Iowa’s Area Education Agencies have been awarded nearly one million dollars in grant funding to provide statewide K-12 computer science professional development for more than 830 educators across Iowa.
This funding is made available through four grants from the Iowa Department of Education as part of an initiative to build the computer science capacity of Iowa schools. This funding will help Iowa’s AEAs offer all Iowa students and teachers access to the same, high-quality resources and learning.
"This funding, combined with last year's computer science funding that impacted 350 teachers, means that over 1,000 educators across Iowa will now be equipped to deliver high-quality computer science curriculum to their students," shares Grant Wood Area Education Agency Consultant Bridget Castelluccio. "These grants will support multiple opportunities for computer science implementation from beginning level to advanced levels to meet new computer science-based standards based on grade level."
Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, all Iowa public school districts must offer a semester of high school computer science. The following year schools will need to adhere to computer science based standards in first through eighth grade. "With this year's grant, we are able to expand our training to include K-5 teachers, whereas last year's grant only supported sixth-12th," Castelluccio adds.
Iowa’s nine AEAs will provide in-person and virtual computer science professional development to teachers and administrators beginning this summer. "These trainings will help 26 school districts in Grant Wood AEA’s service area implement computer science curriculum in their schools, and hundreds of districts statewide,” shares Grant Wood AEA Consultant Corey Rogers, who will work with Castelluccio to provide the training in the seven county area supported by Grant Wood AEA.
Professional development using these funds will begin in the summer of 2022 with classroom instruction beginning the following fall.