As part of an effort to better cover crucial issues in the agricultural industry, Investigate Midwest has acquired IowaWatch and its talented team, bringing together a combined 25 years of public service journalism to Iowa and the Midwest. IowaWatch (The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism) will cease operations as a nonprofit and evolve into an expanded Iowa-based newsroom within Investigate Midwest (The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting) under an agreement approved this month by the boards of directors of both nonprofit organizations.
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. Baxter Community School in central Iowa may be small, with preschool through 12th grade all under one roof, but it is also a top choice for those living in surrounding communities. “As many as one-fourth of our population is open-enrolled into our district,” said Principal Jason Aker.
Being a small school has its perks and its downsides. On the one hand, a smaller school can be more flexible, a trait that has been even more helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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. Great curriculum materials, teaching and support aren’t enough if they aren’t a child’s consistent experience throughout the day. “It’s like a diet, and if you’re only feeding the child a snack twice a day, they’re always going to be hungry,” said Mekisha Barnes, former principal at King Elementary School in Des Moines. “It has to be a full, comprehensive diet and system of support.”
King Elementary, which serves kindergarten through grade five, is listed as comprehensive.
When the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person learning in March 2020, interest in virtual schools skyrocketed. One of two virtual schools in the state, Iowa Virtual Academy opened in 2012 with 61 students, and as of the end of last school year served about 540 students, said Steve Hoff, principal of Iowa Virtual Academy, based in Guttenberg in northeast Iowa in the Clayton Ridge School District.
A seat at the table. Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver provided that succinct explanation last week of what his fellow Republicans are looking to provide to Iowa parents as the state’s K-12 school districts wrestle with a host of controversies. His colleague, Senate President Jake Chapman, set the tone a few weeks ago for addressing these controversies in this year’s session of the Iowa Legislature. Chapman accused some teachers of having a “sinister agenda” toward their students and vowed to push for a law that would make it a felony for teachers and school librarians to provide students with books that Chapman and some parents believe are obscene. During an appearance Friday on Iowa PBS’s “Iowa Press” program, Whitver did not talk about the content of those books.
A year ago, as Iowa hit the first anniversary of dealing with COVID-19, healthcare workers had a plea: use self-protection, like masks and social distancing, to keep the highly contagious coronavirus from spreading. Hospital beds were full and the ability to respond to the pandemic was hampered by overwork and healthcare workers, themselves, getting sick. “Certain days are harder than others. You know, it kind of depends on what’s going on,” Lilly Olson, a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics floor nurse, said talking with IowaWatch in January 2021 as Iowans moved into year two of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was one of several healthcare workers with whom IowaWatch spoke last winter during a report called Voices of COVID.
These 34 schools are on the state comprehensive list. They are the Title I schools that score in the bottom 5 percent in the state based on students’ performance on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress test, and/or for high schools, have a graduation rate below 67.1 percent. This allows them to get additional funds and support. Baxter Elementary, Baxter Community School DistrictBlack Hawk Elementary, Burlington Community School DistrictSunnyside Elementary, Burlington Community School DistrictJames Wilson Grimes School, Burlington Community School DistrictCedar River Academy at Taylor, Cedar Rapids Community School DistrictCharter Oak-Ute Elementary School, Charter Oak-Ute Community School DistrictIowa Virtual Academy, Clayton Ridge Community School District (Guttenberg)Mid City High School, Davenport Community School DistrictFrank L. Smart Intermediate, Davenport Community School DistrictMadison Elementary School, Davenport Community School DistrictMonroe Elementary School, Davenport Community School DistrictKing Elementary School, Des Moines Independent Community School DistrictGoodrell Middle School, Des Moines Independent Community School DistrictHiatt Middle School, Des Moines Independent Community School DistrictHarding Middle School, Des Moines Independent Community School DistrictMoore Elementary School, Des Moines Independent Community School DistrictLincoln Elementary School, Dubuque Community School DistrictFulton Elementary School, Dubuque Community School DistrictDurant Elementary School, Durant Community School DistrictEast Sac County Elementary, East Sac County Community School District (Sac City)West Elementary School, Emmetsburg Community School DistrictEssex Elementary School, Essex Community School DistrictGeorge Elementary School, George-Little Rock Community School DistrictLittle Rock Elementary School, George-Little Rock Community School DistrictRogers Elementary School, Marshalltown Community School DistrictAnson Elementary School, Marshalltown Community School DistrictRuthven-Ayrshire Elementary School, Ruthven-Ayrshire Community School DistrictSouth Page Senior High School, South Page Community School District (College Springs)Sylvia Enarson Elementary School, Villisca Community School DistrictExpo Alternative Learning Center, Waterloo Community School DistrictGeorge Washington Carver Academy, Waterloo Community School DistrictFred Becker Elementary School, Waterloo Community School DistrictHawarden Elementary School, West Sioux Community School DistrictIreton Elementary School, West Sioux Community School District
Source: Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. These numbers are from the 2018-2019 school year, which is the most updated per pupil data they have.
How do educators at 34 Iowa schools feel about spending the past year hearing elected officials say they are running “failing schools”? Leaders at 13 schools explained the shortcomings of the metric that assigned them the “failing” label, as well as the unique challenges students and staff confronted — even before legislation introduced at the Statehouse singled them out as places where families could get state assistance to leave, they told IowaWatch. “Failing schools” is hyperbole for schools designated by the state as “comprehensive.” These are the Title I schools that score in the bottom 5 percent in the state based on students’ performance on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress test, and/or for high schools, have a graduation rate below 67.1 percent. 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.”
A common misconception is that all schools are the same, said Jason Aker, principal of Baxter Elementary School in Baxter. “‘Thirty-four failing schools’ is a really crummy way of saying that, because the answer is simple; it’s the bottom 5 percent.
I stumbled across a statistical tidbit the other day that probably will surprise many people. U.S. Census Bureau figures show that between 1900 and 2000, the state that grew the least in population, on a percentage basis, was Iowa. Read that again. No state had smaller population growth between 1900 and 2000, as a percentage, than Iowa. Not North Dakota.
Rachel Fratzke led her Mercy Iowa City nursing staff in a meditation session to start the work day Monday morning. A nurse manager, she had the nurses do deep breathing exercises and think about when they first wanted to be a nurse, or how they felt about passing their certifying board exams.
