2023 CEA Grantees

100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge is a nonprofit organization focused on preparing youth and young adults to become the next generation of leaders. They will pilot a tutoring program using My Brother Can Read, a comprehensive curriculum developed collaboratively by the East Baton Rouge Parish school system and The 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge. Certified teachers will deliver the curriculum at partner school sites during tutoring sessions. 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge will serve students across grades 9-12 while partnering with the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, Southern University and A&M College, and Baton Rouge Community College to support tutoring delivery.

Air Reading will leverage their Call to Effective Action grant to measure the impact and effectiveness of their virtual high-impact tutoring program in closing reading gaps for students receiving Tier III interventions. In the 2024-25 school year, Air Reading will conduct randomized controlled trials (RCT) within Terrell ISD and A+ Academy. The study will involve 200 students in the treatment group and 300 students in the control group, all of whom are in Tier III interventions. Air Reading program will provide small-group sessions with up to 4 students per group, 40 minutes per session, 4 times a week, for 20 weeks. 

AIR Tutors, in partnership with WestEd, will conduct a randomized controlled trial evaluation of its high dosage math tutoring program. AIR Tutors will examine the impact of its program on English learners and will additionally seek to understand whether learning gains persist beyond one year. AIR Tutors will partner with school districts to enroll historically underserved student groups, including English learners, in grades 4-6.

Amira Learning will combine the mentorship of high school and college-age tutors with the power of Amira’s intelligent instructional and diagnostic platform, which is fueled by artificial intelligence and rooted in the science of reading, to deliver tutoring. Amira will partner with organizations in California’s Central Valley to recruit and train young adults to tutor struggling readers in grades 1-5. Amira will study whether the hybrid mentorship model produces better results than the use of the Amira platform alone, for students generally and also for specific subgroups.

Amplify provides virtual tutoring to students to accelerate learning in reading and foundational literacy skills. In the upcoming school year, Amplify will serve over 200,000 students in grades K-6 across multiple states. Amplify’s full-service tutoring model provides virtual reading tutoring to small groups of students for 30 minutes per session, three days per week. Amplify recruits, manages, trains, and develops all tutors – prioritizing local recruitment of tutors when possible.

Amplify requires tutors to complete a rigorous training program to learn to accurately administer mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition assessments, use student data effectively, deliver tutoring interventions, and use best practices for engaging students. Amplify also provides ongoing professional development for tutors, observation sessions with a senior literacy coach, tutor office hours, and other weekly connections to support tutors. Ultimately, Amplify seeks to support students to improve their literacy skills, gain confidence in reading, build a strong relationship with a caring adult, and participate in a fun and safe learning environment. 

The Bay Area Tutoring Association is a non-profit organization invested in the future prosperity of the San Francisco Bay Area through the facilitation of student academic development, parent empowerment, and quality extended learning programs. In partnership with Opportunity Youth Academy, they will serve high school students with individualized instruction in English language arts, math, and science, with a focus on opportunity youth students. Students will be matched with a tutor from a higher-learning institution who will provide consistent, in-person tutoring throughout a three-month minimum tutoring cycle.

District of Columbia Public Schools, along with the DC Public Education Fund, aims to ensure kindergarten students get a strong start in mathematics. They will provide tutoring to 480 kindergarten students using the ROOTS intervention program, which focuses on developing whole number understanding in mathematics. DCPS will provide tutoring services to students directly by using its existing pool of paraprofessionals. By focusing on early interventions for students who are furthest behind, DCPS anticipates the model for this grant will have a significant impact on closing the academic gap early in a student’s academic career.

Deans for Impact (DFI) will convene educator preparation programs that are mobilizing teacher-candidates to serve as tutors in high-need schools, establishing the Aspiring Teachers as Tutors Network and developing a policy framework for strengthening the tutor-to-teacher pipeline. DFI will also develop and test the effectiveness of tutor training modules to prepare aspiring teachers to serve as tutors, initially focused on math in grades K-8. Against the backdrop of challenges with tutor supply in the 2021-22 school year and declining interest in the teaching profession, DFI seeks to increase the number of future teachers serving as tutors– both as a means of sustainably scaling tutoring to more K-12 students and as a strategy for strengthening pathways into teaching.

EmpowerED Birmingham, along with Leaders of Excellence, are non-profit organizations serving students in the Birmingham community. These two organizations will co-lead the pilot of Project CATCH aiming to serve students in grades 6-10. Project CATCH tutors, recruited from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Education, will utilize various instructional strategies and activities to address the needs of students coming from diverse backgrounds and having diverse learning styles. Project CATCH’s model will offer 90-minute sessions three times a week focusing on English Language Arts (Day 1) and Mathematics (Day 2). The third day will focus on reinforcing core skills through College and Career Readiness driven activities. Data collected throughout this project will inform the success of the Project CATCH model.

FEV Tutor is a tutoring provider aiming to bridge the educational equity gap by driving improved educational outcomes through innovative learning solutions. They will serve 200 students in grade 5 by providing high-dosage tutoring in mathematics, delivered virtually. FEV Tutor, along with JoinIn Ventures serving as a research partner, will build upon the research collected from quasi-experimental design data in fall 2022, by conducting a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of  tutoring on academic growth. The FEV Tutor model is designed to drive scaled academic impact in a cost-effective and sustainable way by leveraging technology, innovation, and strategic partnerships.

Guilford County Schools is building on its previous years of success launching high-impact tutoring programs across the county. Guilford is partnering with local HBCUs and other institutions of higher education, as well as community members and even current high school students, to bring in-person tutoring to the district to support ELA, math, and science across all grades. Guilford targets the students most in need of tutoring support based on prior performance. Over the course of the school year, Guilford hopes to better understand how additional tutor support focused on building student relationships can lead to better student outcomes. Learning from the challenges and successes of its program, Guilford can help the field better understand how districts can scale and sustain a multi-year tutoring strategy.

Heart Math Tutoring is a non-profit organization implementing elementary math tutoring in a one-on-one setting, during the school day, delivered by supervised volunteers. Heart Math offers two delivery models: in-person and virtual.  In 2023-24 school year, Heart Math Tutoring anticipates serving a total of 1,485 students in grades 1-5. This program has generated student outcomes in math skills and confidence while the program has grown from 2 to 28 schools since its inception. Heart Math Tutoring will build on its existing evidence base by  participating in a rigorous research evaluation with Accelerate’s support. 

Ignite! Reading is a tutoring service provider offering virtual early literacy instruction with tutors trained in the Science of Reading. The organization works with school districts to embed 15 minutes of daily tutoring into the school day, providing each student with 1:1 virtual tutoring in foundational reading skills with a trained reading tutor. In school year 2023-24, Ignite! Reading will serve 10,000 students in grades K-8. Ignite! will also participate in a rigorous evaluation with Accelerate’s support.

Intervene K-12 will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of high-impact virtual tutoring for K-12 students in ELA and math at multiple campuses across 2-3 districts throughout the 2024-25 academic year. The organization will provide virtual or hybrid tutoring services either individually or in small groups, with students engaging in synchronous, live, and interactive tutorial video sessions aligned with State Standards. Intervene K-12’s model includes targeted support based on assessments and spiraling of objectives to reinforce students’ foundational knowledge and skills while accelerating their ability to achieve grade-level mastery.

Joyful Readers is a non-profit organization committed to helping students gain the literacy skills needed to become successful, confident, and joyful readers! They recruit, train, manage, and coach a racially and generationally diverse cohort of AmeriCorps members who provide daily in-person reading tutoring to students in grades K-3. Joyful Readers AmeriCorps tutors receive a school placement where they serve full-time – 5 days per week and 8 hours per day for a school year. They provide 30 minute reading tutoring to 10-11 pairs of students per day utilizing the Wilson Fundations curriculum, a multi-sensory, structured language program that provides research-based materials and strategies essential to a comprehensive reading, spelling, and handwriting program. This model was piloted in the 2022-23 school year. They will serve  approximately 1,120 students in grades K-3 for the 2023-24 school year.

JUMP Math is a nonprofit curriculum provider that is developing tutoring content aligned with its core curriculum. Through this grant, JUMP Math will conduct a one year pilot with diverse schools in Michigan and rural Louisiana. JUMP Math’s resources will be paired with Pearl’s tutoring platform and data collection tools to equip tutors with JUMP Math’s evidence-based methodology and resources, including a micro-tutor certification that tutors will complete prior to supporting students. They will serve 300 students in grades 1-9, seeking to develop students’ confidence and enthusiasm for math through an improved understanding of the subject. Their aim is to inform the field’s understanding of how alignment between core instructional materials and tutoring materials can drive student outcomes.

KIPP Indy Public Schools is a public charter school system with regional enrollment exceeding 1,500 students. In school year 2023-24, they will grow their existing partnership with College Tutors of Indiana to provide in-person tutoring in English language arts and mathematics to KIPP Indy students in grades 6-8. They will also expand the scope and vision for their partnership by working alongside The Mind Trust and neighboring school entities/systems to leverage resources, learning, staffing, and other elements of scalability.

Littera Education is a tutoring service provider supporting districts with the components necessary for delivering high-impact tutoring programs. For this project, Littera will work closely with their existing curriculum partner, Edmentum, to deliver a tutoring program using Exact Path as the tutoring curriculum. Students receive a minimum of three tutoring sessions per week, with a minimum of 30 minutes per session. Data will inform the session content, and tutors will use curriculum materials to deliver targeted lessons to students, either 1:1 or in a small group of up to three students. They seek to learn if students participating in consistent virtual tutoring focused on an Exact Path Diagnostic skills path experience more accelerated.

The Fund for Public Schools (The Fund) is the nonprofit partner to the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) that facilitates partnerships between the philanthropic community and NYCDOE. The Fund supports the NYCDOE’s high-impact tutoring initiative by bringing together over 116 schools, approximately 35 tutoring providers, one “backbone” technical assistance provider (ExpandED Schools,) and leadership from NYCDOE to test promising high-impact tutoring strategies. During the 2023-24 school year, they will serve 5,400 students by providing intensive, individualized academic support in grades K-2 literacy, middle school math, and 9th grade algebra. They hope to leverage the learnings from this initiative’s evaluation to inform and advance resources and systems to support high-impact tutoring to be a more accessible and effective part of the academic strategy for the largest school system in the nation.

OKO Labs is excited to continue working with Accelerate, building on the success of our first efficacy study in the 2023-2024 school year. OKO, an AI-powered collaborative learning platform, aims to accelerate math learning for elementary and middle school students. Through AI-powered small group collaboration, OKO aims to create a more equitable and engaging learning environment for all students. Our prior research has shown promising results, with students demonstrating significant learning gains, improved attitudes towards math, and increased discourse and collaboration. In the 2024-2025 school year, OKO Labs is conducting a study with learners in both charter and public school systems across Tennessee and Georgia, with learners using OKO in small groups as a Tier I and II intervention, to evaluate the platform’s impact on student engagement and math achievement.

Once is an early-reading program for kindergarten that delivers daily, one-on-one, in-person instruction. Through this grant, they will serve approximately 4,800 kindergarten students. Once staff will remotely train and coach school-based support staff and/or paraprofessionals to follow a scripted curriculum based on the Science of Reading. All instructional sessions are video recorded and instructors receive weekly, live video coaching from the Once team providing tactical suggestions on improving instruction. Once hopes to examine the use of direct instruction in tutoring, the use of existing school staff as tutors, and the role of video-based coaching for tutors. 

OnYourMark Education (OnYourMark) is an early literacy tutoring service providing virtual, individualized, high-dosage instruction focused on foundational early literacy skills. OnYourMark is proposing a decreased dosage model for students to better understand how much time is necessary for a tutoring session to have a marked impact on student literacy achievement. They plan on serving 500 students in grades K-2 through virtual literacy tutoring.

PeerTeach, with the support of Accelerate, is launching a field-advancing, large-scale study of systematic peer tutoring to bring personalized tutoring to every student in the country. In the 2024-2025 school year, PeerTeach will conduct the first-ever large-scale study of a scalable model for same-grade, classroom-based, data-driven peer tutoring in middle school math classrooms. Teachers from both of PeerTeach’s district partners will use PeerTeach in two ways: during their Tier I core instruction and during Tier II intervention classes. During Tier I instruction, teachers will use PeerTeach weekly to reteach key standards among all students, replacing typical review days. During Tier II instruction, teachers will use PeerTeach twice per week during intervention blocks. This combination of tutoring both during core blocks and intervention blocks will make up the primary support that PeerTeach provides to all school partners throughout the year. The learning of each student will be documented through benchmark assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. This study is an important step toward making personalized tutoring accessible to all students.

READ USA is a non-profit organization that recruits, hires, trains, and continually develops teens from mostly under-resourced high schools in Duval County, Florida. The teens are trained to mentor and tutor elementary students using best practices of reading instruction. The READ USA tutoring model targets three populations at one time: elementary students, teen tutors, and certified teachers. Through this grant, READ USA will serve 1,500 students in grades 2-5 and will evaluate the quality of this model by assessing the literacy growth for both students and teen tutors.

Reading Futures provides small-group virtual instruction for struggling readers, including those with indications or characteristics of dyslexia. Reading Futures tutors are certified teachers, combining explicit and systematic foundational skills instruction along with the RAVE-O program. They will serve students across three elementary schools, primarily in grades 2-3. Tutoring participation will target students scoring at or below the 20th percentile using the i-Ready screener. Reading Futures hopes to evaluate the efficacy of its instructional model by demonstrating effectiveness, in a manner that is faithful to the initial research studies. Through this grant, they also hope to incorporate new insights on student behavior and attention into its instructional model.

Reading Partners empowers students in reading and beyond by providing access to individualized literacy tutoring powered by community volunteers. During the 2023-24 school year, Reading Partners will serve 7,000 students in grades K-4 in 187 schools in 12 regions across the country. Reading Partners is investing in the scale and evaluation of Reading Partners Connects, or RPCx, the online version of their widely researched in-person tutoring program.

Saga Education is a non-profit organization that recruits and trains AmeriCorps members, referred to as Fellows, to directly tutor students in collaboration with school partners in cities throughout the country. Through this grant, Saga will provide tutoring services to students in grades 7-10 in New York City schools. Previous studies conducted using Saga’s model have revealed a significant connection between high-impact tutoring and academic achievement. Saga hopes to learn if a lower-cost model of their high-dosage tutoring will achieve similar benefits for students, which has the potential to drastically impact the number of students who may benefit from Saga’s research-backed program.

Southeast Community Foundation is a non-profit organization providing academic tutoring in Los Angeles County. They utilize a “needs-driven” tutoring model targeting students who have fallen behind and need individualized support. Tutoring will occur during the typical school day utilizing college students as the primary tutor base. They will provide tutoring services to 300 students in grades 1-8 in English language arts and mathematics. Participating students will receive four tutoring sessions per week, lasting 30 minutes to one hour, for at least 12 weeks.

Step Up Tutoring is a California-based non-profit organization that drives student success in under-resourced communities by providing free virtual relationship-based tutoring to elementary school students. Step Up recruits, trains, and supports mission-driven tutors from across the state, including through partnerships with over 25 colleges and universities to engage college students as tutors through Federal Work-Study and Californians for All College Corps. Founded in 2020 in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Step Up has served over 2,500 students to date. Our vision is that impactful and cost-effective relationship-based tutoring is accessible to every child in need.

The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University (CEPR), in partnership with the CALDER at the American Institutes for Research and NWEA, will provide a consortium of mid- and large-sized districts–and the field generally–with an understanding of how well their COVID-19 academic recovery strategies like high-impact tutoring are working. This research will help guide recovery efforts and inform how districts and states allocate limited resources when ESSER funding ends. The research team will work with districts who collectively serve over 700,000 enrolled students. Using NWEA MAP interim assessment data, the team will provide districts with information at multiple points during the year so they can make course corrections in their recovery strategies as needed. The team will publish reports of lessons learned from these districts to help guide recovery efforts in the broader field.

The Literacy Lab’s mission is to provide students — in communities experiencing racial and/or economic inequities — with evidence-based, culturally responsive literacy instruction as preparation for academic, professional, and personal success. The organization launched the Leading Men Fellowship, which recruits local young men of color to serve as pre-K literacy tutors. During the 2023-24 school year, the Literacy Lab will place up to 35 Fellows in the Atlanta Metro region to provide high-impact literacy interventions to pre-K students. They aim to further study the impact of this model and add data to support its effectiveness and attract more supporters throughout the region.

Third Space Learning, founded in the United Kingdom, pioneers an online mathematics tutoring model that recruits and trains tutors in Asia. This project will support 1,000 students in grades 4-8. This will provide a valuable data set from which to understand curriculum design and tutor training for high-impact online tutoring, allowing TSL to inform its curriculum development roadmap and publish research findings with the Accelerate community.

Trustees of Boston University will partner with the Boston University Wheelock College of Education to deliver a high-dosage tutoring model using Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI), an evidence-based reading program grounded in the science of reading and aligned with Boston Public School’s core reading program. Each day, paraprofessionals will complete 1-2 ECRI lessons, tailoring lesson pacing to students’ individual needs. During the 2023-24 school year, they aim to serve 500 students in grades 3-6. A research evaluation of the ECRI High-Dosage Tutoring model would allow the Trustees of Boston University to ensure the effectiveness of the tutoring model in a new context and enable them to further adapt the model as needed to better meet the needs of partner school districts.

Tutored by Teachers (TBT), in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Migrant Education Program, will establish a virtual high-dosage tutoring program customized to meet the unique educational needs of migratory students in North Carolina. They will serve nearly 100 migratory students statewide in grades K-12 based on school-provided data. With Accelerate’s support, TBT hopes to better understand effective ways to serve a population often underserved by public education systems.

Values to Action is a non-profit organization implementing evidence-based strategies for reducing disparities in academic success and health. They will utilize Funnix, a computer-based program in which a teaching assistant, parent, or volunteer leads a child through activities directed by the narrator in the program. Values to Action, in conjunction with Oregon Research Institute, will conduct an evaluation of their intervention model through a randomized control trial with 600 kindergarteners struggling to read.