What Iowa Teachers Teach While ISASP Runs

Quick answer: ISASP runs from grade 3 through grade 11, so an Iowa physics teacher loses juniors for whole mornings while the rest of the timetable carries on as normal. Teach bench-based work in that stretch - single-period force and motion tasks a pair of students can start and finish - and hold the cumulative units for the intact weeks on either side.

Why does ISASP disrupt a physics room more than it should?

The Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress reaches grade 11, which is exactly where physics sits in most Iowa schedules. Testing days therefore remove the students you cannot easily catch up, not the ones with study hall. Iowa's strong local-control tradition means the window, the make-up sessions and the room assignments are set by your district, so two neighboring schools can run completely different April calendars.

Physics suffers a second way. Lab work needs equipment out, partners present and a full period, and a class of eleven students who arrive late from a testing room is not a class you set up ramps for. Planning around that is less about lowering expectations than about choosing tasks whose value does not depend on everybody being there at the same moment.

What physics actually works during the testing window?

Simple machines are the most reliable choice. A lever or a pulley system gives a measurable result in one period, needs almost no setup, and produces a number a student can check against a prediction. Absent students can repeat the same measurement later without needing a reteach, because the apparatus is a meter stick and a hanging load rather than a running investigation.

Levers & Pulleys – Physics Resource for Middle School (Grades 7–10) is built on that pattern for grades 7-10, with each task closing inside a single lesson. Keep the routine identical every day of the window: predict, measure, compare, write one sentence. Students who miss Tuesday walk back into a format they recognize on Thursday, and you spend your time on the physics rather than on re-explaining the procedure.

How do I keep the harder units from unraveling?

In small Iowa districts the physics teacher usually carries a chemistry or physical science section too, and those are the courses that quietly fall behind in April. Bonding and intermolecular forces are the classic casualty: students can recite definitions after a fragmented fortnight but cannot explain why one substance boils higher than another. Diagnosing that gap early is cheaper than reteaching the whole unit in May.

A printable unit with worked examples helps here because students can carry it between a missed lesson and a study hall. Intermolecular & Intramolecular Forces – Understanding Molecular Interactions covers molecular interactions in that form, so a student pulled out for testing has something concrete to work from. The rest of the state-specific collection sits on the Iowa Teaching Resources & Worksheets (Grades K–12) listing if you want the ISASP-season materials in one place.

What is worth planning for once the window closes?

Reopen the cumulative work immediately. The first intact week after testing is when a multi-day mechanics investigation pays off, and students are usually glad to be back in a room where something builds. Grade that investigation rather than the disrupted fortnight, which keeps your evidence honest about what was actually taught under normal conditions. Tell students the date in advance.

Departments that want the whole year settled before next spring often move to a single format across preps. Advanced Physics XXL Bundle | Mechanics, Fields, Quantum & Relativity | 4 Complete Units | Honors & AP covers four full units at honors and advanced level, which suits a teacher assigned physics plus an elective and no shared planning time. One format also eases covering a colleague's lesson. Schools comparing setups across the region can use the Great Plains Teaching Resources (IA, KS, NE, ND, SD) collection.

Frequently asked questions

Are these materials connected to the Iowa Department of Education?

No. They are independent classroom resources and are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Iowa Department of Education or any assessment provider. Teachers align them to the Iowa Academic Standards themselves, which is the normal position for commercially published units in a local-control state.

Will ISASP itself change soon?

Iowa has been gathering public input on new achievement levels and a possible redesign of the assessment. What that means for your planning is simple enough: build lessons around the standards rather than around the current reporting categories, because the standards are the part least likely to move underneath you.

Can one physics unit cover a class with a wide ability range?

Yes, if the task has a floor and a ceiling. Measurement work does: every student can record a load and a distance, while stronger students calculate efficiency and account for friction. The printable units here include extension questions for exactly that reason, so one lesson plan covers the room.

Related reading

• Iowa Physics: Building a Unit Around the Iowa Academic Standards
• Running a Physics Unit in a Long Block in Iowa
• Iowa Teaching Resources & Worksheets (Grades K–12)