-emotional success, too

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. Less than a year into comprehensive designations, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across the country in March 2020. This effectively pressed pause and added a fourth year to schools on comprehensive lists.

"failing schools"

Waterloo’s Expo Alternative Learning Center turns the numbers around

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. Cary Wieland and Henry Shepherd are the Ted Lasso and Coach Beard of Iowa public schools. They are principal and assistant principal, respectively, at Expo Alternative Learning Center in Waterloo, an alternative high school serving grades six through 12.

Education

Waterloo’s Carver Academy sees kids who’ve dramatically changed

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. Middle school has always been a time of change, but in 2021, the ability to adapt and persevere not just through adolescence, but through a global pandemic, showed just how determined kids can be. “In today’s age at the middle school level … we truly have to be adaptive,” said Sheena Canady, principal at George Washington Carver.

"failing schools"

Des Moines’ Harding Middle School navigates 20 languages

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. Twenty different languages are spoken by Warren G. Harding Middle School students and their families. Connecting them with information takes the work of a team of bilingual family liaisons, success workers and other staff. “We think about how do we help our students with food, with clothing, with transportation.

Education

Durant Elementary improves, yet worries amid school choice debate

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. In Durant, keeping the big picture in mind while improving the fundamentals is helping to keep the eastern Iowa town’s schools running smoothly and the heart of the community strong. “Part of being a small community is that the school is kind of the hub of the district, or of the community.

"failing schools"

Fred Becker Elementary cuts behavior incidents to reset on learning

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. Before tackling academics, staff at Fred Becker Elementary School in Waterloo had to zero in on what was standing between their students and learning. “A lot of elementary kiddos, they don’t know how to use their voice, so a lot of times it comes out as escape, or sometimes an aggressive act,” said Alex Hansen, principal at Fred Becker Elementary school.

"failing schools"

Several Burlington schools progress with 42 local partners

By |

Editor’s note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5 percent of Title I schools every three years, it doesn’t mean these schools are “failing,” as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowa’s 34 schools are on a “comprehensive” list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. In Burlington, schools are busy places. Not just between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., but before and after school, and in school-related programs and meetings.