(Washington, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) announced a third significant investment in high-impact tutoring (HIT) to reach an additional 3,600 students in the District. This investment will address disrupted instruction from the COVID-19 pandemic and help close long-standing gaps in opportunity and achievement. The funds will be distributed to nine organizations that provide tutoring services to students enrolled in District schools and non-school tutoring sites across the city.
“We know that many students are still recovering from the time spent out of the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic and need extra support to rebuild confidence in learning. There are also students who were already struggling academically before the pandemic, and that’s why we are focused on strengthening and scaling up our high-impact tutoring program,” said Mayor Bowser. “We know that this type of tutoring works, and I encourage adults who are interested in helping our students recover to sign-up to be a tutor.”
Mayor Bowser has committed more than $39 million over three years to support high quality HIT programming as part of the District’s learning acceleration strategies and has set the goal of delivering HIT to at least 10,000 District students.
Statewide and national assessment results confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant declines in academic outcomes for students. HIT allows students to receive intensive tutoring, either one-to-one or in very small groups, on a sustained basis over a semester or longer. This type of tutoring has strong evidence supporting its effectiveness among all learning interventions. The disruptions in learning that occurred during the pandemic disproportionately impacted students of color, students from lower-income families, and students who were already struggling academically. The HIT programming prioritizes these students and ensures they have the supports needed to achieve academically.
“The relationships that students build with tutors in the HIT programming shapes their learning experiences for life,” said State Superintendent Dr. Christina Grant. “It’s important that all students in DC have the confidence to learn and grow academically, and we know that having more tutors in our schools will ensure that our most vulnerable students are better supported and prevent achievement gaps from growing.”
Nine organizations will receive Scaling HIT Grants to provide tutoring before, during, or after school in English language arts and/or math. The organizations will collectively serve more than 3,600 students in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. Six organizations will partner with schools to offer HIT to their students, two will work in schools and within communities at non-school sites, and one will provide HIT in non-school sites only. The nine organizations are:
- American University
- Dance Makers
- Great Oaks Foundation
- Horton’s Kids
- Lana Learn
- Multicultural Career Intern Program
- Saga Education
- The House
- Tutor Partners
To learn more about HIT, visit osse.dc.gov/recovery.
To sign up to be a tutor, visit citytutordc.org/join.
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