Pearl, the leading tutor intelligence and efficacy platform, today announced it has joined the innovative community-based tutoring program endorsed by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in partnership with the Urban Leagues of Hampton Roads and Greater Richmond and four historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In an effort to address critical learning gaps, the program will employ hundreds of HBCU students as tutors and mentors to middle and high school students throughout their communities. 

As part of the initiative, Pearl will initially support the Urban Leagues of Hampton Roads and Greater Richmond to launch and manage tutoring for nearly 1500 students in Hampton City School District and Petersburg City Public Schools over the next two years with plans to expand the program to Richmond City and other districts in underserved communities. Participating HBCUs include Norfolk State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University. 

“I’m thrilled that Pearl’s all-in-one tutor management and efficacy platform is partnering with our treasured Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This partnership is a testament to the commitment we have made to help high and middle schoolers in their communities get caught up in school,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “Pearl is the perfect example of the kind of collaborative, inventive partnership we want to see across the Commonwealth to support our students.”  

“Faced with enormous learning loss and displacements, we are honored to join these outstanding partners in this first-of-its-kind, governor-endorsed tutoring program to launch and scale measurable tutoring support,” said John Failla, CEO and co-founder of Pearl. “Community-based tutoring is proving to be a sustainable modality to support both social-emotional learning and academic outcomes. We are especially excited about being able to serve the students across our home state of Virginia.” 

In announcing the partnerships, Governor Youngkin described it as a “breakthrough initiative” focused on learning loss recovery by recruiting HBCU college students in “transformational tutoring partnerships.” Gill Bland, President and CEO of the Urban League of Hampton Roads, said the undertaking would “provide academic enrichment options through enhanced opportunities for tutoring and mentorship.” Interim CEO of Urban League of Greater Richmond, Larry Murphy added that the partnership is a “great opportunity to connect resources and services for the most ‘at promise’ students in Virginia.”   

“Virginia 4th graders had the largest decline in math and reading scores as reported on the Nation’s Report Card; we are on the cusp of losing a generation of our children due to historic learning loss,” said Aimee Guilderia, Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia.  “This inspiring partnership will change this trajectory and ensure that our children get back on track for academic and lifelong success.”

Having partnered with multiple state, university and district-led community-tutoring programs, Pearl is developing the nation's most diverse dataset in the tutoring industry. The platform is foundational for managing and scaling hybrid tutoring through evidence-based best practices and collaborates with the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and its National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) to safely gather data to continuously improve program design and measurably accelerate student outcomes.

For more information about Pearl’s tutor management and efficacy platform for states, districts and enterprise tutoring companies to launch, manage and measurably scale hybrid tutoring programs, please visit: www.tutorwithpearl.com