Provider: Air Reading
Program Description
Ignite Reading provides one-on-one virtual tutoring in foundational reading skills. Students meet daily with a consistent tutor for 15-minute live sessions that follow a sequenced, science-of-reading plan covering phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and fluency. A literacy specialist assigned to each school coordinates the tutoring and shares progress data with teachers.
Findings
- Promising positive effect: In four districts, tutored first graders made larger reading gains on DIBELS than matched non-tutored peers (+0.21 SD), about 0.9 additional months of learning and an 8-percentile-point gain.
- Attendance was high: 83% of students attended more than 85% of their scheduled sessions. Across all 13 districts, students with high attendance gained an average of 6.52 more points on the DIBELS composite than students with low attendance, a significant difference.
- In the matched comparison, effects did not differ significantly across subgroups.
- No per-student cost analysis was reported; the One8 Foundation funded tutoring seats at no cost to districts. Comparison students in the same districts received their schools’ usual reading instruction and support.
- The study was quasi-experimental, so unmeasured differences between groups may remain, and only 60% of eligible students could be matched. Results may not carry over to settings without the grant’s extensive implementation support.
| Research Partner | CRRE (Johns Hopkins University) |
| Study Year | 2023-24 |
| Study Location | 13 districts in Massachusetts, across 46 schools (matched comparison in 4 districts) |
| Modality | Virtual Synchronous |
| Study Design | QED (Quasi-Experimental Design) |
| Total Sample | 1,036 in the matched comparison: 518 tutored, 518 comparison |
| Characteristics of Treatment Group | Black: 15% Hispanic: 43% White: 35% Other: 7% English Language Learner: 45% Students with Disabilities (IEP): 12% Economically Disadvantaged: Not reported |
| Subject | Reading/ELA |
| Grades | 1 |
| Average Actual Dosage | Not reported in sessions or hours; 1,545 of 1,872 students attended more than 85% of their scheduled daily 15-minute sessions |
| Scheduled Dosage | 15-minute sessions, 5 days per week, October through the end of the school year |
