A Focus on High-Dosage Tutoring For This Upcoming School Year
A Focus on High-Dosage Tutoring For The Upcoming School Year
Educators continue to find themselves facing the ramifications of pandemic-related disrupted learning and learning loss as we head into a new school year. As a result, school districts have quickly made high-dosage tutoring a primary focus to support academically struggling students. Education researchers across the country agree that tutoring programs for students who lost ground during the pandemic should be a top priority for use of ESSER federal funds.
There seems to be a general consensus about the importance of tutoring in our current environment, but according to a recent EdWeek survey of K–12 officials, educators say that while 35% of students need tutoring, only 10% are actually receiving it. We foresee districts continuing to make a bigger push to get all of these students into the tutoring programs they need to succeed.
What is High-Dosage Tutoring?
High-dosage tutoring is defined as one-on-one tutoring or tutoring in very small groups (three to four students, at most) at least three times a week. This should come out to about 50 hours during the course of a semester. A review of nearly 200 studies found that high-dosage tutoring is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated large positive effects on both math and reading achievement. The evidence is the strongest for reading-focused tutoring for students in early grades (primarily K–2) and for math-focused tutoring for older students.
What Are Some Things To Keep in Mind When Rolling Out High-Dosage Tutoring?
As mentioned before, keep the tutoring one-on-one or in small groups of three to four students. This allows teachers or tutors to gain a greater understanding of a student's specific needs so they can customize an intervention plan accordingly. Ensuring each student’s tutor is consistent is key to allowing students to build trust and gain confidence in the learning process. Consistency is key.
In addition, it’s important to arm tutors with easy-to-use and easy-to-implement solutions that can give struggling students everything they need in just 30 minutes per day. A tool like Acadience® should be in place to support data-driven instructional decisions and improve student outcomes.
How Can Voyager Sopris Learning® Help?
As an educator or district leader, you are under an immense amount of pressure to help your students get back on track following the pandemic. As you begin to consider tutoring solutions, we’re here to help you understand how products fit within the allowable uses for ESSER funding, and we can work together to find the best reading, writing, and math intervention solutions to fit your students’ needs.