Summer reading programs to help third-graders read at a proficient level in Iowa are no longer a requirement in school education.
In 2014, the Iowa Legislature passed the early literacy law to focus on the prevention of reading difficulties and make sure all students are reading at grade level before moving on to fourth grade.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, nearly 1 in 4 third-grade students are not proficient in reading.

Staci Hupp Ballard, the communications director of the Iowa Education Department, said the purpose of the reading programs was to ensure students are reading at a proficient level at the third grade.

Ballard noted the Iowa Education Department and the Iowa Reading Research Center worked together to put in place a statewide infrastructure to identify struggling readers early on and give them help they need.

“Our focus all along has been on the early warning system component of the early literacy initiative,” she said. “And that is a system that includes screening the reading skills of all students in kindergarten to third grade three times a year, providing additional reading instruction to children who need it, and monitoring their progress to make sure they get on track.”

Iowa City School District Superintendent Stephen Murley said the summer reading program is a beneficial opportunity for students not only targeted to third-grade students, but students in primary grades.

“The Iowa City School District places great value on extended day and summer opportunities for students,” he said. “The district has had summer programming in place at some of our schools for many years through the 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant.”

Murley noted there are other solutions the district has implemented in order to keep the readings skills at a proficient level before they move on to fourth grade.

“The Iowa City School District is working to strengthen core instruction in reading,” he said. “Students receive roughly two and a half hours of literacy instruction per day. The district monitors students through a universal screening process three times per year.”

Deborah Reed, the director of the Iowa Reading Research Center, said most of the school districts in Iowa are planning on holding their summer reading programs, even though it was dropped as a requirement.

“Typically in the summer, there are group of students that don’t have good access to a lot of reading activities, and they aren’t engaged in a really rigorous way and working on reading” she said. “This seems to affect students who are having difficulty with reading the most because it’s not a pleasurable activity for them.”

Reed said if the schools offer summer reading programs, they are more likely to have students engage in reading in the summer.