Value

Iowa State University takes pride in its role of educating Iowans. The first section below provides examples of educational programs offered by Iowa State in response to societal needs. The second section describes ways that educational programs meet workforce development and continuing education needs throughout the state.

Iowa State supports skill development for Iowa youth, improves understanding of child care needs, and disseminates information about mental health and substance abuse.

Iowa Youth
The needs of Iowa youth are addressed with programs that offer hands-on learning and science-based programs to help participants gain skills, confidence, and positive self-esteem so they can become successful and caring. Specific examples include:

• 4-H Youth Development programs in which more than 25 percent of school−age youth in the state participate

• Growing in the Garden, a life science-based curriculum that builds curiosity about agriculture, natural resources, food, and people; more than 20,000 K-3rd grade youth have participated

• E-SET — Extension–Science, Engineering and Technology, a cooperative program between ISU Extension and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium to foster an interest in science among youth and help teachers improve science, engineering and technology education

• Where We Live, a new curriculum that challenges students to think about the land and the food where they live; more than 5,000 4th-6th graders have participated.

Child Care
Iowa has one of the highest percentages of young children (69 percent) with all parents employed outside of the home. Iowa State researchers and Extension collaborated on a four-state applied research project that shows the quality of child care for young children in Iowa is worse than in neighboring states. Using the research findings, ISU Extension to Families staff and researchers are partnering with state agencies and serving on state boards and commissions to develop a quality rating system and professional development registry system to change child care in Iowa.

In another effort to disseminate the results of childcare research, ISU Extension has developed a Child Care Lasts a Lifetime public education program. Used with 63 communities in 2004, the program is designed to inform parents and communities about the components of high-quality child care. A primary goal is to strengthen parents’ knowledge as consumers of child care. ISU Extension has partnered with the Iowa Association for Family and Consumer Science, HyVee supermarkets, the Department of Human Services, Child Care Resources and Referral, local community empowerment boards, Workforce Development, and Promise Jobs to distribute educational resources.

Families Extension helped establish more than 295 new childcare centers and home businesses in 2004. These facilities provide care for an estimated 1,800 children, helping working parents to stay employed, while creating 379 new jobs in Iowa communities. Of childcare providers who attend Iowa State-sponsored training, 97 percent adopt one or more recommended practices after the program (67 percent response rate, 439 surveyed).

ISU Extension received a second year of funding, $850,000, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for Rural Outreach, Training, and Counseling. Extension provided educational subject matter to rural families on topics related to stress and loss, family financial counseling, and farm business issues. Extension worked to increase awareness, accessibility, and use of financial management information that helps families evaluate current farm viability and family financial management information. Extension also increased mental health support for disenfranchised youth and families by promoting and providing short-term, one-on-one intervention and counseling services by mental health professionals in Iowa. More than 400 Iowa farm businesses received farm business and financial analysis through Extension. Thirty-seven financial counselors were trained and assisted more than 370 families; 2,030 adults and 406 youth received mental health counseling; 106 people participated in a care-giving workshop. The Iowa Concern hotline averaged about 1,000 calls per month and made appropriate referrals to callers needing mental health services.

Iowa State also offers educational programs that meet workforce development and continuing education needs. Many of these efforts are highlighted in the Extension sections of this self-study
(see: http://www.iastate.edu/~accreditation/6-engagement/510.htm or http://www.iastate.edu/~accreditation/6-engagement/520.htm).

One measure of Iowa State’s ability to educate Iowans is the success of its students after graduation. Iowa State is among the top universities in the country for career services, according to the Kaplan guide. One matrix of the quality of the institution’s career services program is its placement record: 92.3% of last year’s graduates had jobs or were enrolled in professional or graduate schools within three months of graduation.

Iowa State offers important education programs that meet needs across the state. Several examples are highlighted here.

• ISU Extension’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) improves the health of Iowa families. A recent study of the cost and benefits of the program showed that for every dollar spent to deliver nutrition education in Iowa through EFNEP, $8.03 is saved in future health care costs. Each year 2,000 Iowa families benefit from this program.

• Iowa State’s Teacher Education program, supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, will be the first in the nation to prepare undergraduate teacher education students for virtual schooling.

• Dr. Carl Smith leads the Iowa Behavioral Alliance Project, a project designed to help school districts in Iowa implement school-wide positive behavior support programs that promote appropriate behavior, facilitate learning communities, and address drop-out rates and appropriate education for students with mental illness.

• In the Assessment Project funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Anne Foegen works with teachers to use assessment to improve middle-school special education students’ learning of algebra.