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ANKENY, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Education is providing all elementary schools in Iowa with 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 help kids learn to read in real time.

The Iowa Department of Education Announced its new online tutor as a way to add support for student literacy 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 money to provide summer school classes for students.

Dr. Amy Dittmar, the Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services at Ankeny Community School District, said that the summer reading grant helped the district prevent a summer slide in reading skills.

“There’s a potential for what we call the summer slide. Every summer when students leave us in May, you know that instruction stops. So that’s a concern for us. So it’s critical that we have these funds to continue the learning and the instruction throughout the summertime so that kids are successful when they return to school in the fall,” Dittmar said.

To learn more about the Iowa Department of Education’s new online tutor program visit the Department’s website.