Iowa Ideas: Schools being creative in recruiting teachers, encouraging students’ curiosity

Iowa schools are experimenting with new ways of recruiting educators — including encouraging students to explore the profession, and shortening the workweek.

More and more, however, the job is growing even more complex as schools also are being looked to for going beyond educating youth. Educators and staff are being asked to act as social services and mental health professionals, too.

While the Cedar Rapids Community School District filled more than 60 open teaching positions in preparation for the 2023-24 school year, diversifying the workforce still is a priority. Darius Ballard, Cedar Rapids schools’ chief human resource officer, said he wants to find ways to connect with students interested in a career in education while they are students in the district — particularly students of color.

“Every year we graduate (education) majors,” he said during a school board meeting in September. “Some of them stick around … and one of my top priorities is for my office to connect with all students — maybe even before they’re in high school — and start to have those conversations, give them a pathway, so we don’t lose contact with them.”

The district needs to ensure students who want to stay and work as teachers in the community they grew up in know there’s a place for them, especially students of color, Ballard said.

To the south, the Iowa City Community School District adopted a national program last year called Educators Rising, which supports students interest in teaching careers and helps develop leadership traits.

Students who participate in Educators Rising in high school and graduate college with a teaching degree are promised a job in the district if one is available. District officials hope this attracts more teachers to the district, particularly teachers of color.

Efforts to recruit and retain educators, however, are happening as schools are being forced to tighten their budgets. Iowa’s per-pupil state aid is failing to keep up with rising costs, educators say, and there is a decline in student enrollment across the state.

Some schools are finding a shift to a four-day school week has helped with some challenges. Schools in Iowa with a four-day school week include the WACO Community School District in Wayland, the Cardinal Community School District in Eldon, the Mormon Trail Community School District in Wayne County and Moulton-Udell Community School District in Moulton.

The four-day school week also is a conversation taken last year to the Iowa City school board by school officials.

Panelists at the K-12 Education track at the Oct. 12 and 13 Iowa Ideas virtual conference will talk about workforce challenges, meeting the needs of students of color and school choice legislation — and other education topics — at the free event.

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Student-centered learning

Educators say a learning format growing in popularity can help students succeed in a rapidly changing world. Instead of the traditional desks-in-a-row approach, schools are turning to hands-on projects that articulate the “why” behind what kids are learning.

“We know that project-based and problem-based learning is really important,” Dawn Bowlus, founder and director of the Jacobson Institute at the University of Iowa, said in an interview with The Gazette. “Entrepreneurial thinking — the need to understand how to solve problems, how to be adaptable and how to have that kind of grit and perseverance — helps youth develop their confidence and their ability, whether they go on to get a two-year or four-year degree, apprenticeship or whatever their path looks like.”

A new magnet high school called City View Community was launched by the Cedar Rapids school district this year, where students largely get to choose the how and why of what they’re studying.

Magnet schools offer theme-based learning — such as science, technology, engineering, arts and math; or leadership and entrepreneurship, for instance. The Cedar Rapids district operates other magnet schools, but none until now at the high school level.

The Iowa City Community School District is exploring how to deliver project-based learning opportunities to students with its new Center for Innovation — with classes possibly being piloted as early as next fall.

Prairie and Alburnett high schools also are adopting a project-based learning model called 3DE, which teaches students how to communicate, problem solve, collaborate, think critically and be creative and innovative.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com