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STORM LAKE, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — The Iowa Department of Education released its latest school performance ratings. One school district in Siouxland did not fare too well.
Nearly every school in Storm Lake has been ranked as a priority school since 2022. Storm Lake Community Schools Superintendent Stacey Cole spoke to Iowa Media Wire 9 and explained what obstacles the district faces and what they’re doing to improve results.
Cole said she was reminded just how difficult education is for some students when she examined coursework done by a 17-year-old kid who had been at the school for almost two years.
“And I couldn’t read what this student had on their paper,” she said.
Cole said this student and many others experienced something called SLIFE. That stands for “Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education,” and that’s not the only challenge kids face. Cole stated around 280 kids or about 12% of their student body are new to U.S. schools in the last three years, and teachers have used a unique curriculum to break down language barriers.
“What we call life science, so it’s a class where if you’re new to the states, and you’re in high school, it’s a class that embeds English into science, so that the science class is the content, but we embed English into it,” she said.
Another common issue: many students are facing poverty and food insecurity.
“Kids who live in poverty tend to be sick more often. They tend to, when they get sick, they’re sick longer,” Cole said.
The district has taken action to improve the overall success of their students. They implemented a systematic phonics program a year ago, applied for a grant from the Iowa Department of Education to improve literacy, and the school meets with a consultant for help to improve student performance. The kids have done their part, showing resiliency on their long and bumpy educational journey.
“He was determined to graduate, and he spoke almost no English, so that kid, I don’t know how he did it, but he learned English in a year. He took a full load of classes, and he took online classes, and he passed his last online class in June to graduate,” Cole said.
Another student attended 8th grade in Storm Lake, and then moved away. When he came back as a senior, he still needed 42 credits to graduate. He’s in his fifth year now, still working toward his diploma. Cole explained, helping every kid graduate is the goal, no matter what impact it has on school rankings.
“He doesn’t count in our four-year graduation rate, like he is a kid that we get quote unquote dinged on in the performance profile, but you know what, he is a kid that deserves our love and attention just like any other kid,” she said. “If we can still get him to graduate by the end of Year 5 or even Year 6, I’ll take that ding on any Iowa school performance profile if that kid leaves here and knows that we did what was right for him.”