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The Iowa House approved a bill aimed at improving literacy rates for Iowa students, allowing parents to have their child repeat a grade if they are not proficient in reading and adding new educational requirements for teachers.

passed on a 92-3 vote Tuesday. The bill would require schools to notify parents or guardians of students in kindergarten through sixth grade who are not reading at grade-level proficiency, and inform them of their ability to request that their child repeat a grade. Students who are not meeting literacy benchmarks will be given a personalized plan to assist them until they are able to read at grade level.

Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, said many of the measures required by the bill are efforts teachers already take to improve literacy outcomes with students.

鈥淭eachers watch out for kids that are not reading at grade level already,鈥� Steckman said. 鈥淭eachers talk to parents already. Teachers put forth an (Individualized Education Program), or some sort of a plan for that student to get on grade level already. So much of this we鈥檙e already doing.鈥�

She also praised the bill for being 鈥渢oned down鈥� from Gov. Kim Reynolds鈥� original proposal. When Reynolds brought up legislation as a way to improve literacy rates in Iowa schools, she proposed requiring Iowa teacher licensure candidates in early childhood, elementary, K-12 reading and literacy preparation programs, as well as those in special education, to pass the to graduate.

The passing requirement for teacher licensure was removed in a House amendment, but education program students would still be required to take the assessment, with results reported to the Iowa Department of Education.

The House bill also omits some of the prescriptions on reading instruction and literacy strategies related to the teaching of phonics 鈥� teaching the sounds of letters to learn how to read 鈥� and banning certain literacy teaching strategies associated with rote memorization or contextual clues to identify a written word.

These measures were discussed in the context of the 鈥渟cience of reading鈥� teaching methods that put a larger emphasis on phonics to improve young students鈥� reading and language abilities. Other states, , have seen improvements in national reading scores after adopting the approach.

Reynolds said in January that while Iowa did not see the drops in reading scores in recent years that other states have, 鈥渉olding steady isn鈥檛 good enough鈥� for Iowa students. The results from the 2022-2023 showed that 34% of Iowa third-graders were not yet proficient in English Language Art skills. that students not proficient at reading in third grade face greater difficulties with academics and in their personal life as they age.

Rep. Tom Moore, R-Griswold, thanked Reynolds鈥� office for working with lawmakers to come up with a 鈥済ood compromise鈥� on how to approach improving reading education for Iowa students. Moore agreed with Steckman on the bill鈥檚 provisions being strategies many Iowa teachers already employ 鈥� but said that it was important to ensure all students get more literacy support as needed.

鈥淥bviously, we wouldn鈥檛 be in the middle of the pack nationally reading-wise if all of our teachers were doing some of these things,鈥� Moore said.

The legislation heads to the Senate for further consideration.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

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