As the Iowa Legislature prepares to take up the issue of education reform, some history and context will help explain why reform is necessary.

Iowa Testing Services writes the ITBS and ITED standardized tests and each year issues a report about Iowa education, containing tables of data.  In 2001, one of their tables included 60 years of statewide averages of student test scores.  Graphing these shows some startling shifts in student achievement for Iowa. 

Beginning about 1960, there was a precipitous drop in average student achievement.  What changed in education to create this?