Virtual tutoring has gained popularity since the pandemic for giving more flexibility to schools wanting to secure intensive help for their students. But it has seen mixed success.
Now, a new study of one effective intervention in Massachusetts highlights the school and tutor support needed to make it work.
The , released today by Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 Center for Research and Reform in Education, finds Ignite Reading, a 1-to-1 virtual tutoring program in 19 states, closed early reading gaps across student groups鈥攊ncluding English learners and students with disabilities鈥攊n 13 Massachusetts school districts studied. The program used daily, 15-minute sessions focused on foundational reading skills such as phonemic awareness鈥攖he ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in English.
Researchers led by Amanda Neitzel, an assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins, tracked the reading progress of nearly 1,900 1st graders in 13 high-poverty Massachusetts school districts who received individual, virtual tutoring in 2023-24 through Ignite Reading. Their progress was compared both to a nationally normed sample of 1st graders who participated in DIBELS鈥攁 benchmark early-literacy test鈥攁nd a matched sample of nearly 500 1st graders in four of the districts.
They found Ignite students on average made nearly five-and-a-half months鈥� more progress on DIBELS compared to national norms and students who did not participate in the program. Students of all racial and economic backgrounds who participated in Ignite Reading tutoring made similar gains, as did English learners and students with disabilities.
Overall, the share of students reading on grade level rose from 16 percent at the start of 1st grade to half by the end of the year, and the share of struggling readers who needed the most intensive support fell from 64 percent at the start of the year to 28 percent by the end.
Study provides clues to tutoring effectiveness
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The results both give additional support for high-intensity tutoring models鈥攚hich call for frequent, one-on-one or very small group instruction with trained tutors鈥攁nd detail the additional school supports needed to sustain these models.
In both the Massachusetts study and other recent studies of intensive tutoring, researchers are finding that the most effective programs focus on high attendance, consistent and well-trained tutors, and building strong relationships with students.
鈥淭he secret sauce here seems to be they have a good program, but they also have all of the support structures in place to make sure that it鈥檚 implemented well,鈥� Neitzel said.
For example, students鈥� average attendance in the Ignite program neared 90 percent鈥�"shockingly high鈥� for most tutoring interventions, she said.
Jessica Sliwerski, the chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based Ignite, said the program requires schools to designate a coordinator for each school and commit to ensuring students attend at least 75 percent of sessions. Support staff at Ignite help coordinate schedules, encourage parents to get their kids to school, field technical issues for teachers, and ensure students start sessions on time.
鈥淒ay in and day out, [tutoring coordinators] are tasked with monitoring attendance in real time and working with our partners鈥攍ovingly and politely harassing the bejesus out of them鈥攂ecause it matters,鈥� Sliwerski said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want them spending money on a program that their kids are not going to show up for.鈥�
Ignite costs about $2,500 per student.
Almundena Abeyta, the superintendent of the Chelsea district, whose district received grants for 320 out of Chelsea鈥檚 800 1st graders to participate in the study, said maintaining the program will require budget shuffling and additional grants to keep it running for all the students receiving tutoring. But Chelsea students who entered 1st grade reading below grade level made 19 times the progress on DIBELS last year than Abeyta had seen previously, she said, so 鈥渢here obviously is a financial investment here; you just have to be strategic about making sure it gets to the students who need it most.鈥�
It's a live tutor鈥攊t's not like Roger Rabbit on the program teaching kids reading. They have a connection to a human being.
Abeyta has seen spillover benefits of the tutoring among higher-achieving readers. Teachers have more time to dedicate to them and have improved their own instruction.
鈥淥ftentimes, our teachers are graduating from college and have only taken a semester of how to teach reading ... or [have] not been taught even in their pedagogy classes,鈥� Abeyta said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also building capacity within our own ranks, too, as we鈥檙e learning from the tutors and watching them.鈥�
Abeyta, a former kindergarten teacher, said her staff were initially hesitant about using virtual tutoring. But consistency has helped.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the same tutor, and it鈥檚 a live tutor鈥攊t鈥檚 not like Roger Rabbit on the program teaching kids reading,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey have a connection to a human being and so they鈥檙e building a relationship with this tutor.鈥�
The tutors, who are employed by Ignite, receive 100 hours of paid training before being certified to participate in the program, Sliwerski said. The training was intended to give tutors a strong background in evidence-based reading instruction so as to reduce turnover once tutors were matched with students. (About 25 percent of tutors leave each year, including those fired for poor performance.)
Education leaders, she said, should be more deliberate about when to target reading interventions.
鈥淎 lot of the rhetoric historically has been around reading by grade 3, which is anchored around a 3rd grade test鈥攁 comprehension test,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you want kids to pass a comprehension test in 3rd [grade], then they actually need to have mastery of the code by the end of 1st grade.鈥�
