With the Iowa House passing an education reform package last week, an overarching theme is a push for competency based education in Iowa.

Republican State House Representative Chip Baltimore says he’s really excited about education needing to transition into a more individual education system based on a student’s abilities and talents.

“There’s going to be a task force that’s going to come up with a plan to make that a statewide implementation over the next few years and so that’s something that’s really going to individualize an educational plan for every student.”

He states that the overall goal of the education reform bill is to give students the best possible education in Iowa.  He gives an example of 12-year-olds in a 6th grade class.

“And that sixth grade teacher has to teach reading at maybe the 3rd grade level for some of the students and maybe the ninth or tenth grade level for some of the others and everything in between.  That’s not a very efficient use of our teaching resources. ”

Representative Baltimore points out that a more effective way of teaching would be to group students together that have like abilities, regardless of age, and teach those students together rather than keeping kids together by age or grade level.