Social and emotional learning (SEL) has been increasingly emphasized in educational research and practice for promoting children's wellbeing. Perhaps the most well-known SEL framework is the model provided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). This framework has become the dominant framework informing state SEL…

Despite the growing societal demand for multilingual graduates prepared to engage in local and global contexts, programs to meet these demands are scarce, especially in K-8 contexts. When schools do seek to implement programs, stakeholders struggle to choose from the established models because research documenting desired outcomes is lacking.…

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been studying the four-day school week since 2015. Since then, the phenomenon of the four-day school week has spread into non-rural areas and interest appears to be growing. Given these apparent changes, the author wanted to know more about recent trends in the initiative. As districts continue…

To explore the accessibility of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) for students with severe disabilities, we conducted a survey of 179 schools implementing SWPBIS during the 2015-2016 school year. Personnel from each school reported the frequency and level of importance of SWPBIS implementation across Likert-type…

Adolescent bullying is linked to numerous adverse psychosocial effects that can persist into adulthood. In response to this problem, in 2007 Iowa adopted an antibullying statute requiring all school districts to adopt an antibullying policy. From 2013-2014, 47 semistructured interviews were conducted with school and district administrators in…

About 13 percent of children aged 3 through 21 enrolled in public schools received special education services in school year 2015-16, and about 3 percent of children from birth through age 2 received special education services. Concerns about the difficulties identifying and evaluating children for special education have been raised by the media,…

How might policymakers and educators utilize the work already being done as states redesign their accountability systems? The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), brought much needed attention to the performance of traditionally underserved subgroups of students. Supported by greater flexibility under ESEA…

Research and professional leadership standards identify specific ways in which principals directly influence school organization and community relationships and exert less direct, but critically important, influence on teaching quality and instructional effectiveness. Principals' roles are central to supporting and supervising teachers'…

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) initiated the Growth Model Pilot Project (GMPP) in November 2005 with the goal of approving up to ten states to incorporate growth models in school adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA"). After extensive reviews, nine states…

This guide was designed to be responsive to societal changes and to help young people learn how to live, learn, and make a living. The first chapter contains an introduction to and overview of the total guide and was written for a broad audience, including parents, school board members, administrators, and teachers. It emphasizes that quality…

This report describes 2-year outcomes of the Iowa Distance Education Alliance (IDEA), a partnership involving educational institutions across Iowa that received funding from the federal Star Schools Program to demonstrate the use of the Iowa Communication Network's (ICN's) fiber-optic technology for K-12 instruction. First-year project activities…

This resource manual contains conceptual and practical information about Iowa's Individualized Education Program (IEP) process and document. The resource manual's aim is greater consistency and higher quality in the implementation of the IEP process across Iowa. The manual is organized around the Iowa IEP prototype form, which consists of 10 pages…

This publication is intended to ensure that consideration for and provision of extended school year services (ESY services) for students with disabilities are consistent with the requirements of federal law, Iowa state rules, and Iowa's adopted educational standards. Part 1 of the document discusses the specific addition of ESY services to the…

The College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) established collaborative partnership agreements with nine major school districts in Iowa where UNI student teachers were placed. One collaborative project connected the campus coordinator with the nine off-campus sites through the campus computer network (Caucus). In the 1993-94…

This resource guide for comprehensive counseling and guidance programs provides counselors, student service personnel, and administrators of Iowa's K-12 schools and community colleges with a means to improve or design programs. With the rapidly changing global society and the increase in violence at all levels of society, there is a critical need…