Iowa’s education system is dedicated to identifying reading problems early, so that students can get back on track and the retention component of Iowa’s early literacy progression law – a last-resort option – can be avoided as much as possible when it takes effect in May 2017. The retention component of the law simply means we are not giving up on struggling readers. We are serious about making sure all Iowa children are successful readers.
Families of students will have a choice with regard to retention.
Students identified as having a substantial deficiency in reading at the end of third grade can advance to fourth grade in two ways: By completing an intensive summer reading program offered by the school or by qualifying for an exemption.
Research shows reading successfully by the end of third grade is an important predictor of school success, and early intervention is the key to avoiding difficulty with reading later on. Problems identified early are easier to remediate, placing children back on track for success. At this time, we cannot predict how many Iowa students will be retained starting in 2017. It would be inappropriate to estimate this based on school data available to us now, because the early literacy progression law includes interventions with students that are new and need time to work.
We can predict what will happen if we don’t do the work to change how we find and help students with reading challenges: We can predict that we will get results similar to what we’ve seen in the past.
Iowa’s education system has responded to the early literacy progression law with a focus on prevention and early intervention, as well as an unprecedented level of collaboration between the Iowa Reading Research Center, the Iowa Department of Education, area education agencies, school districts, colleges and universities, parents and community partners.
