Spencer has been preparing for implementation

The Iowa Core Curriculum is designed to raise student engagement, as well as change teacher behaviors to impact student achievement, through the infusing of more challenging and meaningful content into classroom instruction. Its mandated "essential concepts and skills" in literacy, math, science, social studies and 21st century skills will all have to be included in Iowa district curriculums.

While the Department of Education is encouraging districtwide core curriculum implementation plans to be developed by July 1, plans on implementing it are due for Iowa high schools by July 1, 2010. Kindergarten-through-eighth grade plans are not due until July 1, 2012.

Each school district will then have to decide its own way of rolling the Iowa Core Curriculum out.

In preparation, Spencer has focused on developing its leadership capacity this school year. Administrative team members have attended monthly meetings in Pocahontas. Spencer Assistant Superintendent Kathy Elliott, in turn, has met with district leadership team members. The district's School Improvement Advisory Committee has also been told it will have a leadership role in introducing the concept locally.

Full implementation of the Iowa Core Curriculum, meanwhile, is required of high schools by July 1, 2012. The K-8 level implementation is required by 2014-15.

"Districts can make decisions K-12, but our culture is to try to do it K-12," Elliott said. "I don't like doing curriculum work piecemeal. I'd prefer to have everyone participating so we see that vertical alignment of our curriculum."

Elliott, who is marking her seventh year in the Spencer school district's central administrative office building, was told by Superintendent Greg Ebeling when he arrived in the district five years ago that her primary focus would be on professional development with staff and on a K-12 curriculum revision. After spending the first year researching and gathering information, Elliott spearheaded Spencer's curriculum revision process. She's been relentless about literacy elements being embedded throughout.

"The good news is the work we've been doing is not going to be lost because it's very much tied with what the Iowa Core Curriculum is doing. So, we do feel like we've made some gains with that," she said. " ... The literacy thing was primarily a focus more at the elementary level (initially). This year, we're really finally getting that going at the secondary level -- which (means) really knowing how to teach that. It's very much a work in progress on all of this, though. So, just saying that we have it in place doesn't mean we're there yet."

Elliott also began working on a backward design of how to teach concepts for student understanding, as required in the Iowa Core Curriculum, with secondary staff five years ago. At the time, this was a big shift in teacher thinking.

"They've been working for a number of years on identifying what are those concepts they teach -- not just the factual knowledge that they impart to students," she explained.

The district's serving as one of nine pilot schools for the Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) project last year could also benefit Spencer in its preparation for implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum. According to Elliott, plans are to involve all high school teachers in this process next year. All district staff would eventually be trained on AIW within the next few years.

"The thing that's exciting about it is that it is the research based behind all the instruction of the Iowa Core Curriculum," Spencer's assistant superintendent said. "This year, our second year in it, we added another 10 teachers who are working on the authentic intellectual work. The research of that is what naturally occurs in classrooms where students are learning at a high level ... and they described what were the things that they saw. Now, that's what we're using as our model."

While Elliott credited district patrons February 2007 passage of the Instructional Support Levy with being crucial to getting classroom resources in place, she also reported some electronic mapping tools will help district staff to document where the curriculum's essential concepts and skills are being taught.

"But then you have to document how you're teaching it. We're still gray in terms of how we're going to do that," Elliott said. "I do believe the AIW process will be allowed to be able to document that our teachers are doing the right instruction because it's actually the research based behind the Iowa core. ... Our hope is that the AIW will become our way of documenting whether we have instruction happening at high levels in classrooms."

While Spencer's assistant superintendent stated she believes the state is heading in the right direction with the Iowa Core Curriculum process, she acknowledged it is going to take a lot of work for Iowa school districts to fully implement it.

Elliott also warned the "perfect storm" may be brewing for schools on two fronts in regard to implementation of the Iowa Core Curriculum. Because of funding constraints, AEAs are losing their capacity to provide knowledgeable staff familiar with it to school districts. Districts not able to dedicate staff time to the core curriculum's implementation may also encounter difficulties in delivering the mandated system.

"The amount of work that this is going to take to change an entire system is pretty immense," Elliott said. "I think it's the right direction. But, without adequate resources, whether it's in the district or through the AEA or the state, it's going to be a really slow go."

"I absolutely want to make sure people know that I think this is exactly the right direction," she continued. "I think it's what our kids need and it's exciting. The direction the state is going is what I've been wanting to do and trying to do for a number of years now. So, for those of us who've been paying attention and reading about this, attending conferences and thinking about it, we're excited about it. But, it's also daunting and somewhat frightening to think that we're going to be held accountable for this -- and we don't have the resources to get it in place. Because it's not just getting it in place with a few people -- it's getting the whole system aligned that way so that everyone is teaching (the same way) ... and that we can document where it's happening."

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Timeframe for the Iowa Core Curriculum

Guiding Principles for Implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum:

* Effective implementation will require an interdependence of multiple partners, including educational systems, business, industry and communities.

* Effective statewide implementation requires a coordinated approach including consistent communication and differentiated delivery.

* The Iowa Core Curriculum is more than the essential concepts and skill sets -- it is a challenging curricular experience and has major implications for instruction and assessment.

* The Iowa Core Curriculum is for each and every K-12 student.

By the Iowa Core Curriculum Advisory Team