4 ways online tutoring helps our at-risk, low-income district achieve goals

Here are four ways we’re using it to help boost achievement, solidify our students’ academic success, and even offset the new challenges presented during our recent remote learning environment.

• Customized tutoring. For the 2018-19 academic year, our tutoring provider worked with instructional leaders at seven different schools to create customized tutoring models to drive achievement gains in math and ELA. Tutoring was delivered on-site during the school day and after school. The live instruction made it seem as if another live teacher was there to help a student. To get started, BCPSS shared students’ iReady benchmark data for our provider to analyze and identify students that would benefit most from live 1:1 tutoring and create personalized tutoring plans for individual students.

• Improve test results. Our online tutoring platform collaborated with BCPSS’ achievement and  accountability office on a Spring 2019 MCAP/PARCC growth analysis. Math and ELA MCAP/PARCC results were analyzed across seven participating schools. The results revealed a direct correlation between participation in the tutoring and elevated MCAP/PARCC performance. For example, students who engaged in the recommended dosage of 15+ tutoring lessons scored on average 32 scale score points higher than non-participants in Spring 2019. And, those students who engaged in the recommended dosage of 15+ tutoring lessons scored on average 1.04 performance levels higher than non-participants in Spring 2019.

• At-home help. Building on the first year’s success, we expanded our tutoring program across 20+ school sites leveraging best practices and implementation models honed at the early adopter sites. In March 2020, when the pandemic forced us to shift to a remote learning model, our tutoring partner began employing its family and student engagement team to drive participation in at-home tutoring over the coming months.

• Reach as many students as possible. Using FEV Tutor’s services, we enrolled 4,459 students in online tutoring, delivered 10,922 live 1:1 instructional lessons, engaged 1,113 families in remote learning during COVID-19, and accelerated growth on MCAP/PARCC state assessments.

Because it works collaboratively with stakeholders within each school to provide every student with a data-driven, research-based learning plan, our virtual tutoring platform delivers sessions at any time and from anywhere. It truly serves as an extension of teacher time and instruction and is helping us tackle our current challenges while also preparing our students for future success.