Early Literacy Implementation (ELI)

Literacy is the cornerstone for learning. As the cornerstone, it is imperative to ensure that young children get off to a good start in building literacy skills. Iowa’s Early Literacy Implementation (ELI) is legislation that enacts and secures the steps necessary to provide evidence-based programming and instruction to teachers, assess early readers and their literacy skills and abilities and provide extra help and intervention for non-proficient students. The overreaching goal of Iowa’s ELI is for all students to become proficient readers by the end of the third grade.

The measuring component to Iowa’s ELI is the Student Success System, a data management system with the capability to house universal screening, intervention and progress monitoring data for every student in the state.

For more information about the Iowa ELI, visit:

Iowa Department of Education

Important Contacts

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Wendy Robinson

Wendy Robinson

  • Director of Instructional Services

Education: Master’s degree, education

Experience: Speech-language pathologist, Director of instructional services
Joined Heartland AEA in 1982

Expertise: Literacy, MTSS, Teacher Leadership, English Learners

Professional affiliations: International Dyslexia Association, International Literacy Association, Learning Forward

How I’ve made an impact: One of my areas of strength for impact is data-based decision-making using student data at the system, building, classroom and student level to improve outcomes for students.

Early Literacy Implementation (ELI)