Concern over a new requirement that third graders read at grade-level to move on to fourth grade has created a "sense of urgency" in at least one north Arkansas elementary school, faculty said.
That urgency, bolstered by grant funds provided through the LEARNS Act, as well as follow-ups with families eligible to receive that money and efforts to recruit additional tutors, resulted in a massive increase in the number of students not yet in fourth grade who have sought and received tutoring at Southside Elementary School in Independence County, said Kim Stalker, an instructional facilitator at the campus. Between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school year, participation by qualified students shot up by roughly 85%, according to Stalker.
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Arkansas is not alone in providing funds to cover tutoring for struggling students. Among the dozens of other states with similar initiatives are such neighbors as Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, and farther flung states like Colorado, Rhode Island and Minnesota, according to the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University.
According to a research summary by the National Student Support Accelerator, tutoring can increase student achievement in reading and math in between three to 15 months of learning across grade levels. Additionally, a study that examined various interventions meant to improve academic achievement from students from low socioeconomic backgrounds found tutoring to be the most effective method, the summary states.
The literacy tutoring grants are one of two programs centered around tutoring established through LEARNS. The other is a high-impact tutoring program that offers grants to public school districts and open-enrollment public charters to administer high-impact tutoring programs in their schools.