🎃 Happy Thursday and welcome to October!

🌧️ Weather: Chance of rain showers, with a high of 68 and a low of 56.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Libby Jacobs, Kerri Yost, Eric Nemmers, Leighann Sibal and Adam Faircloth!

🎁 We're celebrating 1,000 Axios Des Moines members with a giveaway!

• Join today for a chance to win one of two $200 Orchestrate gift cards.

Today’s newsletter is 1,015 words — a 4-minute read.

A West Des Moines mom says an AI reading tutor used in her daughter's classroom has hurt her confidence.

Why it matters: Elementary students are at vastly different reading levels, and Amira, an AI tutor students read to, can provide individualized feedback that's time-consuming for teachers.

• But parents are concerned the program isn't accurately hearing their kids and is jeopardizing their digital privacy.

State of play: Carlise Car says her daughter enjoyed reading at home before attending kindergarten at Jordan Creek Elementary in West Des Moines this August.

• When her daughter, Chloe, returned home from school, she wasn't interested in reading, Car said.
• She noticed Amira on her daughter's weekly school internet report and researched it.
• Car says the program wasn't accurately hearing her daughter, who is soft-spoken and had recently lost a tooth, and frequently asked Chloe to repeat herself.

Zoom in: Car says she opted her daughter out of the program after speaking to the principal. But she's concerned about the privacy of her daughter's voice and about parents' lack of information about the program. She says the school's technology waiver did not specify use of AI.

• "We were pretty blindsided," Car says.

What they're saying: Data provided to Amira is West Des Moines district property that cannot be used to train public AI models, spokesperson Bryan Geelan tells Axios.

• He says the district's guidelines match other nationally set standards.

The big picture: The Iowa Department of Education also provides Amira to school districts across the state, separate from West Des Moines' usage.

• In 2024, the department recommended 41 elementary schools that received literacy grants from the state to use Amira.
• At the time, Iowa used $3 million in federal COVID-relief to fund Amira.

Since then, Amira has expanded statewide to more than 96,000 students, who read "over 7 million minutes and completed 1.3 million stories" last school year, Iowa Department of Education spokesperson Heather Doe tells Axios. Gov. Kim Reynolds approved $2.5 million for the program last year.

By the numbers: Students who used the program for at least 20 minutes a week during the 2025-26 school year gained half a school year's worth of progress compared with students who did not use the program, according to Amira's progress evaluation, Doe says.

• A teacher-administered oral assessment of first through fifth graders showed the students correctly said 12.4 words per minute beyond typical expectations, Doe says.
• The program was offered alongside other literacy improvement tools passed and funded by the state in 2024.

Plus: Most districts rely on Clever, which is used with Infinite Campus, to help protect students' privacy.

Reality check: Research on programs like Amira isn't conclusive, according to EdWeek.

• While some research has shown that 25- to 30-minute sessions with the program can show positive results, it's difficult to compare it to the results when a human tutor is present, Matt Burns, a professor at the University of Florida, tells EdWeek.

What's next: The state will provide Amira at no cost for the first 110,000 elementary students who enroll through July 31, 2028, Doe says.

Amira is used differently across the metro.

• At Des Moines Public Schools, elementary students use it during reading rotations when they're not in a small group.
• In Johnston last year, the district used it in first through third grade classrooms in three elementary buildings. Staff saw reading progress, but the district also used other literacy tools, making it hard to tell if Amira caused improvements, says Michelle Crannell, Johnston's director of Elementary Teaching and Learning. The district is using Amira again this fall and is determining broader use across the district.
• Urbandale has used it since 2024.
• At Ankeny, a small share of students whose first language is not English are using Amira.
• Waukee is not considering using it due to the state's new screen time law, spokesperson Kayla Choate tells Axios.

🎗️ University of Iowa researchers found that demographic and behavioral risk factors could explain 76% of Iowa's excess cases among its five most common cancers. (Iowa Public Radio)

🎰 The Iowa Lottery plans to move its headquarters from Clive to the Hoover State Office Building in DSM. (Radio Iowa)

🚰 DSM Water Works will host a public forum Oct. 6 from 6-7:30pm at Central Library on Iowa water quality, nitrates, monitoring and policy. (Press release)

✈️ Collins Aerospace plans to expand its engine components facility in West Des Moines. (WHO-radio)

⛈️ Overnight rainfall was lighter than expected.

• Walnut and Fourmile creeks should stay below flood stage, while the Raccoon River at Fleur is expected to remain below moderate flood stage, per Polk County Emergency Management. (Press release)

📧 Hit reply and guess Jason's location by 4pm for a chance to win two free tickets to Eerie Evenings, which runs Oct. 23-31, courtesy of the Greater DSM BOOtanical Garden.

• The winner and a story about this location will be in tomorrow's newsletter.

Caitlin Clark's signature Nike sneaker goes on sale at 9am today.

• "Caitlin 1" retails for $140.

The intrigue: To celebrate the launch, Nike has banners of Clark hanging in Des Moines' Court Avenue district that casually note just how extraordinary she is:

• "Just a girl from West Des Moines who was raised to show up right on time, follow through, take the lead, trust her instincts, finish what she started, and put herself out there. Like, way far out there."

🏠 Jason thinks it's lovely that the historic Wallace House is now available for rent for social gatherings — porch included.

☔️ Linh is ready to say goodbye to our soggy September.

This newsletter was edited by Chloe Gonzales.