Part 1: Key Facts
Student & Teacher Information
According to 2004-2005 data from the U.S. Department of Education (the latest numbers publicly available), the total number of CTE students in Iowa was 246,986. This includes the following:
- Secondary: 194,631
- Postsecondary: 52,355
Delivery System/School Information
Iowa's public education system includes local school districts serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade; Area Education Agencies (AEAs) that provide support and assistance to the districts in a given region; community colleges that provide a wide range of coursework to students of all ages; and four-year colleges and universities.
Iowa is one of the most rural states in the nation with a 2006 estimated population of 2,982,085 and a large number of very small schools. Over one-third of Iowa school districts have between 500 and 1,000 students. On average these districts have between 38 and 77 students per grade. There are a total of 356 public high schools, 38 public junior high schools, 234 public middle schools, 771 public elementary schools, 15 community colleges, 30 private universities and colleges, and three public universities in Iowa.
Iowa has a statewide system of 15 community colleges. These public, postsecondary, two-year institutions are organized as comprehensive community colleges. Each college serves a multi-county merged area which may vary in size from four to twelve counties; all of Iowa's 99 counties are included in one of these merged areas.
Iowa utilizes comprehensive high schools to deliver CTE classes at the secondary level, and community colleges provide CTE programs to both secondary and postsecondary students.
Funding/Financing for CTE
Federal: Iowa is estimated to receive $12,149,672 from the Perkins Basic State Grant and $1,245,235 from Tech Prep in FY 2007. Iowa distributes approximately 56 percent of Basic State Grant funds to secondary programs and 44 percent to postsecondary programs.
State: The state vocational aid appropriation is the only categorical state funding targeted specifically toward CTE offerings at the secondary level in Iowa. In FY 2006, the appropriation was a little over $2.9 million, down from $3.3 million in 1992. Iowa reimburses districts for all or a percentage of costs associated with providing selected vocational services. Secondary districts submit reimbursement claim reports detailing their expenses, enrollment and completion rates. Then, funds are allocated proportionately based on actual expenditures. For FY 2006, the percentage reimbursed was 5.08. More information on the state vocational aid appropriation can be found in The Annual Career and Technical Education High School Report 2007.
The Iowa Legislature approves an annual appropriation for community colleges. While the amount is not generated by a per-pupil formula, the Iowa Department of Education collaborated with state community college leaders to create a method for equitable distribution. The FY 2007 state appropriation was $159.6 million, which equates to about $2,010 in state funding per pupil. More information on funding for community colleges can be found in Condition of Iowa Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation, 2006.
Iowa also has a Workforce Training and Economic Development Fund, authorized by Iowa Administrative Code, Section 261-9.1. The fund, containing $11.5 million, supports community college CTE programs, as well as incumbent worker retraining and career academy programs with high school partners. A large percentage of the fund (70 percent) is required to be focused on the state’s targeted industry clusters. Some community colleges have used the Workforce Training and Economic Development Fund resources to cover up-front investments in equipment, curriculum, staffing and facility improvements to create new career academy programs.
Part 2: State Administration
Key State CTE Contacts
Dr. Janice Friedel
Administrator
Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation
Iowa Department of Education
Grimes State Office Bldg
Des Moines, IA 50319
Phone: 515-281-8260
Fax: 515-281-6544
Dr. Roger Utman
Bureau Chief
Bureau of Community Colleges and CTE
Iowa Department of Education
Grimes State Office Bldg
Des Moines, IA 50319
Phone: 515-281-3542
Fax: 515-281-6544
State Agencies
The Iowa Department of Education and State Board of Education are responsible for the local schools, AEAs, and community colleges, while the Iowa Board of Regents is responsible for the public four-year colleges. Within the Department of Education, the Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation is the agency that provides oversight for CTE at both the secondary and postsecondary levels. The Division administrator reports directly to the Director of Education. There are about 18 consultants that represent the 6 career areas and other aspects of CTE and eight support staff within the Division.
State Standards for CTE
Based on legislation passed in 1992 (SF 449), all CTE programs in Iowa must be competency based, with minimum competencies identified at the state level. Local programs must demonstrate that they meet the minimum competencies. Iowa has state developed model “minimum competences” in the following program areas: Agriculture, Business and Information Technology, Family and Consumer Sciences, Industrial Technology, Health Occupations and Marketing.
LEAs and community colleges also have the option of developing their own minimum competencies in lieu of the state minimum competencies following the process outlined in sub-rule 281.46(7)(1) in the Iowa Administrative Code. The process must include a structured group interview process involving a technical committee composed of incumbent workers within an occupational cluster or service area. The law further requires that the competencies be revalidated periodically.
Iowa Code, chapter 258.4(8) also requires that the program sequence address the following: new and emerging technologies; job-seeking, job-keeping, and other employment skills, including self-employment and entrepreneurial skills, that reflect current industry standards; leadership skills, entrepreneurial, and labor-market needs; and the strengthening of basic academic skills. Each service area also has a list of model employability indicators or competencies to be included in all secondary CTE programs. These competencies fall under categories such as leadership, entrepreneurship, and gaining and keeping employment.
Program Approval/Quality Control
To be eligible for state aid, local school districts submit their secondary CTE programs to be reviewed and approved by the Iowa Department of Education. Programs seeking the state’s approval must meet the following criteria:
- Contain a minimum sequence of three units of instruction responding to a minimum set of performance indicators (competencies).
- Utilize content standards and benchmarks – competency-based (performance indicators) curriculum that reflects current industry standards.
- Demonstrate responsiveness to student interest and labor market needs.
- Strengthen academic skills through CTE curriculum.
- Provide articulation with a postsecondary institution.
- Assess the extent to which the performance indicators (competencies) are being mastered.
- Provide access and equity for all students.
- Utilize input from an advisory council/committee.
- Prepare students for entry-level employment, self-employment, and/or postsecondary education within their chosen field.
- Provide students with leadership opportunities that are related to their chosen field of study.
- Provide students with employability skills.
- Provide students with information on new or emerging technologies.
New postsecondary programs at community colleges must also go through a program approval process.
Part 3: CTE Initiatives & Related Policies
State Education & Workforce Agenda
The Iowa Department of Economic Development has identified three industry clusters of importance to Iowa:
- Life sciences (including production agriculture, value added processing pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology)
- Advanced manufacturing
- Information solutions
In 2007, Governor Chet Culver proposed to create a $100 million “Iowa Power Fund” to support the development of the renewable energy sector in Iowa. A new Office of Energy Independence was created and funds designated for support and workforce development.
Governor Culver also proposed a statewide “Senior Year Plus” program. This will allow all high school seniors the chance to earn up to a year of college credit before they graduate from high school.
High School Redesign
Since 2005, the Iowa High School Project has been engaging school leaders in an intensive and ongoing discussion of high school redesign. In December 2005, 20 Iowa high schools were selected to become inaugural partners in the Iowa High School Project, a three-year project of ongoing financial support from the Iowa Department of Education and technical assistance from the International Center for Leadership in Education (IDE). An additional 20 schools were added to the project in 2006 and another 20 schools will be added in late 2007. The IDE has sponsored three annual high school summits, widely attended by teachers and administrators throughout Iowa.
Iowa has been developing a “Model Core Curriculum” in response to needs identified by the IDE and State Board of Education. In 2005, the Iowa Legislature passed Senate File (SF) 245, a bill that required the State Board of Education to identify a Model Core Curriculum. The legislation establishes a statewide goal that 80 percent of students graduating will have completed a core curriculum. The legislation gives each district the authority to develop its own core curriculum, and to refer to the state model. In October 2007, Governor Culver set a goal for the core curriculum at the high school level to be adopted statewide by 2010. Beginning with the graduating class of 2010, students must earn four credits in English Language Arts, three credits in math, three credits in science, and three credits in social studies to earn their high school diplomas. These requirements are office referred to as the “4-3-3-3 requirement.”
Each district is also required to work with every eighth-grade student to develop a plan so the student will graduate having completed the district’s core curriculum.
Role of Career Clusters
Iowa currently organizes secondary and community college CTE into six service areas. These six areas are: Agriscience and Natural Resources; Business and Information Technology; Engineering and Industrial Technology; Health Sciences; Family and Consumer Sciences; and Marketing.
In early 2007, the Department of Education convened a working group, the “Career Framework Ad Hoc Stakeholders Group,” to submit recommendations for how Iowa’s CTE system should be organized. The group recommended that Iowa organize its programs under the 16 career clusters identified by the State’s Career Cluster Initiative, and organize the 16 clusters into six “super-clusters” as neighboring states like Nebraska, Minnesota, and Missouri have done.
The six “super-clusters” might be:
- Business, Information Management, and Marketing;
- Agriscience and Natural Resources;
- Arts and Communications;
- Family, Consumer, and Human Services;
- Health Sciences;
- Engineering, Industrial, and Technology Services.
There are also other, somewhat conflicting, career cluster terminologies on the books in Iowa. In the 1990s, through the School-to-Work Initiative, six broad career areas were developed that are referred to as career pathways or as Iowa Career Clusters. In addition, in the late 1990s, the Iowa Department of Economic Development identified three Targeted Industry Clusters because of their potential for growth and the creation of high paying jobs.
Academic & CTE Integration
In 2007-2008, Iowa is planning to use a portion of its Perkins funds to support implementation of the “Math-in-CTE” project, facilitated by the National Research Center for CTE. This project will provide professional development for CTE and math teachers to help them identify math content that is embedded in CTE courses and to create lesson plans for teaching the academic content in the CTE course. At this point, Iowa has not created a cross-walk of academic standards with the state’s CTE content standards, nor has it created academic/CTE integration resources for CTE teachers.
At the Iowa High School Summit in December 2006, state leaders indicated that local districts would be allowed to develop integrated academic/CTE courses that could address the Model Core standards and count on a student’s transcript as meeting academic graduation requirements. However, there have not been any model integrated course content standards developed as of December 2007.
Science, Technology, Engineering & Math Initiatives
With support from the Kern Foundation and guidance from the Iowa Department of Education, by fall of 2007, schools in Iowa have been implementing the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) pre-engineering sequence of courses. As of fall 2007, 61 middle and high school Project Lead the Ways sites have been established in Iowa. Recently, PLTW received substantial support through a partnership between the state’s community colleges, the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) and the Kern Family Foundation. The $1 million Community College Equipment and Training Fund (administered by IDED) was matched by a pledge of $900,000 from the community colleges and $1.2 million from the Kern Foundation. The funds will be used to support the development of 60 PLTW sites in LEAs, distributed among the 15 community college regions.
The Department of Education, in conjunction with the Regents’ Math and Science Collaborative Initiative and the Iowa Mathematics and Science Coalition, recently surveyed public educational institutions in Iowa to create an inventory of STEM initiatives planned or underway in the state. While a point-in-time document, the web-based inventory allows for greater collaboration on the wide variety of activities underway at each level of public education.
The Department of Education conducted an assessment to determine the programmatic responses of Iowa's community colleges to the state's emerging biotechnology industries. A report titled "Developing Iowa's Bioscience Workforce: The Role of Community Colleges in Iowa in Creating Skilled Workers for the Emerging Bioscience/ Biotechnology Sector" has been published based on this assessment. In addition, a series of Bioscience/Biotechnology focus groups was organized to discuss the capacity of Iowa’s educational institutions to meet Iowa’s current and future bioscience/biotechnology workforce.
Secondary/Postsecondary Linkages
Iowa has developed a number of innovative policies that have encouraged collaboration between secondary and postsecondary education, and course taking by high school students at the state’s community colleges and four-year colleges and universities.
Career Academies/Tech Prep: In Iowa, a variety of collaborative high school to community college CTE programs have emerged, utilizing funding from the Perkins Tech Prep program or the Grow Iowa Values Fund (an economic development resource), as well as Supplementary Weighted Funding. To avoid confusion over terminology, the general term “Career Academy” was adopted to describe all Career Academy and Tech Prep activities. In Iowa, the term Career Academy is significantly different than the high-school based inter-disciplinary program that most states and localities associate with the term. In Iowa, a Career Academy program typically combines at least two years of secondary education and two years of postsecondary education, with the opportunity for students to earn up to one year of college credit while still in high school. Some programs offer work-based learning activities, career counseling services, and advanced placement. In Iowa’s Perkins Transition Plan, the state has indicated that it plans to maintain a separate funding stream for Tech Prep activities, continuing to support the Career Academy programs currently in place.
Inter-System Collaboration: One of the most innovative public policies promoting inter-agency cooperation in Iowa is the “28E Agreement” based on Section 28E of the Iowa Administrative Code. Under the 28E provisions, any power or privilege that is exercised by one public agency may be exercised and enjoyed jointly with another public agency. The 28E agreement authority allows extensive and creative sharing of resources between Iowa’s community colleges and school districts. In some cases where rural school systems need to offer certain courses to maintain their accreditation, they are able to form a 28E agreement with another school system or community college to offer the courses. For the purpose of offering these courses, the other school district or community college becomes an extension of the rural district through the 28E agreement.
Postsecondary Enrollment Options: Iowa’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options Act (PSEO) permits high school students to enroll in courses at institutions of higher education at little or no cost if those courses are not offered by their local school districts. Through the PSEO Act, the school district pays a maximum of $250 per student per course to the postsecondary institution. PSEO courses are usually taken at college facilities.
Supplementary Weighting for Shared Courses: The Iowa Legislature created the Supplementary Weighting Plan to support collaboration among school districts and with community colleges for offering CTE and other education programs. Supplemental Weighting gives an extra portion of funding through the local school foundation formula for students enrolled in classes offered by other districts or by community colleges. The weighting for courses shared between one school district and another is 10 percent in additional funds, and for a course shared with a community college is 48 percent in additional funds for the portion of the student’s day spent in a shared course. There are eligibility criteria to ensure that the community college courses covered with the funding indeed “supplement” the high school’s offerings, rather than supplanting the core set of course offerings the high school needs to maintain its accreditation.
Programs of Study Implementation: Iowa’s Career Academies already closely mirror the Perkins requirement for programs of study. Iowa’s Transition Plan indicates that, since the majority of Iowa secondary schools participate in a consortium allowed under the Perkins Act, the consortia will be encouraged to develop new career and technical education courses to expand or establish new programs of study as a consortia-wide initiative. Technical assistance will be provided from the state level for the development of new career and technical programs of study.
Career Guidance & Advisement
As part of the Model Core Curriculum policy enacted in 2005, every student is required, at the eighth-grade level, to create an individual education plan that guides the student toward the goal of successfully completing, at a minimum, the district’s core curriculum in preparation for postsecondary education and career options. The plan must include career options and identify coursework needed in grades nine through twelve to support the student’s postsecondary and career options.
Effective practice suggests that student plans should be living documents that are revised at least annually. For technical assistance on developing and implementing quality student plans, the Department of Education plans to release Developing Quality Plans to Help Students Grow, Prepare, and Succeed. This document will be available on the Department’s website under “New and Revised Content” soon.
Iowa Choices is the Career Information and Decision-making System that is approved by the state of Iowa. This tool is designed to equip teachers, administrators and counselors with the knowledge and skills needed to assist students and parents with career exploration and information, as well as knowledge about educational opportunities and financing. Iowa Choices is an e-portfolio system and its most important users are students. It is an essential tool for career planning and is provided at no cost to middle/high schools, community colleges, one stop centers, and some other entities through an arrangement between the Department of Education, the Iowa College Student Aid Commission, and the College Planning Center (Iowa Student Loan). The system has become an important vehicle for schools to meet eighth-grade plan/Student Core Curriculum Plan requirements.
Technical Skills Assessments
The state has not adopted statewide technical skill assessments for any program area. In 2006, the Department of Education conducted a survey of high schools and community colleges to gather baseline data on the utilization of industry skill assessments and credentials; however the number of CTE students who take such assessments remains indeterminable. The Department is exploring ways to increase the number of CTE students pursuing and completing industry skills credentials.
Business & Industry Involvement
Section 258.9 of the Iowa Administrative Code requires that all secondary and postsecondary institutions receiving federal or state CTE education funds appoint a local advisory council composed of public members. Legislation requires a “description of how institutions will actively involve parents, teachers, local businesses, and labor in planning, development, implementation and evaluation of programs.”
Part 4: Results
According to Forty Years of Growth and Achievement: A History of Iowa’s Community Colleges, 2006, as a result of efforts to link high school and community college programs during the 2005-2006 academic year, concurrently enrolled high school students made up nearly one-fifth (19 percent) of the entire student body at Iowa’s community colleges and earned over 9 percent of all credits awarded. During that year, Iowa’s community colleges reported an enrollment of 22,905 high school students (each student was counted only once, even if they took more than one course.) This was an increase of about 46 percent over a five-year period.
Among Iowans who complete community college, there was a clear economic benefit over those who got some experience but did not finish. A University of Iowa study indicates that, over a three-year period, the earnings of community college “completers” increased by 101.46 percent, compared to a 51.54 percent earnings increase for students who left community college before completion.
This state profile was developed by the Association of Career and Technical Education with the assistance of the Meeder Consulting Group, LLC. If you need further information or more specific details, please contact ACTE. Customized reports can be developed on specific topics or entities.
Last Updated 12/7/07
