MISIC Science Gap Analysis Project

Web Links
Updates and Timeline
Actions and Key Findings
People and Resources
Web Links

Mid-Iowa School Improvement Consortium's web site has infomation about who's a member, when and where MISIC events and meetings are scheduled and resources (Member's Documents) that include publisher/textbook alignments, standards and benchmark documents and much more.  Clicking on Member's Document opens a password screen, the email is 'misic' and the password is 'together'.
 
Eclipse contracts with MISIC for a multitude of resources that include teacher resources aligned to content Standards and Benchmarks, curriculum mapping software and even data warehouse options.  Clicking on the above link will open a screen that requires a password.  Each MISIC member district has been given a password.  If you don't know it, contact your school's administrator assigned to oversee the NWEA/MAP testing process. (You may use nlockett@aea267.k12.ia.us as a temporary email and the password is 'iamisic').

http://www.iowa.gov/educate/content/category/27/639/1157/
Iowa Core Curriculum Podcast

I would like to invite you, our School Leader Update readers, to "tune in" to our most recent podcast. It is a 10-minute podcast on the Iowa Core Curriculum. The podcast provides basic information about the Iowa Core Curriculum, explaining what it is and what it isn’t.

I invite you to listen to it and then share it with others, such as board members, other administrators in your district, teachers, and parents.

Points covered in the podcast include:

�� Teachers and districts have been requesting more detail and assistance. The Iowa Core Curriculum was developed as part of a legislative mandate to provide additional detail and help to teachers and schools.

�� The Iowa Core Curriculum helps teachers know what to teach by providing them with a progression of identified essential concepts and skills in the areas of literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies in grades K-12. Also included will be 21st century skills such as civic literacy, health literacy, technology literacy, financial literacy, and employability skills.

�� The Iowa Core Curriculum is aligned with Iowa’s core content standards in reading, math, and science.

�� The curriculum also provides model units that teachers can review as a resource when determining how to incorporate the identified skills and concepts into their classrooms.

�� The Iowa Core Curriculum is not based on or modeled after any specific textbooks. It does not mandate certain textbooks to be used. It does not mandate specific classes be taught.

�� When developing the curriculum, working teams of Iowa educators and business leaders drew from a variety of resources. The following sets of expectations were used to develop and were incorporated into the 9-12 literacy, mathematics, and science model core curriculum: ACT’s College Readiness Standards; College Board’s Standards for College Success; Information provided by Iowa Testing Programs; International Center for Leadership in Education’s Curriculum Survey of Essential Skills; NAEP Frameworks in Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Science; Standards from the National Council of Teachers of English/International Reading Association, National Science Teacher’s Association, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; ACHIEVE; 21st Century Skills; Reports from the Alliance for Excellent Education; Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

�� The Iowa Core Curriculum component and the accompanying professional development around the core curriculum are the critical pieces to actually setting higher expectations and infusing more rigorous content into classroom instruction.

�� The initial timeline for implementation for high school implementation is by 2012; and K-8 implementation is by 2014.

Please take a few minutes to listen to this podcast.

Judy Jeffrey


This is Northwest Evaluation Association's home web site.  Clicking on the 'member support' button will take you to a variety of resources that include a parent's toolkit, annotated reports, and online trainings.  This portion of the NWEA/MAP resources does not require a password.  If you are looking on the site for your student data, you will have to click on the 'report log in' and have a password that has been assigned specifically to your school.  Again, if you don't know a password, contact your school administrator.
 
Iowa Dept. of Education- This site documents the Core Content Standards and Benchmarks Corresponding to the Iowa Tests.  It was used by the 2006 Ladders writers as a first step to the initial Ladders alignment work.  An even more useful web site in working with the standards and benchmarks is http://www.integratingstandards.com/.  This site not only provides the standards and benchmarks, but also links a teacher to the vocabulary, skills and instructional resources that might be used to accomplish the teaching of the standards and benchmarks at every grade level.
 
http://www.aaas.org/
American Association for the Advancement of Science has a great resource for classroom teachers and comes with high recommendations from the science specialists working on the MISIC Ladders Science Project, Project 2061: Atlas of Science Literacy, 2001, ISBN 0-87168-668-6.
 
National Academy of Science has several great teacher resources, including:
National Science Education Standards, 2005, ISBN 0-309-05326-9 and Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards, A Guide for Teaching and Learning, 2000, ISBN 0-309-06476-7.
 
National Science Teacher's Association has a link about teaching science in the 21st century.  It details the Inquiry Based Learning model promoted by the science specialists involved in the MISIC Standards and Benchmarks work.

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