BLOOMFIELD, IOWA (AP) -- The Iowa Board of Education has voted 6-0 to adopt the Common Core State Standards, a nationwide initiative to keep students nationally and internationally competitive.

The initiative is a voluntary effort led by states to develop common expectations among them for what students should learn from kindergarten through high school. The core curriculum outlines what students should know in literacy, math, science, and social studies among other subjects.
   
On Thursday, the Board approved the Common Core standards as part of the Iowa Core, which was enacted in 2008 and specifies skills and concepts that Iowa K-12 students must learn.

Kim Johnson is the Superintendent of Davis County Schools. She said that prior to this vote on Thursday, the district adopted an "Inquiry-Based Science" application for the high school.

"We're seeing with some of the things we've been doing that students have many misperceptions and misconceptions about science and math. And then they carry those misperceptions with them, and then you have to go back and re-train and re-teach. That's why we're looking at the science-based inquiry so that students can have a better understanding of what science means and apply it," Johnson said.

She added that these new standards are essential for developing 21st Century skills.

"It is actually a model that is being based on other national models that have been very highly successful. So the things that they're putting in place with it, I feel, are going to be very strong and going to be looking at ways that students can get, as I said earlier, maximum learning," Johnson said.

A few hours before the vote on Thursday, Iowa Governor Chet Culver stopped by the State Board of Education to endorse these national standards. The Governor had pushed lawmakers to adopt the state blueprint in 2008.
   
All Iowa school districts and accredited nonpublic schools are required to implement the Iowa Core by 2014-2015.


Online:
Common Core State Standards: http://www.corestandards.org
Iowa Core: http://www.corecurriculum.iowa.gov/Home.aspx 

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