Education

DES MOINES — The director of the Iowa Department of Education says he’s unsure whether the state will pursue its waiver request to the U.S. Department of Education to free Iowa from some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind. “What the Legislature approved makes it very difficult in some instances to meet the [...]

Eastern Iowa schools dominated two national high school rankings released this week. Eight Iowa schools, seven from the eastern part of the state,  were represented in Newsweek magazine’s “America’s Best High Schools” list of the 1,000 top public high schools in America. They are: Iowa City West (ranked 462nd overall), Cedar Rapids Washington (723), Cedar Rapids [...]

DES MOINES — Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he will push to create new roles for classroom teachers in his 2013 education reform package. Saying teacher leadership “will be at the heart” of next year’s initiative, Branstad announced the Iowa Teacher and Principal Leadership Symposium set for Aug. 3 at Drake University in Des Moines. [...]

Several Cedar Rapids schools will see new leadership next year as the district replaces retiring administrators and re-organizes some of its existing buildings. The district named new principals for Metro Alternative High School and Wilson and Harding middle schools, as well as named a leader for the new Polk Alternative Center, which will occupy the [...]

It’s late morning in the band room of Denison Middle School in rural western Iowa, where 15 sets of eyes are locked on band director Ruben Newell. “It should be loooong,” Newell says as he slowly pulls a bow across the strings of the violin tucked under his chin and they respond with a high-pitched [...]

AMES – Pamela Anthony, assistant dean of students at Georgia State University, Atlanta, will begin as Iowa State University’s new dean of students Aug. 1, ISU officials said Friday. Anthony succeeds Dione Somerville, who left ISU in June 2011 to become vice president for student affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Anthony has been assistant [...]

   Matt Shankles knows what it’s like to be bullied. The 16-year-old sophomore at Linn-Mar High School endured two waves of abuse in middle school; first after moving to Marion from South Carolina and again after coming out in eighth grade as a gay student. High school has been more positive so far, but those [...]

The Iowa City school district has been formally asked to review a decision not to bus students from the Miller-Orchard neighborhood to Horn Elementary School next fall. David Dude, the district’s executive director of operational services, said he received identical letters Wednesday afternoon from four families asking that their children be bused. District administrators will [...]

College Community Schools hosted an information session Tuesday to explain why every high school student needs a laptop computer. The school district wants to give every ninth through 12th grader a school-issued laptop. The plan is to order around 1,400 11-inch Macbook Air laptops. College Community has been studying the concept for three years.  They [...]

Feeling like their children’s needs are not being met, some North Liberty parents have discussed breaking up with the Iowa City school district. For many, the idea of forming a new district is more of a sign of how frustrated they have become at what they see as the school board’s wavering on whether to [...]