Tutor901 SY2022-23 Report

SUPPORTING LITERACY WITH HIGH-IMPACT TUTORING School Year 2022-2023 Report

Executive summary Literacy Mid-South’s Tutor901 program is a partnership between Literacy Mid-South (LMS), Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS), local public charter schools, and the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE), who awarded LMS a TN ALL Corps Community Partner grant in 2022.

In School Year 2022-23, Tutor901 served 1,500 students across 14 MSCS and public charter schools. Following best practices, tutoring occurred in small groups of three students per tutor, three times per week, for 45 minutes each session.

School Year 2022-23 Results Tutored students demonstrated significantly more growth than their non-tutored peers on i-Ready assessments in 1st (7.1%) and 2nd (8.3%) grades during the Spring semester.

98.5% of students attended 85%+ of sessions.

Over 10,000 books were distributed to partner

What makes Tutor901 high-impact?

3x High frequency 45-minute sessions, 3 times per week

Strong relationships Consistent tutor & student groupings

Small groups 1:3 tutor-to-student ratio

Curriculum High-quality materials aligned with classroom instruction

Trained personnel Paid tutors receive training & ongoing support

Accessible logistics In school & during the school day

Focused content Exclusively reading tutoring

Delivery mode Exclusively in-person

Data-informed Regular formative & informal assessments inform instruction

Targeted Tutoring targeted to students with demostrated need

schools.

High-impact tutoring: A national approach In response to interruptions to student learning caused by COVID-19, school districts and states across the country turned to high-impact (also referred to as high-dosage, low-ratio) tutoring to provide personalized, targeted support.

Rigorous research provides strong evidence that high-impact tutoring can produce large learning gains for a wide range of students, including those who have fallen behind academically. For instance, a meta-analysis of randomized evaluations of tutoring programs found that, on average, tutoring increased achievement by an additional 3 to 15 months of learning across grade levels.

The National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University has identified ten characteristics of high-impact tutoring programs.

Tutor901 is proud to align with all ten of these components for highly effective programming.

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SY 2022-23 timeline

Aug 2022

Aug 2022

TN ALL Corps Community Partner Grant signed (one of five recipients)

Connected Literacy Partner grant awarded (one of three recipients)

Tutoring started in schools

Five full-time staff hired

Sept 2022

Jan 2023

Nov 2022

60+ tutors recruited, hired, and trained

Second semester of tutoring begins

Feb 2023

May 2023

Successfully tutored 1,500 students in SY22-23

Curriculum In alignment with Memphis-Shelby County Schools’s curriculum, Tutor901 utilizes gradelevel appropriate i-Ready materials to guide tutoring sessions. Tutoring sessions follow MSCS’s curriculum cadence to reinforce the skills students are learning in the classroom. By aligning tutoring content to classroom instruction, tutors provide students extra time to practice key skills in a small group setting.

School and student selection Targeted students

Students determined to be “Tier 2 Approaching” (i.e. high end of Tier 2) on their i-Ready ELA assessment were prioritized for tutoring. As not all schools had adequate numbers of students in this category, students were then selected from Tiers 2 and 3. Due to grant requirements, only students who were not enrolled in other ESSER-funded programs could be selected (e.g. MSCSprovided before & after school tutoring).

Supported schools

Tutoring was provided at one school in each Memphis-Shelby County Schools board member zone: Cherokee Elementary Cordova Elementary Egypt Elementary LaRose Elementary Lowrance K-8

Lucy Elementary Robert R. Church Elementary Ross Elementary Shelby Oaks Elementary

Charter schools: KIPP Memphis - Collegiate Schools of Perea Promise Academy Hollywood

Student demographics

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Journey Community Schools Coleman Compass Community Schools Frayser

85.9% Black/African American 10.7% Hispanic 53.5% female 73.1% economically disadvantaged

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Tutor selection Literacy Mid-South worked to recruit tutors with a diversity of interests and backgrounds, including parents, former educators, students interested in becoming teachers, and people looking for supplementary income. While no prior education experience was required, there was one common

“Teaching kids to read on grade level can change their whole lives. Words have power, and this is what I can do to help the next generation of Memphians.”

factor: all tutors were motivated by a passion for

Tutor901 tutor

supporting students.

"I chose to become a tutor to put my skills to good use and to help children in ways I wanted to be helped as a child."

Tutor901 tutor

Tutor demographics (SY23-24) 72% of tutors identify as Black/African American 35% attended legacy MCS/SCS schools 27% have children enrolled in MSCS or public charter schools 23% are currently enrolled in a school, college, or university

What role can tutoring play in developing an educator pipeline?

40% of tutors are interested in a career in education 34% of tutors are former educators 42% of tutors are more interested in a career in education after serving as a tutor Tutoring is an avenue for future educators to enter the teacher pipeline and for former educators to stay in the classroom

Training Tutors received training on i-Ready materials and tutoring fundamentals from LMS’s Tutor Support Managers, who are experienced educators.

Tutors completed TDOE’s TN ALL Corps Training for Aspiring and Alternative Educators.

Tutor Support Managers provided regular professional development opportunities, as well as observations and targeted feedback.

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95% Tutors felt they were adequately prepared to lead tutoring sessions

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Academic results (MSCS) Both tutored and non-tutored students at partner schools completed benchmark assessments through the i-Ready tool during three testing windows (Fall, Winter, Spring). The average growth on these assessments is compared between students who participated in LMS tutoring and students who did not participate in any MSCS-provided tutoring.

Fall to Winter i-Ready Growth

Between the Fall and Winter assessments, tutored students showed marginally greater

Tutored students Non-tutored students

growth in their i-Ready composite ELA scores.

2nd grade tutored students demonstrated 1.9%

8%

additional growth over non-tutored second graders during this window (6.4% to 4.5%), while

6.5%

6.4%

6.2%

6%

1st and 3rd grade students each grew less than 1% more than their non-tutored peers (.3% and

4.5% 3.9%

4%

3.2%

.7% respectively). Not all students received a full semester of tutoring during Fall semester, with

2%

some schools not beginning tutoring until November.

0%

Between the Winter and Spring testing windows,

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

Tutored n = 151 Non-tutored n = 468

Tutored n = 118 Non-tutored n = 401

Tutored n = 192 Non-tutored n = 367

however, tutored students showed significant additional growth over non-tutored students. The largest increase was for 2nd graders, who grew 8.3% more than non-tutored students, and 1st graders, who demonstrated 7.1% additional growth compared to their peers. 3rd graders also demonstrated more growth than their non-tutored peers, increasing an additional 1.9%.

Winter to Spring i-Ready Growth

Winter to Spring i-Ready Gains (points)

Tutored students Non-tutored students

Tutored students Non-tutored students

15%

50

50 47

12.9%

40

11.1%

10%

7.1%

30 8.3%

5.8%

22

5.7%

1.9%

5%

27

20 16

3.8% 2.8%

0%

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

Tutored n = 151 Tutored n = 118 Tutored n = 192 Non-tutored n = 468 Non-tutored n = 401 Non-tutored n = 367

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10

0

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

Tutored n = 151 Non-tutored n = 468

Tutored n = 118 Non-tutored n = 401

Tutored n = 192 Non-tutored n = 367

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Factors affecting program performance Literacy Mid-South staff, MSCS district staff, and school staff have identified components of program implementation that may have impacted tutoring effectiveness between schools and may explain the significantly greater growth in student gains during the Spring semester.

Differences between schools Receptiveness of school leaders and teachers to tutoring program.

Many schools did not have adequate numbers of students fitting the ideal student profile (Tier 2 Approaching).

Three schools receiving support in 2022-23 were among the 25 MSCS elementary schools with highest rates of chronic absenteeism.

Schools and LMS staff observed that a pull-out model was more effective, but not all schools had adequate space and staffing to accommodate this model.

Improvements in Spring semester Due to late starts at some schools, not all students received a full semester of tutoring between the Fall and Winter assessments.

Key factors such as tutor confidence and skill, program logistics, and student and tutor relationships all may have improved throughout the year.

How can we ensure equitable access to tutoring?

Providing in-school, during-the-day tutoring helps to mitigate barriers for students and families to access high-impact tutoring

Attendance LMS exceeded the attendance goals of the TN ALL Corps program, which required 90% of enrolled students to attend 85% of sessions during both semesters. 98.5% of

Cherokee Elementary Tutoring Attendance 100% 87.6%

80%

74.5%

students attended at least 85% of sessions.

60%

Attendance at Cherokee Elementary, one of the 25 MSCS elementary schools with the highest rates of

40%

chronic absenteeism in SY2022-23, increased significantly (13.1%) between the Fall and Spring

20%

semesters.

0%

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Fall semester

Spring semester

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Extending support beyond tutoring Ensuring families have access to a rich home library is critical for supporting the literacy development happening in the classroom and during tutoring. The relationships with schools and families created through tutoring provides an ideal partnership to address discrepancies in access to literacy resources. In the 2022-23 School Year, Literacy Mid-South distributed more than 10,000 books to families at schools supported with tutoring. LMS increased its support of schools in 2023-24, officially adopting all 18 MSCS schools receiving high-impact tutoring.

Literacy Mid-South has provided literacy resources and services to the Memphis community for nearly 50 years and has programs for learners across the lifespan, as well as a vast network of partner organizations. Tutor901 is one component of comprehensive systems of support, and is aligned to a number of strategic efforts across the Memphis education, philanthropic, and nonprofit communities, including collective priorities identified in the Memphis Early Literacy Community Partnership Plan.

Stakeholder point of view 100%

92%

86%

Schools said the program provided high-quality tutoring services

Tutors made meaningful connections with their students

Students are more interested in reading after taking part in tutoring

I feel strongly the year was a big "We truly believe the tutoring success and bolstered the kids we program was beneficial to our students. The students were excited served in reading level and overall confidence. about participating in the program Tutor and we could truly see the growth.

The tutors were professional and consistent. Everything about this program was organized."

My daughter actually loves to read to us. She’s proud of herself and so are we! Thank you all!

Parent

MSCS Tutor Coordinator

The program helped my students develop a rich vocabulary, selfexpression, and reading comprehension. The hands-on learning gave them the tools they need to build their literacy skills, become successful readers, and lifelong learners. Students were able to apply what they learned in their sessions to the activities that they were engaging in during their regular instructional time.

42% Tutors are more likely to be interested in a career in education after tutoring

Nine in ten families are satisfied with how Tutor901 engaged with them about tutoring

MSCS Tutor Coordinator

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