Career and technical education courses to be offered at Iowa City’s middle schools

IOWA CITY — Students in the Iowa City Community School District will get to explore courses in career and technical education as early as sixth grade as the district transitions from a junior high to a middle school model by fall 2024.

Iowa City school officials are creating curriculum that aligns with Iowa’s career and technical education service areas — in addition to traditional course offerings such as science and math — to prepare to move sixth-graders into schools with seventh- and eighth-graders.

Middle school is a critical time for students to begin exploring career pathways and developing career-related skills, said Lucas Ptacek, Iowa City schools’ executive director of secondary schools, in a presentation to the school board Tuesday.

Career development education at this age helps students identify their strengths and interests, adds relevancy to their academic classes and eases the transition to high school by supporting more informed educational choices that align with a students’ career goals, according to market research by Hanover Research cited at the board meeting.

Ptacek said he is mindful that there’s a “sense of urgency” and feeling of “apprehension” from families, especially those with current fifth-graders.

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Two-thirds of students in Iowa City middle schools next year will be new to these schools, Ptacek said. Families want to know that when they’re sending their children to sixth and seventh grade next year, they will be taken care of, he said.

The district’s three junior high schools, which will be middle schools next year, are North Central Junior High in North Liberty, Northwest Junior High in Coralville and South East Junior High in Iowa City.

The move — approved by the Iowa City school board in February 2022 — will require $34 million to expand the district’s three junior highs to fit 300-400 sixth-graders at each building. The cost will be covered by already-approved sales and property taxes.

Curriculum coordinators in the district are working to identify elective classes, particularly in Iowa’s career and technical education service areas, which are broken down into the following categories:

A survey with course titles and descriptions will soon be presented to current seventh- and eighth-graders in the district to gauge the level of interest in each class. The results of the survey will be reviewed, and teachers and curriculum coordinators will begin to build courses for next fall, Ptacek said.

District officials are interviewing internal candidates this week to teach sixth-grade math, Language Arts and social studies and science. Ptacek said there are 42 sixth-grade teachers currently in the district’s elementary schools — which matches well with the anticipatory 42 teachers needed to teach sixth grade in the middle schools next year.

Ptacek said the district plans to post job openings for middle school exploratory class teachers this spring. Finding those candidates could be challenging, particularly in the areas of agriculture and family and consumer science where teachers are hard to come by, he said.

The district also is considering opportunities such as BizTown, a program out of Junior Achievement, a youth organization that works on work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. BizTown is a learning experience simulating a town that lets students operate a modeled economy and take on the challenge of running a business.

District officials are working to ensure course offerings at the soon-to-be middle schools are consistent, so students at each school have the same opportunities, Ptacek said.

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