Data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics for the 2006-2007 school year shows that there were 35,653 teachers teaching 483,122 students in the state of Iowa that year. This works out to a 13.6:1 student teacher ratio, which is significantly lower than the 15.5:1 national average for the 2006-2007 school year.
The Iowa Department of Education reports a dropout rate of less than 3%, among the lowest in the nation, and 2005 assessment data shows that Iowa students consistently performed better than the national average on math and reading assessments. This is likely partly due to the low student teacher ratio and emphasis placed on the importance of education in Iowa.
With many rural districts and a growing population of students with special needs, opportunities for qualified teachers teaching in Iowa can be expected to grow.
Iowa Teacher Requirements
Traditionally, teaching in Iowa has been rewarding on all levels but pay. This situation may be changing in the future with new presidential mandates on the horizon that are designed to bring teachers up into a competitive pay-scale and to promote the teaching industry as a viable career choice to be entering today.
During the ‘No Child Left Behind’ era, American slid down the scale on global educational standards into a place that is simply not going to be acceptable to stay at. Teaching incentives have been put into place in recent years to entice new teachers into the field so that our overall educational levels can be on the rise again.
Teaching in Iowa is an option that some are considering today as a way of achieving job security on into the future. Service areas in mathematics, sciences, and special education divisions are deeply in need of qualified people to enter into the teaching field, and in all states plans are underway to make teaching within these areas financially rewarding.
Future Iowa teacher employment options will continue to be available in all fields, and we can expect to see new programs and presidential mandates come into play that will benefit all who are in the education industry. Teaching in Iowa is a career choice that makes sense for the future with an American education system overhaul coming up.