Although high-impact tutoring has proven essential for helping students make up for lost time, ESSER funding is expected to end in September 2024, with a possible extension to 2026. With federal funding only covering 10% of education costs, districts must identify new ways to invest in learning recovery efforts and effective practices like tutoring.

In the latest white paper, Accelerate Learning Now, Saga proposes several alternative strategies to help students catch up on their learning. Learn to identify additional funding resources, prospective partners, and other tactics to help your students.

What is High Impact Tutoring?

High-impact tutoring involves small group sessions with a 3:1 student-to-tutor ratio, working with the same tutor for 30-60 minutes, three times a week, for 10 to 36 weeks. Tutors are well-trained and supported, using a tutoring curriculum that supports a teacher’s curriculum.

About Saga

Saga Education is a national leader in high-impact, in-school tutoring that leverages both the power of human capital and technology to accelerate student outcomes and create more equitable learning for students.

The post Schools Need New Plans to Help Students Catch Up When ESSER Funding Ends appeared first on Saga Education.

In mid-February, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, endorsed in-school-day high-impact tutoring. Here’s the heart of what they said:  “The research is clear: high-impact tutoring improves student learning. Over the past few years, finding a consensus around the most effective strategies and interventions to address post-COVID learning recovery has largely been elusive. However, there is widespread agreement that high-impact, or high-dosage, tutoring holds tremendous promise. Where it has been properly implemented, high-impact tutoring produces large learning gains for many students, particularly those who have fallen behind academically.

That’s the conclusion of an increasing number of researchers, school leaders, and classroom teachers who have seen the practice in action. High-impact tutoring has been shown to be 20 times more effective than standard tutoring models for math and 15 times more effective for reading. Studies demonstrate that the practice increases students’ learning by an additional three to 15 months across grade levels. High-impact tutoring has not been enacted in many districts, but it should be.

As one of the two co-designers who pioneered in-school-day tutoring in a US public school (Mike Goldstein and I, at Match Charter High School in 2004), and subsequently, as co-founder of the nation’s trusted nonprofit partner for helping states and districts get tutoring right (Saga Education), I was thrilled to read this important announcement. Here’s why.

Replicating the Success of High-Dosage Tutoring

Tutoring in public schools began in 2004 at a little school in Boston. There, our students, who came to our high school in an open admission lottery, were, on average, three years behind grade level when they enrolled as high school freshmen. That startled me. Prior to Match, I had served with the MA Department of Education for nine years, including a period as Deputy Commissioner, and the fact that the average ninth grader comes to public high school in Massachusetts cities three years behind grade level was never discussed or even noticed. And yet, it was the reality on the ground, not only at this little charter school near Boston University but across the nation’s cities.

When kids come to 9th grade three years behind, how does a teacher, no matter how knowledgeable of their content, industrious, committed, and determined, catch kids up in a class where the heterogeneity of kids could be as wide as 6 to 8 years? Especially for rookie teachers and even those in their second year (together, they comprise 50% of urban teachers), differentiating instruction to meet the kids where they are is a hypothetical impossibility. And therefore, kids get triaged. The stumbling block–the chokepoint toward high school graduation–is Algebra 1. Many students fail high school Algebra 1 because they haven’t mastered the prerequisite skills that should be gained in middle school–ratios, fractions, proportions, and decimals. Kids who fail Algebra 1 graduate at a rate one-fourth as high as those who pass it because many drop out for academic failure, and Algebra 1 is the most failed course in HS. So we face a structural, chronic crisis that falls mercilessly on the backs of kids who come from families experiencing poverty, which in this country means, for the large part, kids who are Black and brown.

So we took this idea of high-dosage tutoring out of the little Match School in Boston and tried it in Houston, TX. And it worked there. And we took it to Lawrence, MA, a district under state receivership–and it worked there. Then, Stamford, CT; Chicago, IL; New York City, D.C.; Broward County, FL; Charleston, SC; Providence, RI–and it works when done correctly.

Then COVID arrived. With kids’ rate of learning stymied, policymakers, researchers, and philanthropists all said to look at the evidence about tutoring.

Leveraging High-Impact Tutoring as a Tool for Educational Innovation

And if they’d asked, they would have found teachers who agreed. Teachers like those in Lawrence, MA, who initially were afraid of tutors coming to their schools (“They’re coming to take your jobs!” some declared). Instead, teachers would give their struggling students notes to work with their tutor on this standard. Teachers would come into the tutoring room and watch their kids behave differently from the way they behave in a class of 25 or 30. In a tutorial of 2 or 3, kids show what they know and are not afraid to show what they don’t know, unlike a classroom where many would disengage or deflect or hide from peer scrutiny. In tutorials, tutors can work on what the students need in real-time, personalized to where they are.

I’ve recently visited teachers in Orlando, FL, and Odessa, TX, who have their tutors in their classrooms. The teacher oversees the tutoring, gives tutors their own small groups, and keeps some groups for themselves. There’s a partnership. Teachers now say they can’t do without the tutors.

So–when the teachers union endorses this idea, the possibility that this can last just gained a major boost. Interestingly, plenty of others, including conservative groups that are typically skeptical of public education’s chances, say they like tutoring too because the evidence is clear that there’s a strong return on investment.

Investment in expanding tutoring is a must. Multiple federal funding streams, including Title 1, AmeriCorps, and federal work-study funds that could pay the wages of college undergrads to serve as tutors, can and should be used (and, in some places, are being used) to support tutoring. With the support of teachers, this intervention has traction. It could be a lever not only to support kids but to support their hardworking teachers…and to redesign how we educate kids in this country for generations to come.

Alan Safran, Co-Founder, CEO, and Chair of the Board of Saga, has a 30-year public education career specializing in high-impact tutoring programs. He holds a law degree from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton. Alan splits his time between Boston and Washington, DC, with his wife, three adult children, and a black labrador named Colbie.

LEARN HOW SAGA CAN HELP YOUR STUDENTS SUCCEED!

The post The NEA Endorses High-Impact Tutoring in Schools, Hope for Student Success appeared first on Saga Education.

Tutoring is a proven method to help P–12 students improve their learning. Still, it has typically been limited to those who can afford it. Previous attempts to expand tutoring nationwide have failed, partly because they relied on volunteers and placed the burden on parents to find tutors for their children. The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) has shown a decline in math and reading scores, with the most significant decline in math occurring in 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the academic progress of P–12 students, especially those from high-poverty communities.

In a recent white paper, Saga Education explores the potential of using Federal Work-Study (FWS) as a funding source to place college students in support roles for P–12 students, such as tutoring, coaching, and mentoring. Research has demonstrated that high-intensity, personalized tutoring provided during the school day can lead to significant learning gains. To expand tutoring beyond 2024, we can utilize programs like the FWS program.

The FWS program has provided financial aid and work experience to college students from lower-income backgrounds for nearly 60 years. It was established in 1964 to promote part-time employment opportunities for low-income college students. It has undergone updates and reauthorizations over the years. In 2000, Congress mandated that 7 percent of FWS funds be allocated to community service activities. 

In May 2023, the Department of Education urged colleges and universities to publicly commit to using a minimum of 15 percent of their FWS funds in the next two years to pay college students who work in community service. So far, 49 colleges and universities have agreed to use a minimum of 15 percent of their FWS funds for beneficial tutoring collaborations with P–12 public schools. 

Several higher education institutions (HEIs) and organizations are highlighted in this white paper for their use of FWS to expand high-impact tutoring (HIT) programs:

• George Washington University
• Grand Valley State University
• Step Up Tutoring
• Salisbury University
• Spelman College
• Teach for America – Ignite Fellowship

The post Leveraging the Federal Work-Study Program to Fund High-Impact Tutoring in P-12 Schools appeared first on Saga Education.

Teachers across the US hold a critical responsibility for ensuring the development of each of their students. However, widespread teacher burnout impacts their ability to succeed in the classroom. Without meaningful support, many educators are leaving the teaching field.

Mounting responsibilities coupled with decreasing resources )which impact available supports) compound the issues. Teachers cannot keep up with demands without the resources they need to help their students succeed and overcome learning loss. Following the pandemic school closures, teachers need more support than ever to help their students overcome academic and, sadly, significant mental health challenges.  The lack of support in the classroom and from district leaders, parents, and communities has devastated morale. Too many teachers feel they just don’t have the capacity to provide the significant support students need, particularly students from low-income communities.

High-Impact Tutoring Accelerates Learning By Supporting Teachers

High-Impact tutoring, facilitated during class time by trained tutors, can help teachers manage individual learners’ needs–whether it be for remediation or acceleration. Evidence has shown that if highly trained tutors are deployed at the most important educational transition points (3rd-grade reading and 9th-grade math), students, teachers, and schools are more likely to reach student accountability goals. Everyone wins.

Another positive aspect of high-impact tutoring is when offered in a live-online format, tutoring sessions occur on devices in real time, eliminating the need for additional people in the building or classroom.

1 – High-impact tutoring is a supportive resource for students, teachers, families, and districts

A consistent deficit in today’s educational system is the lack of supportive resources. From classroom supplies to human capital, schools are underprepared and undersupported. In the end, students are the ones who pay the price, especially in historically underfunded districts. 

Without workplace support, educators struggle to teach in the best of circumstances. In a post-pandemic world where learning loss is rampant, and support is scarce, teachers cannot mitigate prior learning deficits, teach grade-level material, and meet their students’ social-emotional and behavioral needs. They are often managing disruptive and inattentive students and handling situations that are outside their scope of work. Teacher burnout is unsurprising when considering the sheer amount of stress they are under day-to-day.

Students need to be engaged with smaller group formats and relevant lessons. If a student with a substantial learning gap or lack of understanding of the materials doesn’t get the 1:1 support and attention they need, they cannot properly engage or focus, much less learn new material. This can exacerbate focus and attention issues and detract from the whole group instruction, frustrating teachers and students.

High-Impact tutoring provides each student with a tutor who cares about their success as much as their classroom teacher does and is committed to helping them learn the materials and get caught up to grade level. This aids successful instruction and identifies individual needs while providing kids with a caring, consistent adult, apart from the classroom teacher, who can make sure they don’t fall through the cracks.

2- In-school tutoring allows for differentiation without using critical teacher time and resources

While teachers are excellent in their roles, they cannot be expected to play the role of teacher and deliver high-impact tutoring simultaneously. They are different roles with different responsibilities. While some have suggested that educators should implement high-impact tutoring during their lessons, it is impractical to saddle teachers with more tasks and less support.

Individualized support for each student is complex, especially for students struggling in critical areas such as math and literacy. Studies have shown that students who fail Algebra I in 9th grade are at significantly higher risk of not completing high school. Similarly, students who struggle with early literacy have worse outcomes throughout their educational careers.

These findings show the importance of making sure every student is up to grade level competence in math and literacy and how it can impact their educational path if not. They also show us that teacher performance is tied to prior experiences out of their control, and the responsibility to remediate learning cannot rest with just one educator.

Students learn differently and have varying needs coming into the classroom. Many may be ESL students or have an IEP in place. Some may be experiencing housing insecurity or moving frequently. Others may be working outside of school hours and struggling to get work done or find help with their schoolwork. Many factors require a 1:1 approach to ensure learning happens, no matter what obstacles or deficits their past educational experiences or current life circumstances have dictated.

Implementing high-impact tutoring allows for closer relationships between students and tutors, students and teachers, and among groups of students. Having a system of support and 1:1 learning opportunities can help improve learning without placing all the responsibility on one person or contributing to teacher burnout.

3 – High-impact tutoring can boost test scores and, therefore, reduce pressure on teachers.

Many states and school districts are heavily impacted by mandatory testing scores and performance reviews. This situation can be difficult for teachers, who must prepare students to pass tests. With large class sizes and students with significant learning loss and gaps in knowledge, the task is stressful and demoralizing for educators. Many teachers are doing the best they can with what they have, but operating in a broken system with inadequate resources puts them at a disadvantage.

Teachers want their students to do well on tests, but preparing students to meet grade-level standards without a solid understanding of foundational concepts is difficult to impossible. As usual, this impacts students the most, but teachers struggle with the pressure to make up for flaws that are outside of their control.

High-impact Tutoring by Saga Education is unique in that it is one of the few interventions that has been proven to help students overcome learning loss and accelerate learning so they can get back on track. This sets them up for success in the classroom, and it sets teachers up for success with mandatory testing and performance benchmarks. When teachers have the right support in the classroom to help students achieve, everyone wins.

How Can Your District Best Support Educators and Relieve Teacher Burnout?

High-impact tutoring programs offer proven, data-driven, research-backed solutions to learning loss and closing the achievement gaps for students from all backgrounds. It is also one of the few solutions districts can implement in a cost-effective and accessible way. When teachers, trained tutors, and students work together toward achievement goals, anything is possible.  Providing high-impact tutoring in the classroom supports students and teachers working together and can help bring hope back into the conversation. Many educators get into teaching to make a real difference for kids. Allowing teachers to do what they do best, teach, with the support of trained tutors, can help make that happen.

Discover how Saga Education Solutions can close the learning gap at your school or district.

The post Supporting Teacher Burnout: How Tutors are Helping Get Students Back on Track appeared first on Saga Education.

With the learning loss after COVID-19 and mounting staffing shortages, principals must examine how they can promote productive learning, close opportunity gaps, and increase student achievement without overburdening classroom teachers.

Principals Can Promote Productive Learning with High-impact Tutoring

Principals can promote productive learning and increase academic achievement by implementing proven educational solutions. One proven method to dramatically increase learning and achievement is high-impact tutoring. By implementing high-impact tutoring into the school day for all students, principals can help accelerate student learning and increase instructional support for teachers without the need for additional hiring.

How Does High-Impact Tutoring Work in the Classroom?

High-impact tutoring consists of three weekly small-group sessions for 30-50 minutes. These sessions are scheduled into regular classroom time and facilitated by a trained tutor delivering a data-driven curriculum. The students and tutor remain with the same groups for the entire academic year.

Students benefit from the additional classroom support and the consistent relationship with the tutor. In turn, classroom teachers can focus on instruction, individual help, and more during tutoring sessions. This gives teachers some of their classroom time back and helps improve student outcomes, making their large-group instruction more productive and accessible. When teachers have more capacity to do their work, they can more readily meet the goals set by their principals and districts.

High-impact Tutoring Can Address Teacher Shortages & Burnout While Improving Outcomes

The issues facing today’s public schools are complex, and teachers are shouldered with far more than simply teaching the day’s lessons.  A common concern among principals and school leaders is a lack of human capital. In many districts, teachers are overwhelmed by expectations to remediate learning, teach current material, and meet benchmarks for success while understaffed or underfunded.

Successful principals can recognize the signs of a burnt-out staff and address them with meaningful initiatives and interventions. Another way to alleviate the burden on teachers is to create collaborative solutions to improve student outcomes so teachers have support to meet learning goals. 

No one solution can solve every problem US schools face. Often, these solutions must be district or school-wide rather than targeted toward individuals to have widespread success. However, some are proven to address specific problems so well that the benefits extend beyond their direct applications. One of these is high-impact tutoring. The University of Chicago Urban Labs rigorously evaluated Saga Education’s High-impact Tutoring program via large-scale randomized controlled trials. Here’s what they found:

• Students learn up to 2.5 years’ worth of math in one academic year.
• The opportunity gap is closed by nearly 50% in one academic year.
• Math course failures are reduced by as much as 63%.
• Course failures in non-tutored subjects are reduced by as much as 26%.
• Student attendance improves by as much as 18 days per academic year.

This game-changing impact is against a national backdrop of limited success stories of improving academic outcomes. We know that everyone wins when students have the support they need to succeed in the classroom.

High-impact Tutoring Can Close Opportunity Gaps & Establish High Achievement Standards for All Students

Evidence shows a link between school leadership and improved student achievement. While there are likely many reasons as to why, it is important to note that expecting high standards from all students from all backgrounds is a common aspect of successful school leadership. But how can school districts increase student outcomes when opportunity gaps are wide, students are not demonstrating grade-level competencies, and kids come through the doors with significant gaps in learning?

One of the solutions is differentiated instruction and small group work to accelerate learning and address areas of need. However, this is an impossible task for one teacher to tackle alone, and that makes meeting district and state standards more difficult for principals and school leaders. However, when high-impact tutoring is offered during school, all kids have the opportunity to work 1:1 with tutors and reach grade-level competencies and beyond. Students not only catch up, but they achieve more than they often believe they are capable of, and that boost in confidence helps them take more risks and grow as learners.

High-impact Tutoring Uses Data-Driven, Proven Educational Inputs to Increase Academic Success

High-impact tutoring uses data-driven curriculum and methods to accelerate student learning in close relationship with a tutor. While other remediation solutions may address specific issues or individual student success, high-impact tutoring helps students learn more deeply, take risks, engage in class, and even attend school more often. 

Graduation rates are an indicator of school district success, and implementing high-impact tutoring programs helps students perform well in classes that are instrumental in continuing a successful high school career and graduating with their classes. Overall, high-impact tutoring has shown to be a beneficial solution for principals to bring their students up to speed and help them achieve their educational goals.

Did you know that students who pass 9th-grade math are 4x more likely to receive a high school diploma?

Close the learning gap at your school with Saga Education

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High-impact tutoring is a widely-proven method to address learning loss and accelerate learning. Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of high-impact tutoring and its direct benefits to students and school districts. An invaluable component of high-impact tutoring is, unsurprisingly, the tutor. So, what makes a high-impact tutor effective? Here are five traits of successful high-impact tutors and how those traits positively impact students and learning.

5 Traits of a High-impact Tutor

1) They Form Consistent Relationships with Students

High-impact tutors work with small groups of students with a 1:3 tutor-to-student ratio in the classroom or live online through a device. Students work with the same tutor for the entire academic year and usually with the same small group, barring enrollment changes. Working so closely with the same tutor all year, students benefit from the relationship’s progression, building trust with the tutor to help them learn materials.

The consistency of the tutor-to-student relationship benefits both the student and the tutor, as high-impact tutors receive continuous support with ongoing feedback and training. As they become more effective and learn ways to differentiate lessons and provide individualized learning for their students, the students benefit from the tutor’s growth.

In turn, the whole class benefits from the consistent relationships, as students gain skills and knowledge through their tutoring sessions that make the classroom instruction easier to understand, increasing engagement and willingness to take risks and participate. The accelerated pace of learning and increase in skills also create more opportunities for the classroom teacher to focus on increasing student achievement instead of grappling with the learning loss and remediation needs of many students.

2) Their Tutoring Sessions are Relationship-Driven

High-impact tutoring sessions differ from many types of other tutoring students may receive. Rather than acting as a homework helper or a place to get answers to specific questions, high-impact tutoring is relationship-driven.

As mentioned above, meaningful connections in the classroom provide students with the support they need to succeed, in the form of another consistent adult who notices and cares whether they come to class, show up prepared, understand the material, and ultimately succeed. With large class sizes, ever-increasing workloads, and specific job demands, one classroom teacher for twenty or more students is often inadequate to provide the support students need.

High-impact tutoring even proves to increase student attendance rates. When students know someone is looking forward to seeing them and that they have a team of support between the teachers, tutors, and other small group members, they show up.

3) High-impact Tutors are Focused on Accelerated Learning

In contrast to other tutoring methods, high-impact tutoring aims for accelerated learning over remediation or homework assistance. Sessions include data-driven instruction and adapt to meet the needs of individual students.

Differentiation is made possible by the high-impact tutoring model, which provides small-group learning opportunities for all students and supports the classroom teacher, who cannot meet the individual needs of each student within a single class hour. Accelerated learning requires a deep understanding of concepts and principles and opportunities to practice lessons in different ways to master skills.

Remediation can help a student catch up on material or address learning loss. However, if the concepts aren’t sufficiently understood, students will struggle to advance in their learning and graduate to the next grade.

For example, research shows that students who do not pass 9th-grade algebra have lower high school graduation rates than their peers. Simply providing remediation is often not enough to bring students up to speed, learn current material, and still be ready for the mathematics they’ll encounter in subsequent years. High-impact tutoring can address the learning loss or educational gaps and prepare students to continue successfully with their education, even increasing graduation rates.

4) High-impact Tutors are Available During the School Day

Many barriers exist to tutoring methods successfully increasing student achievement. One of these barriers is the lack of availability. Programs like No Child Left Behind offered tutoring to address learning gaps but required parent/guardian involvement, application, and availability. For many families, even in well-funded districts, getting kids to a tutoring session outside school hours is difficult. Many families face transportation issues and work-school schedules that don’t align well with after-school activities.

High-impact tutoring is embedded into the school day and occurs three times a week for at least 30 minutes or more per session. Student transportation and scheduling concerns are not barriers to tutoring; all students have access to the necessary resources.

In addition to the student and family benefits of high-impact tutoring during the school day, school districts and classroom teachers benefit from additional resources for students without having to overcome complicated logistics and challenges to implementation. And an added long-term benefit is the other pathways to enter the teacher pipeline. Many tutors have fulfilling tutoring experiences, get to know the teachers and staff members, and pursue educational careers.

5) High-impact Tutors are Accessible to All Learners

Similar to availability, accessibility is an issue facing many districts and families. Inequities in the educational system create barriers to student achievement that can be challenging to address. High-impact tutoring closes the opportunity gap for students and addresses learning loss, gaps, and inequities through accessibility without significant barriers.

High-impact tutoring is a cost-effective and proven solution to increase student achievement. While other interventions may require family uptake, community support, and increased staff or facilities, high-impact tutoring occurs during the school day, requires no transportation, and doesn’t require additional hiring.

Bring the Power of High-impact Tutoring to Your School District

At Saga Education, the evidence is clear: kids learn best in relationships with caring, consistent adults who invest in their success.

As shown above, using high-impact tutors to improve student outcomes and meet district goals has proven powerful. The consistent support, relationship-driven instruction, focus on accelerated learning, availability, and accessibility contribute to increases in student success. Get more information about bringing high-impact tutoring to your schools.

Are you interested in becoming a high-impact tutor or bringing this opportunity to students in your college or program? Learn more about spending a service year with Saga Education!

The post 5 Reasons Working With High-Impact Tutors Increases Student Success appeared first on Saga Education.

High-impact tutoring is a proven solution for learning loss, accelerating learning, and increasing student achievement. However, another benefit is its capacity to support and strengthen the teacher pipeline by giving non-educators a practical, supportive, and meaningful introduction to becoming an educator.

Among the many challenges school districts face is hiring great teachers. Many educators are burnt out and leaving the field, wreaking havoc on retention. At the same time, schools are under tremendous pressure to perform, close opportunity gaps, and improve student outcomes. These factors are only possible to address with adequate staffing and well-trained teachers.

How High-Impact Tutoring Benefits Tutors & Schools

Tutoring opens doors to education for those who may have yet to have an opportunity to work with students or even consider a career as an educator. Tutors who complete a fellowship with Saga Education get firsthand experience working with students, teachers, parents, and districts while they learn valuable skills to help accelerate learning and differentiate lessons.

High-Impact Tutoring Naturally Builds Tutor to Teacher Pipelines

At Saga, many fellows become inspired by their work and have a newfound passion for helping students achieve academic success, opening future opportunities. Saga fellows are well prepared to pursue a career path in education after completing a service year as a high-impact tutor. Tutors get to experience working with students to improve learning and form meaningful relationships with their tutoring groups and follow them throughout the school year. They get to know the kids personally, advocate for their learning, and provide critical social-emotional skills in a way many kids may not have experienced.

Forming meaningful connections with students and becoming relentless champions for their success bolsters the tutors as much as it does the students in their groups. After all, seeing the impact one person can have in kids’ lives and the power to enact positive changes for their futures makes work fulfilling and gives meaning to your day.

Many teachers get into education to make a meaningful impact on students. When tutors experience this firsthand, it makes considering a teaching career a logical next step. Sourcing tutors from universities can be a viable tutor to teacher pipeline into education for current college students and give them real-world experience in education.

High-Impact Tutoring Provides Valuable Experience in Education

High-impact tutoring also builds practical skills that can be difficult to learn from books or classes. The experience helps fellows learn to guide students through lessons and differentiate them based on students’ needs. These are practical skills that many educators do not get to practice until they start student teaching rotations. But, they are valuable for providing context for the academic work they may do if they choose to pursue a career in education. In the same way that some student teachers realize during their rotations that teaching may not be the right path for them, many tutors realize that it is the right career choice after having experienced the power of high-impact tutoring firsthand.

In addition to helping identify education as a potential career, it can also help a tutor expand their professional network. When done right, high-impact tutors collaborate with the teachers and school staff. They work closely with schools to ensure students meet their goals and understand the materials. Teachers can provide feedback and helpful tips, which can be invaluable for those working with students for the first time.

Professional communication can be a new challenge for any young adult just entering the workforce, and a tutor to teacher experience, or even tutoring alone, can enhance their understanding of effective communication and the power of working as a team to support student success.

High-Impact Tutoring Opens Additional Resources for School Districts

For school districts, using a live-online, high-impact tutoring format opens up the pool of talent they can draw from, creating a national pipeline into education rather than relying on local schools and resources. Expanding their resource pool means more potential for staffing and addressing school needs, even when local resources may be unavailable or exhausted.

Measures to secure resources and tools to close opportunity gaps for students include expanding the teacher pipeline and finding creative ways to engage college students in the educational process.

While the benefits of high-impact tutoring for students are proven, the benefits for the education sector are also valuable. Increasing the potential talent pool for schools with a tutor to teacher pipeline, districts across the country can help meet the need that our schools face in addressing learning gaps, ensuring students are college-ready, and have opportunities for brighter futures.

Learn more about the benefits of live-online tutoring and how experience as a tutor can inspire a career in education.

Interested in becoming a Saga Fellow? Serve with Saga and make a difference in the lives of youth while building valuable leadership skills.

The post Build Educator Pipelines with High Impact Tutoring appeared first on Saga Education.

School districts across the United States are looking for solutions to address learning loss, accelerate learning, and reduce operational demands. While remediated learning for students who have fallen behind grade level is important, it is crucial for all schools to offer access to high-impact tutoring for each student. In doing so, schools can increase student outcomes and district standing without draining school and district resources.

Effective high-impact tutoring starts with literacy and math for every student

Saga Education’s high-impact tutoring program is a research-backed, proven solution to teach foundational skills, accelerate learning, and provide students with small-group instruction during the school day as part of regular class time. Without hiring more classroom teachers or overcoming the logistical complications that many proposed (and implemented) solutions require, high-impact tutoring still demonstrates major improvements to student achievement.

Every student should have the opportunity to work with an in-school tutor at least once or twice in their primary and secondary educational career. Why? Because apart from benefiting the schools and school districts by increasing student achievement and improving outcomes, in-school tutoring offers students the space, instruction, practice, and connections necessary to succeed in school.

Small group tutoring also allows students to interact with each other, engaging in cooperative learning, and practicing group learning dynamics. They can observe how other students approach material, and provide insight and assistance to classmates and group members.

Students can take turns helping or being helped, increasing their comfort level with the material and group work. These experiences can deepen learning, bolster confidence, and build resilience in overcoming challenges.

See how Saga works in the classroom to support students and improve outcomes.

Focusing efforts in math and early literacy allows schools to reap the many benefits of in-school tutoring and small group learning while targeting the content areas that show the most impact for students.

School Districts should implement in-school tutoring where it will have the greatest impact

Implementing any learning solution can be complex. School districts considering implementing in-school tutoring to accelerate learning must target areas where it will have the greatest impact.

Focus areas for tutoring should start where the research has demonstrated successful outcomes. According to the studies, the most effective content areas for tutoring are early literacy and 9th grade math.

Specifically, early literacy tutoring increases success in reading, which sets students up for success for the rest of their educational career. If a student experiences difficulty with reading, their chances of successfully graduating from high-school are decreased. In fact, setting students up with literacy tutoring early on can significantly increase high school graduation rates.

Similarly, foundational math skills taught in 9th grade algebra are imperative to success and high school completion. Focusing on these priority areas can help districts determine success of high-impact tutoring in their districts, and use their resources most effectively.

Research shows that third-grade reading proficiency & success in Algebra I increase the likelihood of graduation four-fold

Learners who meet grade-level expectations for reading early on are more likely to succeed in school. Efforts to improve early literacy, increase stamina, and remediate learners who are below grade level have been less successful than students need.

However, organizations like our partner, Success For All provide evidence-based, standards-aligned, effective in-school tutoring in literacy with positive results. Success For All has proven that early tutoring helps students learn to read so that they can read to learn.

Focused, in-school tutoring efforts to teach literacy skills is highly effective before 4th grade. As kids get older, literacy tutoring becomes less effective. Because of this, it is critical that districts provide early literacy tutoring when students are first learning phonics and reading skills, not after they have fallen behind the pacing of their peers.

As students progress through grade levels, they encounter different challenges. They reach another increased learning demand when they approach 9th grade algebra. Foundational math skills set students up for success. They need Algebra I skills in subsequent math courses and other subjects that require a firm grasp on algebraic concepts and reasoning. This is another opportunity for school districts to set their students and teachers up for success instead of waiting until students have fallen behind.

By 9th grade, students may be approaching learning and social situations differently than they were when learning to read, but the need for small group support, 1:1 instruction, monitoring for progress, and remediation all remain. Implementing high-imact tutoring into classroom time for Algebra I students provides all of these inputs, while allowing for personalized instruction.

High-impact tutoring in algebra has shown to significantly improve student outcomes across the board–from math class to their non-tutored subjects. Tutoring with fidelity in one subject, in this case Algebra I, can lead to improved grades and increased completion in all subjects.

Setting kids up for success in these crucial subjects increases the odds a student will graduate high school four-fold. It even increases the chances of a successful college career. When students are given the right tools and support systems, learning does not need to be a difficulty they’re trying to overcome. It can be a path to a future with choices.

Meaningful relationships with caring adults improve confidence & foster a sense of belonging in school

In addition to the learning progress and educational successes we see in the primary focus areas for tutoring, we also see student wins that can be harder to measure. Improvements that result from the experience a student has with high-impact tutoring vs. the direct, measurable results in their classes can be just as powerful as improved scores or passing courses.

In today’s educational system, students and teachers are under intense pressure to perform, but lack the resources and logistical support to adequately prepare all students to score well on assessments and meet state standards and district goals.

Class sizes are large, instructional time is limited, and the amount of material teachers must cover often do not allow for individualized instruction, remediation, small group work, or getting off schedule when many students are struggling with the same material.

The individual and small group instruction students receive with effective high-impact tutoring helps them form relationships, ask for help, understand concepts and practive skills. This often increases confidence in asking questions, working with others, admitting confusion, building resilience with difficult materials, and fosters trust with a caring adult who is committed to their success.

They learn to better manage their time, create habits for success, and establish routines that help them continue developing the skills they need to be successful in school. They learn to meet challenges, try new approaches, and listen to other perspectives.

Whether discussing early literacy tutoring or high-impact tutoring in high school math, the connection with caring adults and the social-emotional benefits of small group instruction are an integral part of the success of in-school tutoring.

When kids feel connected, they are better able to focus and learn. Early literacy tutoring and in-school Algebra I tutoring give students the foundation and connections for a successful school experience, even limiting the tutoring time to specific focus areas.

Find out how to bring early literacy tutoring and high-impact tutoring to your district.

Get comprehensive high-impact tutoring support from Saga Education and the Success for All Foundation

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At a time when kids need connection and extra help more than ever, the resources may not be there to help kids succeed academically. Solutions to both learning loss and the lack of connection with an invested educator can be found in high-impact tutoring.

A Lack of Connection Impacts Outcomes at All Levels 

When kids lack connection in school, they also lack the support system necessary to succeed. If students struggle with course material but don’t feel comfortable asking for help or help is unavailable, their chances of success are much lower. Students need caring connections at school who have the capacity and resources to meet their educational needs.

Teacher Shortages & Large Class Sizes Leave Little Room for Differentiation

In larger classes, teachers have limited time to differentiate instruction or personalize materials to help students comprehend and apply the course material. Students with different learning styles and from many educational backgrounds are present in public schools, and one size does not fit all when it comes to learning. 

Accountability for Learning is Difficult to Assign When Schools Cannot Meet Students Needs

Districts are accountable for providing a safe and supportive learning environment. Teachers are responsible for educating students and preparing them to meet grade-level standards. Students are responsible for learning. But when students struggle with even one class without someone stepping in to help get them back on track, it affects everyone from the student to the district administrators. 

For example, failing Algebra I in their 9th-grade year can impact a student’s entire future. A teacher may have many students in the same predicament, which reflects on their performance. When this becomes a pattern, and kids fail courses or drop out of school, the district can receive poor rankings, potentially affecting the district’s reputation and funding. But all of this could be observed and potentially mitigated with consistent, caring connections at school. While connection won’t solve every problem or cause every student to succeed without fail, it is a simple way to address a growing crisis. 

High-Impact Tutoring Offers Students Connection & Personalized Instruction

High-impact tutoring uses small-group learning to engage students in the course material. Groups of three students work with one tutor for the entire academic year. While in small groups, tutors can identify obstacles to learning, differentiate instruction, provide personalized help, and help students feel confident in their ability to learn. 

The students build a relationship with their tutor, who collaborates with the school, teachers, and guardians to communicate progress and needs and identify challenges before they impact the student’s ability to move forward.

Three Ways High-Impact Tutoring Improves Student Outcomes

1. Students are actively engaged in learning within small groups & have a personal connection with their tutors.

Saga Education’s high-impact tutoring model is built around the idea that kids need caring adults in their lives who are invested in their education and well-being. While this is not a shocking revelation, it is important to note that connection is a key to learning and should not be overlooked. 

In order to learn deeply, students need to feel safe taking risks, like getting the wrong answer or asking for help. High-impact tutoring allows students to develop math literacy skills while building that confidence in a safe and supportive environment. 

These small-group tutoring sessions are designed for students to participate, ask questions, and accumulate wins so they feel ready to tackle more difficult material. Students build trust in their tutors, develop different dynamics with their peers and classroom teachers, and tend to perform better even in non-tutored classes.

2. High-impact tutoring allows for differentiation and personalization so that students can learn most effectively.

Learners have varying needs and methods of learning. Instruction needs to be varied and differentiated to meet the needs of all students, not just those who can learn and perform with teacher-led whole-class instruction. 

Many students struggle to focus, feel more self-conscious when asking questions in front of the entire class, and may not understand the lesson as it is presented. The opportunity for smaller group instruction benefits these students by providing a stable, consistent connection with someone they can turn to for help or celebrate their successes with. 

Tutors help students understand the concepts by personalizing the lesson to help students learn best. Tutors field questions, facilitate practice skills, and observe students in real time so they can address any issues and make corrections right away.

3. Accountability for learning is easier to establish & monitor to ensure students are succeeding in class.

Students with solid connections at school are less likely to avoid slipping through the cracks. Many students have not had the privilege of a caring adult in their school experience, making it easier to overlook learning obstacles. Students are accountable for their effort and work but must have a connection with someone who can match the accountability for their learning.

Classroom teachers shoulder the responsibility for student learning but often lack the resources to make a widespread impact if students struggle to learn concepts or perform at grade level. Many don’t know their students, much less the individual circumstances that contribute to their learning and well-being.

Connecting students with in-class tutors supports teachers. One classroom teacher cannot effectively meet the needs of hundreds of students, some of whom they may only see for a few hours a week, without the opportunity to interact one-on-one. The chances of catching up without this connection are very low for students who are already behind grade level.

Saga Education’s High-Impact Tutoring Solutions Provide Meaningful Connections for Students

Our tutors work with students, teachers, and guardians to ensure solid support for students’ education.

Saga Education knows that communication is key to successful connections. We surround students with a solid support system by providing connections with a tutor who can facilitate learning, provide support, and implement interventions. They help students understand the material, overcome obstacles, and celebrate success.

The connection between students and tutors improves student, teacher, and district outcomes.

Our tutors serve with Saga for a year while they gain valuable experience with students. They work closely with classroom teachers and get real-time feedback on their tutoring and student interactions. 

A year of service gives our fellows direct experience working with students and teachers. In just that one year, a Saga tutor can teach a student up to 2.5 years of math and improve chances of course completion, school attendance, and even a student’s chances of completing high school. This demonstrates just how powerful this student-tutor relationship can be for students and tutors.

How schools can harness the power of high-impact tutoring with Saga

High-impact tutoring has received national attention as a proven way to improve student outcomes and help districts address learning loss at scale. Find out how you can improve student outcomes with Saga Education. 

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Efforts to increase graduation rates for high school students in the United States have had mixed results, and few successful interventions have been implemented. However, more and more research confirms that foundational math skills are critical to student achievement.

Improving math skills increases graduation rates. In fact, students who do not pass Algebra I are statistically less likely to graduate than those who do. This is a significant finding and warns a student is at risk for non-completion. Identifying this critical component of a successful high school experience is helpful, but a practical solution must be implemented to improve math literacy and, in turn, graduation rates.

Specifically, data-driven instruction and effective, personalized learning environments must be accessible for all students without burdening the public school system with costly programs or prohibitive policy-centered or logistical challenges.

Learning Loss Compounds Declining Math Achievement

Since the pandemic, math scores among elementary school students have fallen for the first time. The NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment found that average math scores for nine-year-olds decreased by seven points between 2020 and 2022.

Test scores declined at a higher rate for Black students, with a decrease of 13 points, followed by Latino students, with a decline of eight points. White students showed a five-point decline. The NAEP findings demonstrate a widening opportunity gap for Black and Latino students and paint a troubling outlook for learners who must master foundational math skills before reaching high school.

Limited school district & classroom resources impair effective learning in math courses

To improve graduation rates, schools must prioritize the successful completion of Algebra I. But, in today’s public school environment, there are simply insufficient resources to support teachers and students adequately. Learning new course material is difficult for students who do not have a solid understanding of algebraic concepts.

Lack of resources can impede effective whole-class instruction

For teachers, providing consistent remediation in class is often impossible. They are tasked with presenting new material, meeting academic standards, and establishing many critical learning objectives in a limited timeframe.

Limited resources, large class sizes, and mounting responsibilities have rendered traditional classroom math instruction ineffective in meeting the needs of a growing number of students who are not at grade level.

Small group instruction is impactful for learners

Students often need individualized instruction, smaller group learning, and the safety net of accountability to learn concepts deeply and reinforce skills. For many teachers, there are not enough hours in the day, minutes in the class, or reasonable opportunities to consistently work with students 1:1 or in small groups.

When students don’t have access to the personalized instruction they need to catch up, there are substantial risks to their continuing education and their futures. Research shows that students who pass Algebra I by 9th grade are twice as likely to graduate high school.

Additionally, learning loss due to COVID-19 added another complicated challenge to an already significant opportunity gap for many public school districts and the communities they serve. Student success is down overall, and districts are ill-equipped to handle the growing crisis.

High-impact tutoring closes learning gaps & increases graduation rates

Student success in math generally requires literacy and regular practice. Students must use new concepts and skills to feel confident. However, it isn’t just practice that’s needed–other critical elements include personalized instruction, effective communication, feedback, time, connection, and understanding.

Saga Education provides a proven, cost-effective, nationally recognized solution to accelerate learning, increase math course completion, and improve graduation rates. Saga uses high-impact tutoring to give students the personal attention and individualized instruction they need to overcome learning difficulties. All students can access effective interventions and deeper learning by embedding high-impact tutoring into regular classroom time.

How high-impact tutoring supports classroom learning to improve math outcomes 

Saga uses a high-frequency tutoring model, giving students 30-50 minutes of small-group tutoring two to three times per week. Students work with the same tutor throughout the year, giving them access to a consistent, supportive adult who can ensure they are on track with the course material and comprehend the necessary concepts to move forward. Saga tutors work in small groups, with a one-to-three tutor-to-student ratio.

To effectively implement and scale this solution, Saga uses digital learning technology to integrate tutoring into the classroom without districts spending more to hire teachers or change operations to accommodate disruptive changes to the school day.

Invested tutors and consistent relationships make it easier to monitor progress and identify areas of difficulty. Students are less likely to fall through the cracks when a tutor oversees their work and communicates with teachers and guardians. Instead of students falling so far behind that catching up to their peers seems impossible, issues are addressed head-on with individualized strategies to help students learn.

High-impact tutoring is proven to decrease math course failures

Studies show that Saga Education’s high-impact tutoring program decreased math course failures by up to 63% and helped students learn up to 2.5 years of math in one school year. This is an enormous benefit for students and schools.

The positive effects of high-impact tutoring can impact students throughout their academic careers. Successful learning in math was shown to carry over to other classes, reducing course failures in non-tutored courses by as much as 26%.

High-impact tutoring results have garnered national attention and a call to action by leaders to implement this cost-effective learning solution in schools to address learning loss and close learning gaps.

Bring the proven power of Saga’s high-impact tutoring program to your students

Many experts agree that the traditional classroom model will have to evolve as schools confront this massive learning loss. Students need more intensive learning to improve math skills, close learning gaps, and successfully graduate from high school.

Find out how you can bring Saga’s proven, scalable learning solutions to your students!

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