The Iowa Department of Education released a policy paper which shows the statewide effort by Iowa schools to catch and correct reading problems in students early on is showing progress. The paper says nearly nine-thousand students in kindergarten through third grade who had fallen short of benchmarks in reading in the fall of 2015 met or surpassed benchmarks by the spring of 2016, an increase of four-point-two (4.2) percentage points. The Ed Department’s Amy Williamson oversees the Bureau of School Improvement. She says the early warning system implemented in 2014 is a key part of helping kids improve their reading.

 

Williamson says it gives a much better picture of what’s happening with students than the annual assessments.

 

The 398 public and non-public schools using the early warning system saw a nearly 61 percent increase in the percentage of students in kindergarten through third grade that were at or above the state benchmark for reading.