For Second Year in a Row, Early Literacy Efforts Making Strides

For the second year in a row, Iowa has made significant progress to improve the reading skills of students in kindergarten through third grade, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced last week.

Speaking from Edmunds Elementary School in Des Moines, Reynolds said the share of students who met or surpassed the benchmarks Iowa uses to measure statewide progress on the screening assessment increased from 67 percent to 70 percent in public schools between fall 2016 and spring 2017. That 3 percentage-point growth hits the target the state has set for annual early literacy growth.

That builds on progress during the previous year when the share of public and non-public students meeting or exceeding benchmarks grew 4 percentage points. Non-public school results for the past year will be available soon.

All told, the progress in the last two years translates to 14,000 Iowa students who went from missing reading benchmarks to meeting them. Being proficient in reading by the end of third grade is considered a critical milestone in a child’s education. Students falling short of reading proficiency by that time face an uphill battle with their education going forward, with many eventually dropping out. Still, nearly one in four students is not proficient in reading by the end of third grade.

“Iowa’s schools – and the education system that supports them – have come together around several initiatives in the past six years with the goal of preparing Iowa students for success in high school and beyond,” Ryan Wise, Director of the Iowa Department of Education, said. 

Read the entire article at the Iowa Department of Education’s website.