More time for learning at school and at home
What It Is
Lost opportunities during the school year are compounded with lack of after school and summer enrichment programs, meaning students who are traditionally underserved have been receiving even less support during the pandemic. Expanded learning time (ELT) can function to recover opportunities and bridge gaps in achievement. Donors can fund ELT through an array of different programming, including after-school programs, summer enrichment programs, high-dosage tutoring, and early childhood services.
What Success Looks Like
Short-term: Catching students back up to grade-level reading by the end of the 3rd grade school year
Long-term: bridged opportunity gap; closed gaps in high school graduation rates; higher grades and test scores among traditionally underserved students groups; decreased gaps in scores and achievement among minority students and those with lower socioeconomic status.
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What Donors Can Do
Donors can help ensure that children, parents, and teachers have resources and support to recover lost learning and make the gains that ensure foundational success. Here are strategies that work.
High-Dosage Tutoring
The implementation of high-quality, high-dosage tutoring (HDT) integrated within schools themselves has been found to be an especially effective strategy for helping K-3 students get back on track. The most effective HDT programs are typically those in which the tutors are the teachers or paraprofessionals themselves. Community-based volunteers can also be effective in boosting student performance when they offer personalized, intensive, consistent attention.
The ideal timing for HDT programs varies by subject matter. While both reading and math HDT programs show positive, statistically significant results in student academic performance, their effectiveness is dependent on age group. High dosage tutoring in reading is most effective when implemented in K-3 grades, while high dosage tutoring in math is most effective in later grades.
What to Look for
The most effective HDT programs:
- Use tutors who work consistently with the same students throughout the course of the year, instead of having a rotating set of tutors
- Have a highly trained corps of tutors, preferably teachers and paraprofessionals
- Personalize their programs with intensive attention, where tutors work one-on-one or two-on-one with students.
- Incorporate HDT as its own separate class period for all students — when all students participate in the program it becomes less stigmatized.
Resources to Learn More
- Publication: https://www.the74million.org/using-tutors-to-combat-covid-learning-loss-new-research-sh[…]that-even-lightly-trained-volunteers-drive-academic-gains/
- Webinar: see screenshot attached (background, what’s happening, orgs that are doing the work)
- Organization: Scholar Squad, focus on both reading and math tutoring https://www.scholarsquad.org/
Afterschool Programs
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education of students across the country, but returning schools and students to where they were before the pandemic is not enough. School closures and online learning exacerbated underlying inequities in resource allocation and gaps in academic performance. Donors have an opportunity to help students recover learning and accelerate gains and to strengthen families and schools to be more effective and more equitable than before.
What to Look for
Intensive tutoring extends learning time by pairing students with trained tutors
A strategy for accelerating student gains and helping K-3 students return to grade-level is to expand student learning time. Lost opportunities during the school year are compounded with lack of after school and summer enrichment programs, meaning students who are traditionally underserved have been receiving even less support during the pandemic.
Summer Enrichment Programs
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education of students across the country, but returning schools and students to where they were before the pandemic is not enough. School closures and online learning exacerbated underlying inequities in resource allocation and gaps in academic performance. Donors have an opportunity to help students recover learning and accelerate gains and to strengthen families and schools to be more effective and more equitable than before.
What to Look for
Intensive tutoring extends learning time by pairing students with trained tutors
A strategy for accelerating student gains and helping K-3 students return to grade-level is to expand student learning time. Lost opportunities during the school year are compounded with lack of after school and summer enrichment programs, meaning students who are traditionally underserved have been receiving even less support during the pandemic.
Mentoring Programs
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education of students across the country, but returning schools and students to where they were before the pandemic is not enough. School closures and online learning exacerbated underlying inequities in resource allocation and gaps in academic performance. Donors have an opportunity to help students recover learning and accelerate gains and to strengthen families and schools to be more effective and more equitable than before.
What to Look for
Intensive tutoring extends learning time by pairing students with trained tutors
A strategy for accelerating student gains and helping K-3 students return to grade-level is to expand student learning time. Lost opportunities during the school year are compounded with lack of after school and summer enrichment programs, meaning students who are traditionally underserved have been receiving even less support during the pandemic.