Pandemic-era disruptions to education resulted in an unprecedented influx of federal funds to K–12 schools, some of which was used to address lost student learning. Summer school, one-to-one technology, academic enrichment, and virtual resources were among the myriad remedies deployed, but none was thought to hold more promise than tutoring. Studies indicate far less positive impact than hoped for from tutoring, particularly for those students who fell furthest behind. What happened? A new report from the journal Educational Researcher digs into one charter network’s implementation efforts and finds evidence that could explain the problem.
A trio of California-based researchers partnered with Aspire Public Schools, a large network of charter schools in the state with locations in the Bay Area, the Central Valley, and Los Angeles. At the start of the spring semester of 2021, all 7,000 Aspire middle and high school students received personal electronic devices and free access to an unnamed on-demand virtual tutoring platform covering content in core academic subjects. The service was available 24/7, but the research team doesn’t delve into details on when students used it other than to say they are aware of instances where it was incorporated into classroom time. In other words, this is not a study of embedded versus non-embedded tutoring.
The researchers examined student usage of the platform in that initial semester and tested the efficacy of targeted messaging to incentivize that use. To test the latter, they randomly assigned student households to a control group or to one of three treatment arms involving communications to students only, to parents only, or to both students and parents together. The researchers designed and disseminated the communication pieces using several different styles and tones; employing print (flyers and mailers), email, and text message; and utilizing various approaches such as reminders, appeals to social norms, accountability, and valuing of the academic subject. These were separate from whatever outreach individual schools or teachers were providing, which were received by all students and were not tracked as part of the experiment.
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