A Scalable Approach to High-Impact Tutoring for Young Readers: Chapter One Results

• In Event: Equalizing Learning Opportunities Through High-Impact Tutoring: Results From Four Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Background

Despite multiple interventions taken by schools nationwide, many young students are not developing the reading skills they need to thrive. Proficiency in reading is a predictor of broader school success, and children who finish elementary school with weak literacy skills are at high risk for worse academic outcomes later on (e.g., delinquency and dropping out of high school). Students in low-income areas are especially likely to struggle in early reading, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these literacy disparities.
Research focusing on academic success in elementary through postsecondary has consistently found that tutoring can be a uniquely effective tool for improving academic achievement of lower-performing students. In particular, tutoring delivered three or more times a week by consistent, trained tutors using quality materials and data to inform instruction is one of the most effective academic interventions, providing an average of more than four months of additional learning in elementary literacy, and almost 10 months in high school math.

Data and Methods
In this study, we evaluate the effects of a form of tutoring that incorporates many of the characteristics of programs that have been found to be effective – a consistent tutor, high quality materials and instruction delivered over an extended time period – but has shorter than typical durations for each session (approximately five to seven minutes) and adjusts the number of sessions per week depending on students’ needs. This program, called TutorMate, focuses on reading development for kindergarten children. We ran the study during the 2021-2022 academic year in schools serving primarily students from low-income families in Broward County Public Schools (BCPS). TutorMate is guided by Lev Vygotsky’s Theory of the Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky’s theory rests on the belief that learning should be matched in some manner with the child’s developmental level. Thus, the TutorMate program identifies a child’s reading stage (1 through 5) and conducts one-on-one sessions to provide the targeted assistance (scaffolding) that the child needs to advance as a reader. The TutorMate program works with struggling readers to develop mastery of letter names, sounds, and phonics. TutorMate aims for all kindergarten children to reach the reading readiness stage of development (i.e., TutorMate’s stage 4) by the end of their kindergarten year.

Preliminary Results and Implications

The study design is a randomized control trial that compares the reading proficiency of BCPS students that received TutorMate support to students that did not receive this support. The effectiveness study involves 800 kindergarten students enrolled in 50 kindergarten classrooms identified by the district who agreed to participate. Within each classroom, we randomly assigned 400 students to the treatment group and 400 students to the control group. We found strong positive effects of TutorMate on the students’ reading development. As one example, the kindergarten students who received TutorMate were more likely to reach stage 4 or above by 35.8 percentage points relative to the control students who did not receive TutorMate. TutorMate provides a potentially scalable approach to dramatically improving early reading.

Authors

• Kalena Cortes, Texas A&M University

• Carly D. Robinson, Stanford University

• Susanna Loeb, Stanford University