Relating to the Iowa core curriculum and standards for school districts and accredited nonpublic schools and including effective date provisions

DIVISION I —— COMMON CORE STANDARDS PROHIBITED.25. The new Code section prohibits the state board from adopting, aligning to, or implementing any other national or multistate consortium standards from any source requiring the use of any assessments aligned with any other national or multistate consortium standards from any source and requires the state board and the department to respect and support the ultimate right of a parent to opt the parent’s child out of public school, and out of any public school activity, practice, or testing that the parent finds unacceptable, with no negative repercussions to, or financial impact on, the child, parent, or school, and with no interference from the state. Also, by January 1, 2020, for the school year beginning July 1, 2020, and each succeeding school year, the state board and the department must adopt and implement state academic content standards for kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies that are the same as the academic standards in effect for the state of Massachusetts during the academic year beginning July 1, 2008, except that any reference in those standards to the state of Massachusetts shall be changed to Iowa and any state history or government content standards shall be changed to reflect the history and government of Iowa. The department shall distribute the standards to school districts and shall post the standards on the department’s internet site within days following adoption of the state academic content standards. At the same time, the state board and the department must also adopt validated state assessments of student achievement based on the assessment used in Massachusetts during the 2008-2009 school year and aligned to the academic standards in effect in Massachusetts during the 2008-2009 school year. The bill directs the state board, the department, and the director of the department, and any other state public employee or authority to take all steps necessary to terminate areas of federal control of the Iowa educational process; and prohibits these entities from adopting or implementing any national or multistate consortium standard from any source, or the use of any assessments aligned with a national or multistate consortium standard that cedes control of Iowa educational standards in any manner; or from joining any consortium or any other organization if participation in that consortium or organization would cede any measure of control over any aspect of Iowa public education to that consortium or organization. This state shall retain sole control over the development, establishment, and revision of course of study standards for K-12. After not less than five years and at the discretion of the state board, the state board may adopt state academic content standards to replace the standards that were based on Massachusetts’ standards. However, these replacement content standards must be developed independently and not as part of a multistate consortium. Such content standards shall emphasize coherence, focus, and essential knowledge, have evidence of successful application and results, and may be administered using computer technology. The department shall not implement the replacement content standards until the state board submits the content standards to the general assembly, the general assembly’s standing committees on education hold a joint public hearing on the proposed content standards and provide public notice of the public hearing at least days prior to the public hearing; and the content standards are specifically authorized by a constitutional majority of each house of the general assembly and approved by the governor. Each year, as soon as reasonably possible, the aggregated results shall be available on the department internet site for review by the public. In collecting student achievement data for posting on the internet site, the department shall not collect data about the values, attitudes, beliefs, and personality traits of a student or the student’s family or medical, behavioral, mental, biometric, or psychometric data of a student or of the student’s family. Prior to implementing the proposed state assessments, the department must submit them to the general assembly, the standing committees on education must hold a public hearing on the proposed assessments and post notice of the hearing days prior to the hearing, and the general assembly and the governor must specifically authorize the assessments in the same manner as the state academic content standards. School districts must establish a fundamental academic curriculum for students enrolled in the school district in K-12 that defines academic objectives to be achieved by all students and is based upon the school district’s educational mission, long-range student goals and student performance objectives, and the state’s graduation requirements. The fundamental academic curriculum may vary from the state academic content standards adopted pursuant to this section. After consulting with the school district’s teachers and administrators, the district must determine the aligned instructional program for delivering its fundamental academic curriculum and identify the courses and programs in which the fundamental academic curriculum will be taught. School districts must provide adequate time and transparency for public review and comment on the aligned instructional programs by all interested members of the community before final adoption of the fundamental academic curriculum.25 includes language providing that the new Code section shall not be construed to promote any religious or nonreligious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs or nonbeliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion; and that the new Code section does not require any school district to utilize all or any part of the academic content standards adopted. The state board and the department shall not impose any financial consequence on a school district that adopts academic content standards differing from those adopted and implemented under the new Code section. DIVISION II —— ELIMINATING COMMON CORE REFERENCES —— PROVIDING FOR RELATED MATTERS. The bill eliminates requirements and references to the (Iowa) common core or core curriculum and to core content standards, but continues to direct the state board of education to adopt high school graduation requirements and state academic content standards. Provisions directing school districts to cooperate with each eighth grade student on a core curriculum plan to meet core curriculum requirements are amended to replace “core curriculum plan” with “graduation plan” and “core curriculum requirements” with “high school graduation requirements”. The term “core content standards” is replaced with the term “state academic content standards”. Such standards will remain applicable to all students in kindergarten through grade in every school district and accredited nonpublic school. Corresponding changes are made throughout the Code, and obsolete language is eliminated. DIVISION III —— STATE MANDATE.3.16.2. The inclusion of this specification is intended to reinstate the requirement of political subdivisions to comply with any state mandates included in the bill. DIVISION IV —— EFFECTIVE DATE. The bill takes effect upon enactment.