ANKENY, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Education is offering all elementary schools in Iowa access to a personalized online reading tutor to help students improve their reading skills.
The tutor is a virtual avatar named Amira and uses the EPS reading assistant to teach children to read in real time.
The Iowa Department of Education has announced its new online tutor to support student literacy skills in addition to its Summer Reading Grant Program.
Ankeny Community School District’s Southeast Elementary was one of the schools that received money from the Summer Reading Program Grant. The district used the grant to offer summer school classes for students.
Dr. Amy Dittmar, assistant superintendent for academic services at Ankeny Community School District, said the summer reading grant helped the district prevent a decline in reading skills over the summer.
“There is a potential for a summer drop. When students leave school in May, instruction ends. That’s a concern for us. So it’s important that we have those resources to continue instruction and learning through the summer so that kids are successful when they go back to school in the fall,” Dittmar said.
To learn more about the Iowa Department of Education’s new online tutoring program, visit the department’s website.
