Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education announced Monday a statewide investment of over $3.5 million to provide every first grade student in the state with book packs.
Over 100,000 skill-level book packs containing over one million books will be given to first graders to build on classroom learning and boost reading development at home this winter, according to a Monday news release.
Reynolds said in the news release that Iowa is making early literacy a top priority by enacting landmark literacy legislation, improving state standards, and ensuring teachers have the resources they need to build foundational reading skills in students.
“These book packs, based on the Science of Reading, bring parents more fully into that process by giving them a fun way to reinforce at home what their children are learning at school,” Reynolds said in the release. “It’s a powerful way to teach our kids to read — so they can spend a lifetime reading to learn.”
Reynolds signed a bill aimed at improving literacy rates for Iowa students into law in May. The law requires schools to notify parents or guardians of students in kindergarten in sixth grade who are not reading at grade-level proficiency and allows parents to have their child repeat a grade.
Test scores from the 2022-23 school year show just 66 percent of Iowa’s third graders are proficient in English Language Arts, including literacy.
The law stipulates that students who do not meet literacy benchmarks to be given a personalized plan to help them until they are able to read at grade level.
The book packs will be provided to all public and accredited nonpublic elementary schools in the state, supplying nearly 38,000 first grade students.
Students in kindergarten and second grade in need of support who attended a Department of Education-funded summer reading program or a Learning Beyond the Bell out-of-school program this year will also receive book packs.
Selected by the Iowa Department of Education, the books are decodable, meaning they are written for beginning readers and use simple words to help readers connect letters and sounds. In a sequential order, the book packs progressively introduce complex skills to students.
Through a competitive bid process, the Department selected Just Right Reader to provide the decodable reading packs at no cost to Iowa’s elementary schools or families, according to the news release. Funds for the book packs are provided through the Iowa Department of Education’s portion of the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief and the American Rescue Plan Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools Fund.
Based on the concept of the science of reading, the book packs are customizable and available at multiple reading levels for students. Each book includes a QR code with access to video lessons.
“In partnership with their classroom teachers, families across Iowa can use these evidence-based book packs to reinforce phonics and decoding skills with their children anytime, anywhere,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in the news release. “These decodable books meet students where they are, supporting reading comprehension that unlocks a child’s lifetime of potential.”