EPS Learningthe leading provider of PreK-12 literacy solutions, has been selected by the Iowa Department of Education through a competitive bidding process to offer fully-funded access to its ai-powered platform. EPS Reading Assistant for all elementary school teachers and students through summer 2025. Iowa’s $3 million investment is part of a statewide initiative to improve reading outcomes for all elementary school students in 365 public school districts and 145 accredited nonpublic schools.
EPS Reading Assistant is an online literacy program based on the science of reading that uses sophisticated speech recognition and safe artificial intelligence (ai) to listen to, assess, and teach students basic reading skills at the right level for them. In turn, educators are provided with actionable performance data that guides them to where their instruction will be most important.
“We believe that EPS Reading Assistant can significantly improve instructional effectiveness and transform the reading experience for students,” said Steven Guttentag, CEO of EPS Learning. “We are proud to be a trusted partner of the state of Iowa in helping children at all levels develop strong literacy skills—capabilities that open the door to a world of possibilities. Our goal is to ensure that all Iowa educators have the tools they need to make a difference in their classrooms.”
EPS Reading Assistant was launched in March 2024 in partnership with Amira Learningthe developer of the first ai-powered reading assistant that has helped millions of students improve reading fluency and comprehension. When combined with other EPS learning solutions like NEEDLE—the reading intervention program used in 20% of districts nationwide, including 36 school districts in Iowa—EPS Reading Assistant has been shown to accelerate student achievement in foundational reading skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension. Independent academic research A study by Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, and other R1 institutions has confirmed the effectiveness of Amira-powered EPS Reading Assistant technology: users in the studies have made two to three times greater progress in reading ability compared to non-users.
“At Amira, we have developed the world’s most sophisticated speech recognition solution for early elementary students, helping millions of students improve their reading skills,” said Mark Angel, CEO of Amira Learning. “EPS Learning is an established company known for delivering high-quality literacy solutions, and we are proud to partner with them to bring Amira’s innovative technology to even more classrooms and make a real difference in children’s lives.”
Iowa public and nonpublic educators will have EPS Reading Assistant licenses available for the 2024-25 academic year and summer school in 2025, as well as access to synchronous and asynchronous training and support from EPS Learning.
For Iowa educators interested in obtaining free EPS Reading Assistant licenses for their classrooms or learning more, please visit: https://www.epslearning.com/iowa.
For more information about EPS Reading Assistant, please visit: https://www.epslearning.com/products/eps-reading-assistant.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘6079750752134785’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
