Work-based learning excels at CHS

Students participating in work-based learning at Creston High School jumped by more than 30% in the last year, while the district continues to struggle to improve their special education services, according to the Iowa Performance Profiles.

Every fall, the Iowa Department of Education releases school Performance Profiles, looking at how different schools perform on standardized tests and measuring attendance and absenteeism. High schools are also scored on measures like graduation rates and post-secondary readiness.

The Creston Community School District scored well overall, with almost every performance metric rating better than the state average. Growth and proficiency in the various subjects on average went up from last year’s report. However, the most dramatic changes come in chronic absenteeism and the percentage of students participating in a work-based learning experience in high school.

In the 2024 report, CCSD had a chronic absenteeism rate of 19.68%, better by almost two points for the state average of 21.63%. In order to be considered chronically absent, a student must miss at least 10% of the school days in which they are enrolled.

In 2025, the chronic absenteeism rate went down dramatically for both CCSD and the state, with CCSD’s rate at 13.7% and the state at 15.81%. This dramatic drop follows the signing of Senate File 2435 into law before the last school year. This law enforced an attendance and absenteeism policy in all Iowa schools.

With the new policy, 8.5 unexcused absences per semester cause a letter to be mailed home. Twelve unexcused absences per semester cause a truancy meeting and an attendance contract. Eighteen unexcused absences per semester cause a referral to the county attorney.

During the September 2024 school board meeting, CCSD Superintendent Deron Stender said the school’s previous policy was stricter than the new required numbers from the state. However, the school did put in more systems to keep students on track, including stronger communication with parents and standardizing attendance protocol through the schools.

Looking at post-secondary readiness for work-based learning, both the state and the school district had an even more dramatic jump in rates. In 2024, the Creston rate was 17.86%, while the state average was 25.47%. This jumped by leaps and bounds in 2025, with the Creston rate at 53.4% and the state average at 45%.

The Iowa Department of Eduction describes work-based learning as “sustained project-based learning in partnership with an employer, simulated work experiences aligned with industry-recognized credentials, high-quality pre-apprenticeships aligned to an apprenticeship, student learner programs, internships and apprenticeships.”

Prior to the 2025 report, the state did not have a consistent definition for work-based learning, so the change in percentages may reflect the new definition.

While overall performance in various assessments ranks the school district above the state average, a comprehensive review has two of the schools, the high school and middle school, targeted as needing to improve services for students with disabilities.

This is not the first year Creston schools have been under the targeted status for their special eduction services. In the 2024 report, the high school and elementary school were both under this category.

Stender explained this is a common problem that Creston has been working on over the past few years.

“The special ed world is probably the most significant challenge for us in terms of academics just because of the different disabilities,” Stender said following the 2024 results. “For us as a district, one of the things that we know has been an issue for us and has probably helped play into that is our special ed departments have probably the most transition in staff leaving and new staff, and also not being able to hire enough new staff to hire our special ed services.”

While the elementary school improved enough to exit the targeted status, the middle school joined the high school in needing a recommendation from the state to improve their special eduction services.

These results will likely be presented to the Creston School Board at their next meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 20.