2024 CEA Grantees

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. 

Carnegie Learning will leverage the Call to Effective Action grant to explore the synergy between AI software and live tutoring in mathematics. The project aims to deliver Tier II online tutoring, supplemented by MATHia software, to provide targeted assistance to students needing extra help in small groups of 5 students per tutor during the instructional day. The sessions will last for 30 minutes, occurring 3 times a week for 10 weeks, covering content based on the student’s grade level and aligning with the district’s scope and sequence. Carnegie Learning is dedicated to finding cost-effective and sustainable ways to expand access to tutoring for a wider range of students while focusing on acceleration support by providing instruction based on grade-level content and addressing essential prerequisite skills.

Cignition will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the 2024-25 school year, targeting 500 students in grades 4-5 who require Tier II math interventions. The project will provide 56 hours of virtual synchronous tutoring sessions in mathematics using a 1:4 model for 250 students in the treatment group and 250 in the control group, with sessions scheduled three times per week, each lasting 35 minutes, over a span of 32 weeks. The delivery model allows for real-time interaction between tutors and students, facilitating a dynamic learning environment where students can engage directly with their tutors, work with peers, ask questions, and receive immediate feedback. This thoughtfully designed initiative leverages the strengths of virtual synchronous tutoring to provide targeted support to students in need of Tier II interventions, aiming to enhance math proficiency and provide actionable insights to improve Cignition’s methods

CityTutor DC (CTDC) will leverage the Accelerate Call to Effective Action award to support public and charter school teams in implementing high-impact tutoring (HIT) for over 300 students, focusing on program design, observation, feedback, and coaching using high-quality math curriculum. CTDC will study how partners enhance tutoring quality while evaluating tutor skill development and satisfaction, as tutors become integral to school talent pipeline and staffing initiatives. The organization will prioritize schools with an at-risk student population of 50% or above for subsidized tutors and develop tools, professional development, and coaching to improve engagement in education, students’ sense of belonging, and trust in adults. CTDC collaborates with schools to ensure tutoring aligns with student learning needs through professional development and Communities of Practice, where role-alike practitioners exchange best practices and troubleshoot challenges.

Coursemojo is honored to receive an Accelerate Call to Effective Action grant, which will significantly impact their efforts to develop an effective AI-powered, high-dosage tutoring solution aligned with districts’ chosen high-quality instructional materials. In partnership with Chiefs for Change (CFC), Coursemojo will support 500 6th-grade students from 2-4 schools per district in 4-6 districts participating in the Middle Grades Literacy Community of Practice throughout the 2024-2025 school year. Students will access “Mojo,” a high-dosage, curriculum-aligned tutor, via their 1:1 devices and complete ~4 Mojo activities per week for 15 minutes, either 1:1 or in small groups. These activities are designed to support students’ literal comprehension, deeper understanding, writing skills, vocabulary development, and contextual knowledge related to the anchor text or text set.

ExpandED Schools, in partnership with New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), will leverage the Accelerate 2024-2025 Call to Effective Action grant to support the implementation of high-impact tutoring programs focused on K-2 Literacy and 6-8 math in 10 community school districts across at least 80 schools. Participating schools will have access to a vetted provider directory and work with the ExpandED team to develop best-fit launch plans. Schools will select their provider and/or decide to utilize school-based staff as tutors, establish the curriculum (either from a provider or school-based), and determine the program model, which can be a blend of in-person (before, after, or during school, either push-in or pull-out) or virtual (before, after, or during school, either push-in or pull-out). ExpandED Schools encourages schools to implement at least two cycles of tutoring, fall and spring, to maximize the number of students receiving tutoring. The grant will fuel ExpandED’s continuing efforts to pioneer a high-impact tutoring system and a community of practice to share knowledge, overcome implementation barriers, and advocate for long-term sustainability.

Future Forward, known for its 1:1 high-impact tutoring for struggling elementary readers, will leverage the 2024-2025 Call to Effective Action grant to partner with Johns Hopkins University researchers in conducting a randomized control trial (RCT) studying the efficacy of a 2:5 tutor-to-student ratio. The project will test an adaptation to the proven 1:1 Future Forward model, involving a 3-arm RCT comparing the impact for students who do not receive Future Forward services in the fall semester, students who receive traditional 1:1 tutoring, and students who are served in small groups of 3-5 with 2 tutors per group. This grant supports Future Forward’s early literacy tutoring efforts and enables them to contribute to educational innovation, working with Accelerate to advance the field of tutoring.

Hamilton County Schools is partnering with Accelerate to continue their Impact Fellowship, which trains high school juniors and seniors to tutor elementary students in foundational literacy skills. The Fellowship aims to increase tutoring in foundational literacy skills for elementary students, expand community knowledge of these skills, and create a pipeline for HCS High School students to become teaching professionals. Impact Fellows tutor at least three times a week at the elementary site, with some schools tutoring every day, in small group settings within a classroom. The tutor-to-student ratio is typically 1:1 or 1:2, with a maximum of 1:3. The high school supervising teacher attends to help facilitate and address any issues, while the elementary RTI Facilitator provides additional coaching and guidance. Beyond tutoring, this initiative has strengthened community bonds in these feeder patterns, provided mentorship for struggling students, and allowed high schoolers to explore teaching as a career.

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.

Literacy Mid-South improves the quality of life in our community through education by providing literacy programs for adults and children as well as a network of collaborative projects with some of the Mid-South’s finest educational organizations.

Magpie Literacy will examine the efficacy of their technology-enabled instructional tool on improving foundational literacy skills among kindergarten students. The study will enroll up to 40 classrooms, with 50% receiving the instructional tool during the 2024-2025 school year. Magpie Literacy anticipates partnering with various organizations, each with their unique implementation model. The partnership will involve collaborating on research study design, securing agreements, building and testing integrated prototypes, preparing for implementation, supporting deployment, and processing data and findings. Magpie Literacy remains committed to effective solutions and values their ongoing partnership with Accelerate, whose support and expertise have been instrumental in their growth and ability to adapt to the evolving education landscape while prioritizing student impact.

Math Corps will leverage Accelerate’s support to expand their reach and serve K-3 students, providing earlier intervention support through high-impact math tutoring. The Call to Effective Action grant will focus on K-3 Math Corps, which operates in Minnesota and at select sites in Mississippi and New York, with expansion planned for the 2024-2025 school year. The funding from Accelerate will support an implementation study of K-3 Math Corps in select districts during the 2024-2025 school year, aiming to build program evidence and prepare for a more robust randomized controlled trial (RCT) to be completed in the 2025-2026 school year. Math Corps is honored to be a Call to Effective Action grantee and excited to support more students with this promising model for individualized instruction.

North Carolina Education Corps (NCEC) will leverage the Call to Effective Action grant to continue their partnership with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) and advance high-impact tutoring strategies. Additionally, NCEC will support instructional assistants or existing tutors in LEAs upon request. With Accelerate’s Promise grant support, WS/FCS will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with NCEC in 2024-2025, involving 15 high-impact early literacy tutors supporting approximately 21 K-5 Tier II students each (315 students in an intervention group total) across 10 Title 1 elementary schools.

Off2Class will partner with Richland 2 (SC) in the Call to Effective Action to highlight their impactful work with secondary multilingual learners, focusing on student equity. The project aims to create a sustainable model for driving English proficiency gains that can be replicated across South Carolina and beyond. Off2Class and Richland 2 will examine the effectiveness of the Off2Class Foundational Literacy curriculum by measuring student gains on WIDA ACCESS Reading (2024 vs. 2025) for a student population that scored WIDA 1.0-1.9 on the 2024 WIDA ACCESS, spread across grades 9-12. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of high-impact tutoring (HIT) on growth in Reading scores for multilingual learners.

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.

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.

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is honored to receive the Call to Effective Action grant, which will allow the PLUS team to expand their research-backed AI-driven tutoring program to underserved students and create free AI-powered training materials for all tutors. The PLUS program combines math practice software, highly skilled human tutors, and an innovative tutoring management dashboard to optimize the dosage and type of tutoring each student receives during the school day. They have a pool of over 300 tutors who will serve these students remotely during the school day, usually during math class. CMU hires site supervisors to provide in-person support, while their core partnerships and product team work on supporting the tutors and managing partnerships with schools. They will continue these efforts while building more AI-powered tools to improve the efficiency of their tutors at scale, driving closer to their goal of doubling math learning for all middle school students who work with them. Additionally, CMU aims to lay the groundwork for randomized control trials and outcomes-based cost-sharing with schools over the next school year to enable long-term sustainability of their tutoring program.

Teachley Math is a K-5 Tier II math program that offers a coherent set of intervention lessons spanning operations, problem solving, and fractions standards delivered to small groups of students. With the support of the Call to Effective Action grant, Teachley will partner with Amber Charter School Network in New York City to provide targeted, high-impact math tutoring for third and fourth grade students during the 2024-25 school year. Teachley is honored to receive this grant and appreciates Accelerate’s recognition and commitment to validating effective tutoring for young learners, as learning sciences research is integral to their programs.

The Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a two-time Accelerate grantee, will partner with Knox County Schools to integrate instructionally coherent high-dosage tutoring (HDT) models into their overall strategy for early grades literacy intervention. The project will leverage a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of HDT on students typically identified as Tier II or Tier III based on their performance on aimswebPLUS. The study will address the variance between these settings and answer questions about the impact of HDT on student outcomes. Four schools will be selected for support and analysis, representing at least 500 students. SCORE believes in the power of HDT to support student learning and is honored to use the Accelerate funds to support Knox County Schools’ efforts to integrate HDT into their intervention strategy, taking advantage of the district’s longstanding practices in assigning students to HDT, Tier II, or Tier III interventions based on their aimswebPLUS performance.