Creating Coherence: Do Instructionally Aligned Materials Affect the Impact of Tutoring?

• In Event: The Impact of High-Dosage Tutoring on Student Achievement Outcomes? Evidence from Four Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Early literacy is instrumental to students’ success, both in terms of academic outcomes and longer-term economic outcomes (Gaab & Petscher, 2022), yet two-thirds of fourth grade students score below proficient in reading on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP, 2022). Research suggests that high-dosage tutoring is the most effective intervention to help struggling readers (Allensworth & Schwartz, 2020). However, districts have struggled to implement high-dosage tutoring with fidelity (Carbonari et al., 2024b). 

This study uses a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in a large suburban school district in the southeastern United States and seeks to determine if students in tutoring groups using the instructionally aligned materials outperform students in small group tutoring without instructionally aligned materials. “Instructionally aligned” tutoring materials include foundational literacy skills, texts, and tasks that align to core instruction. We answer the following research questions: 

1. 
   

   To what extent do tutoring groups vary in dosage and tutor qualifications? 

   
   


2. 
   

   For K-3 students who start the year performing below the 40th percentile using aimswebPlus, what is the effect of participating in instructionally aligned high-dosage tutoring in literacy compared to business as usual?

   
   


3. 
   

   How do the effects of instructionally aligned high-dosage tutoring on academic achievement differ by students’ prior achievement levels?

   
   


4. 
   

   Do the effects of instructionally aligned high-dosage tutoring vary by tutor type?

   
   

The school district partner provided student-level test scores and demographic data for the analytic sample, which consists of 328 students in kindergarten through third grade who were eligible for tutoring based on the district's literacy screener. The district also provided data on tutoring dosage (number of sessions per week, number of minutes per session, and the ratio of students to each tutor) as well as data on tutor type (certified teacher or other). 

To date, we find that students assigned to receive instructionally aligned materials during tutoring have improved (effect size = +0.10 standard deviations, p<0.05) in Oral Reading Fluency from the beginning to the middle of the year, relative to those working with other materials. Accounting for differences in tutor type does not change the results, but the pattern suggests instructionally aligned materials may be most important for students who begin the year with lowest achievement. 

Author

• Cara Jackson, The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting at SEF
  Presenting Author