Education in Iowa

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Iowa excels in student success rates at the K-12 level nationally and is home to a number of cutting-edge research programs at the university level.

Iowa State University in Ames is recognized both nationally and internationally for leading research in agriculture and veterinary medicine. The Iowa State University Research Park is a rapidly growing community of more than 45 companies that links technology creation and development assistance with established technology firms and the marketplace.

The National Animal Disease Center and National Veterinary Services Laboratory are both located in Ames.

The University of Iowa in Iowa City is one of the nation's leading research institutions in health sciences. The UI College of Medicine ranks ninth in National Institutes of Health awards to all public medical schools. The Iowa Center for Gene Therapy promotes research into treatments for devastating inherited diseases. UI is home to the state's Technology Innovation Center and has a leading technology transfer program.

The state's Advanced Research and Commercialization (ARC) Program makes strategic investments in established Iowa businesses with advanced research and commercialization projects. These include fully served research parks, technology transfer programs and business incubators at both Iowa State University and the University of Iowa.

Drake University in Des Moines is consistently ranked among the top regional universities in the Midwest and one of the best values nationally in higher education. The 15 community colleges with 28 campuses offer a variety of programs in biotechnology, bioprocess and health technologies.

The Iowa New Jobs Training Program provides flexible funding to meet a variety of training and employee development needs of new or expanding businesses, with on-the-job training reimbursement up to 50 percent of new employee's wages and fringe benefits during training. Community colleges finance the program by the sale of tax-exempt bonds which are repaid by the tax revenue generated by the salaries and capital invested to support the new jobs. As a result company profits are not used to repay the bonds.

Iowa's 84 percent high school graduation rate is ranked as one of the top five in the nation, and these students have led the nation in SAT and ACT scores for the past two decades. The Iowa Department of Education is developing a program that will give high school students access to Advanced Placement courses, supported through a variety of technologies, to increase the number of students taking AP online courses and exams within the state.

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