Statewide Iowa — (RI) — Iowa’s public schools saw an increase in students and teachers in the last year.
Iowa Department of Education spokesman, Jay Pennington, says the latest Condition of Education report shows an increase of 1,388 students.
There were 487,652 students in the school system in the last year. Pennington says the increase is similar to the population growth of the state as whole.
He says that growth has included an increase in another area.
The percent of students whose native language is not English is 6.5% — up from 6.1% the year before. Pennington says the state also has more teachers — an upward trend that started in 2001.
The 37,386 full-time teachers in public schools in the last year compares to 33,610 in the 2000-2001 year. The average salary is now $57,463. That ranks Iowa at 21st in the nation for average salary compared to 22nd the year before. Pennington says there are a lot of good numbers in the report — including an increase in the number of students taking higher-level mathematics, including calculus, statistics and trigonometry courses. But he says there is still a lot of area for improvement.
The report says the amount of state money spent on each student went up by $333 to $10,536. That ranks the state per-pupil expense 30th in the nation ahead of other the nearby states of Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan and South Dakota. You can see the full report on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.
