Relating to education, including by modifying provisions related to the Iowa statewide assessment of student progress and programs for gifted and talented children, and by requiring school districts to develop an advanced mathematics pathway and implement procedures for subject acceleration and whole-grade acceleration

The bill modifies the provisions related to the administration of the science assessments to provide that such assessments be administered to students in grades 5, 8, and 11. The bill requires school districts to establish systematic and uniform procedures for screening, referring, identifying, and serving gifted and talented children. School districts are required to base the identification of gifted and talented children on a body of evidence from multiple data sources described in the bill. _____ from participating in the school district’s program for gifted and talented children. School districts are required to make all reasonable efforts to identify gifted and talented children among all student populations. The bill requires school districts to provide educational service options for gifted and talented children that are based on the areas in which the child is gifted or talented and ensure that the school district provides gifted and talented children with appropriate instructional adaptations and educational services beyond those that are provided in the regular school program. The bill establishes requirements related to the educational services a school district provides to gifted and talented children. School districts are required to review the progress of gifted and talented children at least annually to ensure that the educational services the school district provides to gifted and talented children meet the academic needs of each gifted and talented child. The bill requires each school district to develop an advanced mathematics pathway that is designed to increase the number of students who complete higher-level mathematics courses in grades through and enable students to be prepared for, and enroll in, algebra I as early as middle school and to complete algebra I no later than by the end of grade 9. School districts are required to automatically enroll a student in the advanced mathematics pathway if the student attains a score that is within the advanced performance level on the ISASP assessment in mathematics that was administered to the student when the student was enrolled in grades five, six, or seven, or if the student demonstrated proficiency in mathematics as indicated in other specified ways. The bill defines “advanced mathematics pathway” as a sequence of courses and curricula that accelerates or combines mathematics instruction that is typically provided to students enrolled in grades six through eight. _____ implement procedures for subject acceleration and whole-grade acceleration that satisfy requirements established in the bill. The bill also requires school districts to automatically enroll any student who is enrolled in grades through 12, and who attains a score that is within the advanced performance level on the ISASP assessment in mathematics or English language arts that was administered to the student in the immediately preceding school year, in the next most rigorous level of advanced courses or programs offered by the school district, unless the student’s parent or guardian requests that the student not be enrolled. School districts are required to use this automatic enrollment to increase student access to, and enrollment in, advanced courses. Additionally, school districts are required to notify students and the parents or guardians of students of the advanced courses and programs available to eligible students. The bill requires school districts to allow any student who is enrolled in an accelerated course to take the ISASP assessment that corresponds to the content and level of the course in which the student is enrolled.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.