Michelle Korbakes serves as the ACCELerate NM Project Manager at the New Mexico Public Education Department. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and an Administrative Certificate from New Mexico State University, along with a Master of Science in Reading Instruction from Walden University.

With 24 years of experience in education, Michelle has taught both elementary and middle school students and has been a leader in driving instructional change as a literacy coach and elementary principal. Her expertise extends to coordinating the development and execution of district strategic plans, directing human resources and learning services, and managing statewide Communities of Practice focused on accelerated learning. Notably, she has also successfully implemented a High-Impact Tutoring program.

In higher education, Michelle has taught courses in the Teacher Education Program at New Mexico State University – Alamogordo.

As a lifelong learner and innovative thinker, Michelle embraces change and challenges, continually seeking new ways to enhance educational outcomes.

Dr. Michelle Wallace is the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education where she leads the state’s efforts to support 131 school divisions in English, Humanities, Math, Science, and Health, Physical and Driver Education programming. Over the last 25 years in education, she has been a high school science teacher; division leader in PK-12 instruction, federal grant implementation, professional learning, teacher mentoring programs, and technology; and state leader in school quality improvement and K-12 instruction. She is a systems thinker and has led many projects division- and state-wide that coordinate across offices and programs to produce positive instructional supports which have led to better student outcomes. She has a passion for growing others’ leadership skills to drive innovation and success. She keeps students and teachers at the foundation of the work to remain committed to excellence for quality educational experiences.

New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) will  recruit a cadre of tutors, including high school seniors and college students, to deliver high-impact tutoring across the New Orleans area. Working with the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans (ERA-NOLA), NSNO will learn more about the effectiveness of the student-to-student tutoring model and whether early exposure to working with students influences tutors’ decisions to pursue teaching as a career. NSNO will partner with local universities, including Tulane University, Dillard University, and the University of New Orleans, to recruit tutors who will serve students in some of New Orleans’ largest charter management organizations. NSNO’s tutoring program will focus on students in grades 3-4 and 6-7 who scored below proficient on the 2022 state assessment. This project will deliver valuable findings about the efficacy of recruiting high school and college students as tutors, and also has the potential to cultivate more prospective teachers in the New Orleans’ teacher pipeline.

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.

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.

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.

A grant to DC's OSSE in support of 12,000 students will advance tutoring policy by embedding high-dosage tutoring (HDT) into federally mandated Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) plans and the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework, creating a replicable model for integrating tutoring as a Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention. Additionally, DC’s innovative milestone-based funding and robust data systems provide a scalable, evidence-driven approach to incentivize results, evaluate impact, and guide other states in sustaining equitable, effective tutoring programs.

Ohio will offer reading tutoring to students in grades K-3, reinforcing the state’s commitment to early reading. The tutoring program will prioritize districts that are identified as having low on-track reading scores for early learners and Reading Achievement Plans. The Ohio Department of Education & Workforce will support participating districts in selecting and contracting with a tutoring provider, based on the state’s approved vendor list.

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.

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.

Paloma is a mobile app that accelerates K-2 learning by enabling parents to provide 15 daily minutes of curriculum-aligned instruction at home. Last year — in districts like HISD, LAUSD, & Metro Nashville —76% of K-2 families tutored their kids using Paloma, boosting reading growth by 41% and math by 39%.

Pearl’s tutor intelligence platform provides technical scaffolding to manage tutor operations at any scale while consistently collecting data across both in-person and online instruction. Within this platform, Pearl can also build tools to integrate data across tutoring platforms and traditional data sources like School Information Systems (SIS). Pearl aims to increase the speed at which all partners can roll out high-impact tutoring while removing the burden of data collection from disparate sources. By streamlining data collection and management, Pearl empowers its partners to identify gaps and improve program design in real time. Pearl will serve students in more than 100 schools, partnering with districts participating in the ESSER-funded Illinois Tutoring Initiative and with schools using the OnYourMark tutoring program.

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.