Iowa gets a mixed report card in a study of state school systems. The seventh annual “Quality Counts” report from Education Week magazine gives Iowa grades from “B” to “F” in seven categories of education policy. This year the publication studied things like class size and school size, parent involvement, school facilities and safety, but also categories like choice and autonomy, linked to open-enrollment policies. Iowa gets a B for spending 8-thousand 78 dollars per pupil, well above the average, but is rapped on the knuckles with an F for not having standards on paper to evaluate how students do in core subjects. Iowa does win praise in the latest report for being only one of two states in the past year to approve charter schools, which tend to be focused on a theme and run with lots of hands-on participation by parents.
