Despite district and school leaders’ significant efforts to address accumulated learning loss from the pandemic, student achievement has yet to recover. In a report from January, researchers from The Education Recovery Scorecard Project found that nationally, by June 2023, only one-third of the loss in mathematics and one-quarter of the loss in reading achievement had been restored to pre-pandemic levels. As districts continue to grapple with lagging achievement, learning gaps, and chronic absences, many have turned to adaptive software and supplemental programming to mitigate these trends.

The reality, however, is that too many students are missing critical foundational skills requiring interventions, or more personalized and intensive support, such as high-impact tutoring. While districts have resources to support some students in this way, many districts report significant barriers to providing high-impact tutoring at-scale.

High Impact Tutoring: Personalized Support to Meet Each Student’s Needs

Decades of research have shown that high-impact tutoring is the most effective support to transform outcomes for struggling students. High-impact tutoring offers students access to a trained adult who has content knowledge, pedagogical training, and provides one-on-one or small group sessions. Over time, the tutor develops a relationship with the student, builds their confidence, and adapts the learning dynamic to the student’s needs in real-time. The best tutoring pairs consistent intervention with point-in-time assessments that monitor progress and inform instruction to catalyze growth.

School and district leaders are often under the impression that there are limited financial resources to bring such individualized support to students. Fortunately, there is an array of funding resources at the district and school level to create and sustain high-impact tutoring programs for the students who need the support the most.

1. Use Remaining ESSER Funds to Provide Effective Support

ESSER III, the last of the COVID-19 mitigation programs, will close out in four months and the remaining funds must be obligated by September 30, 2024. District personnel can search this resource from Georgetown University to find their current ESSER expenditures. The federal government and most state governments are encouraging local districts to use their remaining dollars to fund services like tutoring. We talk to many school administrators who are understandably apprehensive about providing a service that cannot be consistently funded after ESSER expires. A better way to view this, however, is an unprecedented opportunity to gather data on the efficacy of high-impact tutoring that can be used to argue for a line item in subsequent budgets.

2. Access Categorical and Recurring Block Grants to Sustain These Efforts

Schools and districts can move from short-term funding to sustainable funding for high-impact tutoring by utilizing federally funded, state education agency-administered block grants.

Title I: Title I provides funds for students in disadvantaged communities, and Part A specifically directs funding to programs that will impact the academic achievement of students in eligible schools. Studies repeatedly find that low-income and low-performing students are the least likely to participate in voluntary academic support programs, making in-school tutoring services a critical component for Title I funding.

Title III: Title III funding supports services that impact students learning English and immigrant students. These funds are not just to support learning English; rather they are to support the overall academic achievement, in all subjects, of students learning English. Procuring tutoring services for students is an allowable expense and has been shown to be an effective way to boost both language acquisition and subject matter achievement.

Title IV: Tutoring meets both the intent and the regulatory requirements for Title IV funding. Programs that support academic achievement for identifiable groups, such as low-achieving students, can be funded with Title IV, Part A. Additionally, Part B provides funding that can be used for tutoring before or after school, on weekends, or in summer programming, enabling students to receive support outside of school hours.

3. Tap into State, Municipal, Local, and Philanthropic Funding

As many schools and districts have already realized significant benefits of high-impact tutoring, state legislative bodies and organizations that support educational best practices have taken note. States such as Michigan, Texas, Florida and Colorado have created tutoring-specific grants to maintain and expand these critical services after ESSER funds expire. Many philanthropic organizations have also introduced tutoring-specific grants. Online directories such as the Foundation Center provide comprehensive lists of available sources of financial support.

Finally, schools can blend or braid together funding. Matching grants, laddering restrictive funds with general-use funds, can be drawn from Title grants, local operating funds, or local city or other philanthropic funds. Finding intersections between academic success, learning outcomes, and other community priorities can be an effective way to source new funding options.

High-Impact Tutoring Can Make an Immediate and Long-Term Difference

Administrators face profound challenges. Teacher shortages and budgetary constraints add a layer of complexity to schools and districts’ efforts to drive student growth and development, especially at scale. This means schools must make well-informed, strategic choices about how to spend available funds.

High-impact tutoring has been proven to close critical learning gaps, and foster student confidence and enthusiasm in learning that extends well into the future. In-person tutoring support adds much-needed capacity to a classroom teacher’s ability to adapt and personalize learning for struggling students appropriately. Being intentional, collaborative, and planning forward can deliver a tutoring program that will help students reach proficiency and find long-term academic success.

To learn more about how your district can benefit from high-impact tutoring, contact us at www.heytutor.com