Rep. Peter Cownie Reports: It’s Fair to Expect Iowa Third Graders to be Literate

Education is a cornerstone in state government and about 60 percent  of Iowa’s state budget reflects educational programs.

Every legislator feels passionately about educating our kids to prepare them for the future and returning Iowa to our first in the nation status. However, as with many issues at the Statehouse, there are divergent paths on how to reconcile this and Gov. Terry Branstad has proposed many reforms in his “Blueprint for Education in Iowa.”

Let's talk about social promotions and passing students to the next grade level before they've mastered a subject: Good idea or bad idea? Why? Tell us in comments.

House Study Bill 588 is over 150 pages long, costs approximately $25 million and is a work in progress.

It has not come to a full vote of the House Education Committee yet. I serve on the House Education Committee and we are deliberately examining the bill. These are a few of the reforms that I feel are necessary.

First, there is a requirement that all third graders be proficient readers in order to move onto fourth grade. If they are not, then at last resort, they would be held back. No one wants their child held back in school. Therefore, one of the bill’s goals is to put into place a system of literacy education that ensures students are not held back and are better prepared to advance in school.

I think it is reasonable to ask for third graders to be literate in Iowa. By simply passing students who are not able to keep up with the rest of their class is a disservice to the child, and the rest of that class.

Based on an analysis of reading scores and graduation rates of 3,975 students over 10  years, students who could not read by the end of the third grade were four times more likely to drop out of high school. Furthermore, 88 percent of students who failed to earn a high school diploma were deficient readers in third grade.

There is also a requirement in the bill regarding an online learning program. This program would set up a virtual academy giving students across Iowa access to classes they may not otherwise have the opportunity to take – foreign languages, advanced placement classes, etc. This should be particularly appealing in rural Iowa and smaller school districts where these classes might otherwise not be available.

Lastly, there is policy called Competency Based Learning in the bill that allows students to move up a grade when they are deemed ready to move forward. If a student excels in their current grade and is ready to move on, they should be allowed to do so.

We are doing a disservice to that child by holding them back and not allowing them to reach their full potential.

There are many more pieces to this bill. I have touched on a few I think would be good changes to our education system. Now is not the time to sit idly by. Iowa’s most important asset, our young people, needs to be positioned for success. These reforms will help do just that.