The State Board of Education supports community empowerment as a way to encourage locally designed, community-level coordination of preschool, child health care, and parent education services. The State Board also recognizes the need to move community empowerment toward a formula distribution, only if adequate funding is available to assist local empowerment areas. Early intervention is the key to addressing the needs of Iowa's changing student population and reversing the decline in basic skills, especially reading. Inadequate funding of regular education and the increasing cost of programs for students with special needs have resulted in a lack of resources for these most basic efforts. The State Board supports targeting resources in grades K-3, in order to assist schools in boosting the basic skill levels of our youngest students.
Successful teachers require extensive, ongoing training and professional development opportunities.
The State Board supports continued funding for Phase III, targeted at professional development opportunities that enhance local school improvement efforts. Performance-based teacher preparation programs ensure that beginning teachers graduating from Iowa colleges and universities are qualified. The State Board supports the department's involvement in current efforts to develop new standards for teacher preparation programs. The State Board believes that teacher preparation institutions must be able to assure that their graduates can demonstrate these skills. Induction programs that include mentor teachers and additional training and support would offer needed support for teachers during the first year or two of classroom instruction.