Council Bluffs Board hears plan after Iowa law reshapes work‑based learning definition

Council Bluffs Community School District staff briefed the school board on changes to how Iowa counts post‑secondary readiness, including a new work‑based learning definition under Senate File 2411 and related state reporting that will affect the district’s Iowa School Performance Profile scores.

Miss Kollmaine, a district staff member presenting on post‑secondary readiness indicators, told the board that the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Iowa school performance profile now allocates 100 of 900 points (11.1 percent) to post‑secondary readiness at the high‑school level, up from about 8 percent under the previous system. “The only things that count towards work based learning are these specific types of work based learning embedded opportunities,” Kollmaine said, describing the state’s new, narrower definition tied to Senate File 2411.

The change matters because the state has added new state reporting lines (lines 11–16) that did not exist for the 2022–23 reporting year. Kollmaine said the Department of Education used 2022–23 data for this year’s profile; because the new lines were not present in that year’s reporting, the district — and others statewide — will be disadvantaged in profile points for one or two years while historical…