A high-impact tutoring model in early literacy funded and supported by Accelerate is up and running in four Title I schools in a South Dakota district. The students love it. You can tell by their smiles when they walk in the room, the hug many offer their tutor and their steady engagement with the daily lessons.

In the one month since its launch, tutoring has improved punctuality for some students and increased their confidence. Some have even begun to read independently after just a few weeks of this almost daily intervention. By all accounts, this program is doing what folks hoped: engaging students with the goal of accelerating their learning.

Not all tutoring looks like this a month into implementation. In fact, anyone involved with high-impact tutoring will tell you that the work is often messy, especially in the early stages. From tech issues to physical space constraints to data collection to managing absences, tutoring requires a constellation of strategies and constant attention to implementation in order to be successful. The South Dakota pilot's initial success is due to what is happening behind the scenes:

Strong School - Provider Relationships: Black Hills Special Services Cooperative (BHSSC), the grantee responsible for the tutoring program, has established relationships with the schools it is serving. Principals and teachers trust the team to work with their students and are willing to collaborate on scheduling, student selection, and protecting the physical space reserved for tutoring. The program is viewed as a value add.

Structured Models with a Proven Track Record: Tutoring with the Lightening Squad, a ProvenTutoring program, and Kinder Phonics are being used for the tutoring. They have content and an instructional process that are capable of adapting to students needs. The highly structured and sequential characteristics of the program make it possible for a tutor who doesn’t have a background in education to deliver a high-quality lesson.

A High-Impact Tutoring Coordinator: BHSSC has a HIT coordinator who manages the day-to-day implementation. She visits each school at least once a week and has a strong collaborative relationship with both the tutors and the school leaders. The coordinator position is dedicated to this tutoring pilot, making her available to manage and analyze data, troubleshoot unexpected hurdles, and coach tutors.

Supported, invested tutors: The tutors have a variety of backgrounds but all of them have a demonstrated commitment to serving kids. The compassion they bring to the table and the quality coaching that supports them as a tutor nurtures relationships that engage students. One of the school sites has a group of tutors affectionately called the “grandma group.” Students selected for tutoring are considered the lucky ones among classmates because they get to spend time with the "grandmas." These tutors embrace the students, ask them about their day, encourage and guide during the lesson, and celebrate their successes.

For tutoring to be successful, high-quality programming and mechanisms for managing implementation have to be in place and work in concert. The end of the calendar year is the perfect time for reflection on this fall's tutoring programs: What is working? What is not working? How can the program be refined for the spring semester to improve implementation? What are programmatic changes that will be needed for next fall?

January offers a chance to recalibrate. ProvenTutoring is here to support your work. Best wishes for a happy new year!