Accelerate’s new State Field Guide offers a blueprint for state leaders seeking to champion high-dosage tutoring in their state
Nashville, Tenn., (March 26, 2024)—Accelerate today released a State Field Guide, a comprehensive resource that contains new model regulations that state education agencies can adopt to establish effective statewide high-dosage tutoring programs. The field guide also brings together best practices from Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, and Ohio — Accelerate’s five States Leading Recovery grantees — and provides education agencies with a step-by-step workbook for designing and implementing plans to support personalized learning.
“A huge swath of American schoolchildren are a half year to a year behind their pre-pandemic trajectory,” said Kevin Huffman, CEO of Accelerate. “Income-based gaps are big and growing. It is the central issue in education of this generation. State leaders are the ones who set priorities and incentives for school districts, and they have a responsibility to ensure that schools are implementing interventions that are proven to work. With this field guide and model regulations, we’re taking some of the guesswork out of actually creating a statewide tutoring program.”
The release of the State Field Guide comes just after President Biden reaffirmed in his State of the Union a commitment to “expand high-quality tutoring and summer learning time and see to it that every child learns to read by third grade.”
Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of high-dosage tutoring, many school districts continue to face barriers including scheduling challenges, curriculum alignment, and staffing shortages that limit their ability to deliver effective tutoring to the students who can benefit most. State leaders are well-positioned to address these barriers by developing programs, policies, and guidance to support the effective implementation of high-dosage tutoring programs. Model regulations contained in the Accelerate State Field Guide provide a blueprint for states to procure funding, define duties, establish vetted tutoring vendor lists, and set up accountability and reporting structures.
The field guide highlights the following recommendations for state agencies and provides a planning tool to achieve them:
- Develop the regulatory structures necessary for high-dosage tutoring to thrive at scale for students in need.
- Ensure high-fidelity implementation (e.g., hitting the target dosage, leveraging strategies for student engagement) through effective guidance, data reporting and accountability requirements.
- Study the design, implementation, and impact of tutoring programs and providers that deliver direct services to their K-12 students through rigorous research and evaluation.
- Partner with LEAs, local philanthropic organizations, colleges, universities, and other state organizations to target student groups and recruit tutors to train in the state.
- Encourage local education agencies to procure outcomes-based contracts with tutoring providers to ensure state funds are directly tied to student outcomes.
- Publish an approved list of high-dosage tutoring providers or procure tutoring services for the state with a single or select few tutoring providers to ensure tutoring services in the state are high-quality and evidence-based solutions.
“Tutoring isn’t a new concept, but Louisiana is committed to being the first state to offer high-quality tutoring to every child who needs extra support,” said Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “This is a heavy lift, but we’ve discovered tried-and-true methods that bring together tutoring providers, stakeholders, and school systems to move us closer to our goal. As state leaders, there are a number of levers we can pull to scale these efforts and accelerate student achievement.”
Accelerate’s field guide draws on lessons learned from five states — Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, and Ohio — that were selected in 2023 to receive a highly competitive $1 million grant from Accelerate’s States Leading Recovery program. Each state matched the $1 million grant from Accelerate with local funds and received strategic support to establish statewide tutoring initiatives. Since then, all five states have integrated high-impact tutoring into public schools for the 2023-2024 school year and beyond. Today, approximately 40,000 students are receiving tutoring services through the States Leading Recovery Grant Program.
For more information on Accelerate’s State Tutoring Field Guide, visit https://accelerate.us/state-field-guide.
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