Tutoring

Rhode Island's tutoring strategy

To understand the impacts of COVID on student learning, RIDE convened a task force of educational experts, practitioners, families, students, and community members across the state in February 2021. This task force identified high-impact tutoring as a prioritized strategy for accelerating student learning. RIDE encourages districts to use their federal stimulus dollars to expand high-quality tutoring opportunities for students.

RIDE is prioritizing tutoring in mathematics in all grades and early literacy. However, tutoring in all grade levels and subject areas is encouraged.

To support high-quality tutoring, RIDE will provide state-level professional learning, technical assistance, coaching, and support to help support local education agency (LEA) leaders in building high-quality tutoring programs.

What is high-impact tutoring?

High-impact tutoring (also called “high-dosage tutoring”) leads to substantial learning gains for students, provided that the program is implemented with fidelity, according to research-based best practices. The Annenberg Institute at Brown University outlined the key features for high-impact tutoring in a EdResearch for Recovery brief:

• Well-trained, consistent tutor (can be a current or retired teacher, paraprofessional, teacher candidate, college student, or community volunteer) who builds a strong relationship with students
• High-quality instructional materials, aligned to standards and core classwork
• One-to-one or small group for individualized support (between one and three students per tutor is recommended)
• Embedded in the school day, or immediately before or after, to maximize student access
• Data-driven, utilizing aligned formative assessments, with tutors building sessions around student strengths and needs, and adjusting the approach based on data over time

When tutoring programs do not have these features, they may lead to negligible improvements in student learning. Therefore, RIDE is prioritizing tutoring programs that meet research-based best practices, such as the ones outlined above.

Statewide technical assistance

RIDE is partnering with Amplify to provide support for district leaders in developing and running their tutoring programs.

This support includes:

• A workshop series for district leaders. The first cohort will begin the workshops in January 2022.
• Professional learning communities for district leaders to share ideas and best practices
• Ongoing coaching and technical assistance

For more information or any questions, please contact Emily Welch (emily.welch@ride.ri.gov) or Spencer Sherman (spencer.sherman@ride.ri.gov).

Menu of vetted tutoring providers

RIDE will be establishing a list of vetted tutor providers for use by school districts, starting in 2022. This will help address the challenges that many LEAs have experienced in recruiting and training sufficient numbers of tutors to meet students’ needs. RIDE expects to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) in early 2022 to create a list of RIDE-approved vendors with statewide contracts (master price agreements or MPAs) that LEAs may choose to join. LEAs will manage their own tutoring programs, make their own decisions about which providers to use for which services, and will fund their own tutoring programs. While LEAs run their own tutoring programs, the menu may help LEAs select vendors and streamline the procurement process.

This webpage will be regularly updated with more information and resources, as they become available.