CRRE in the Field: 2026 Research, Conversations & Convening

ProvenTutoring is housed at CRRE, supporting the center's mission to implement K-12 programs that work. Below are some of CRRE's recent contributions to the tutoring field:

New Study: A Full Year of Virtual Tutoring Adds Nearly Three Months of Reading Growth

A new CRRE report by Amanda Neitzel, Nathan Storey, and Xue Wang evaluates Air Reading, a virtual tutoring program built on the Science of Reading. The randomized controlled trial, funded by Accelerate and Arnold Ventures, ran across the full 2024-25 school year in a large suburban district in Louisiana and a district in Texas. Students in grades 1–4 who were reading below grade level were randomly assigned either to Air Reading or to business-as-usual instruction. Tutored students significantly outperformed their peers in the control group, with an effect size of +0.29 SD, or about 2.8 additional months of learning. The gains reached a broad range of students, and the researchers found no systematic differences in effects by grade level or student characteristics. Dosage mattered. Students who attended 56 or more sessions saw larger gains (+0.32) than students who attended fewer (+0.26), although both groups did significantly better than the control group. An earlier semester-long study of the program produced only modest gains (+0.12), so the authors conclude that sustained exposure is likely needed for tutoring to produce meaningful literacy gains. Read the full report.

Brookings: Advancing Early Literacy with a 1st-Grade Safety Net

Children who are poor readers in 1st grade rarely catch up without intervention, yet most states organize their literacy systems around a 3rd-grade finish line. In a Brown Center Chalkboard commentary, CRRE and ProvenTutoring's Jen Krajewski, Cynthia Lake, and Amanda Neitzel make the evidence-based case for anchoring high-dosage tutoring in 1st grade, when an intervention that produces a few additional months of learning can be enough to bring a student to grade level. The authors recommend that state leaders build a 1st-grade literacy safety net with five components: an early-warning data system that triggers tutoring, vetted and proven tutoring models, implementation support and monitoring, ongoing evaluation, and a K–3 literacy accountability system. Read Advancing Early Literacy with a 1st-Grade Safety Net.

Podcast: The Benefits of Virtual Tutoring

"What we've learned from studies of virtual tutoring is that we know, on average, tutoring works. And well-conducted tutoring can help kids learn. We have to do the same well-conducted tutoring but over the computer."

ProvenTutoring's Dr. Amanda Neitzel discusses the data on virtual tutoring, and what works and what doesn't, on The Last Show with David Cooper. Listen to the episode.

2026 Annual Convening

Thank you to our co-host Accelerate and the practitioners, researchers, school and system leaders, and tutoring providers who joined us in Washington, DC, for our 2026 Annual Convening.

The District of Columbia's Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) has published the OSSE High-Impact Tutoring (HIT) Vetted Program List for the 2026–27 school year. The list identifies tutoring provider programs that have met OSSE's standards for evidence of effectiveness, program design quality, curricular approach, and implementation capacity.

To develop the list, OSSE partnered with CRRE to review applications from tutoring providers for evidence of impact in the grades they intend to serve. After reviewing 70 program applications, 20 English language arts and mathematics programs were selected for the first iteration of the list. Each program carries an OSSE evidence rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze, which reflects how confident LEAs can be that the program itself, rather than other factors, produced the positive results.

LEAs use the list to select tutoring partners for certain OSSE funding opportunities. CRRE also developed two companion resources with OSSE: an LEA Provider Selection Guide and a HIT Implementation Guide. The list is public and includes a profile for each program covering evidence, cost, delivery, and tutor support.

Two Scalable In-Person Models Expand to Maryland

Reading Corps and Math Corps show what it looks like to scale an in-person tutoring model as it was researched. In 2025–26, the programs had 2,555 tutors serving 58,959 students across the U.S. Trained AmeriCorps tutors deliver structured, evidence-based interventions, supported by a dual-coaching model that pairs an external Coaching Specialist with a school-designated Internal Coach who reviews progress monitoring data with tutors.

This fall, through a new partnership with the Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation and its Maryland Corps/Service Year Option program, 60 Reading Corps and Math Corps tutors are serving K–8 students in Cecil, Charles, and Prince George's counties. The partnership also creates paid service opportunities for young adults, including those interested in a pathway to teaching. Read the announcement.

CRRE Resources

Proventutoring.org - in-depth information on tutoring programs with evidence of effectiveness.

Evidenceforessa.org - provides in-depth information on PK-12 education programs with evidence of effectiveness.