RIDE Awarded $250,000 to Develop and Scale High-Impact Tutoring Models to Boost Academic Achievement for All Students

Published on Monday, November 07, 2022

Following competitive process, RIDE selected as only state education agency to receive grant from national tutoring group Accelerate to build evidence base for cost-effective, sustainable learning solution

PROVIDENCE, RI – Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) today announced the agency has been awarded $250,000 in competitive grant funding to develop state-level policies and systems to support the scaling and sustainability of high-impact tutoring of students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. RIDE is the only state education agency (SEA) among more than 30 grant recipients nationwide to receive funding from Accelerate.  

“We must meet students where they are, and the opportunity through Accelerate to develop policies and systems of support for high-impact tutoring will have a direct, positive impact on our school communities statewide,” said Chair of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education Patti DiCenso. “I applaud RIDE for prioritizing this grant opportunity and laying out robust plans to further improve our educational ecosystem.” 

The award, presented by nonprofit organization Accelerate, is part of a broader national effort to develop and scale sustainable, cost-effective models for high-impact tutoring that boost academic achievement for all students. High-impact tutoring, also known as ‘high-dosage tutoring,’ involves tutoring a consistent group of students multiple times a week, and has been shown to have a dramatic impact on accelerating student learning. RIDE has invested Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds (ESSER), specifically ESSER II funds, to support high-dosage tutoring efforts statewide. 

“Access to high-quality tutoring is vital in ensuring Rhode Island students fill in learning gaps and leap ahead in academic achievement in the wake of the pandemic,” said Commissioner Infante-Green. “Tutoring is one of various extended learning opportunities identified by RIDE’s Learning, Equity, and Accelerated Pathways (LEAP) Task Force and we share our gratitude with the educators and administrators who have shown unwavering commitment to moving students forward academically, socially and emotionally. We thank Accelerate for this opportunity and look forward to working with various partners to build high-quality tutoring programs throughout Rhode Island.”

RIDE is one of 31 research and education partners selected to receive the award, as well as to join a community to share best practices and resources and ultimately help inform Accelerate's national research and policy agenda. Through this grant opportunity, RIDE will help source qualified tutors by piloting a new “trainee-as-tutor” model that connects trainee teachers in teacher prep programs with schools in need of tutors. RIDE will also test the use of a regional tutoring coordinator – a new full-time position – to help LEAs with the staffing capacity they need to launch new tutoring programs.  

Further, RIDE announced in October it has developed a robust resource guide of vetted tutoring providers to assist local education agencies (LEAs) in building and sustaining strong high-impact tutoring programs. 

“We know that good tutoring programs work — partly because well-off families have used them to boost student success for generations. And we know that those same programs can be a powerful tool to close racial and economic opportunity gaps when we give less privileged students the same access. What we haven’t figured out yet is how to make high-impact tutoring available for everyone,” said Accelerate CEO Kevin Huffman. “With districts deciding how to spend one-time federal funds to combat the effects of the pandemic, solving that challenge has never been more urgent." 

Additionally, the Annenberg Institute at Brown University will study the lessons learned from RIDE’s work and other states to create a policy report on how to develop a replicable, state-level model for scaling and sustaining high-impact tutoring.  

Also serving as a partner is Amplify Education, which is implementing RIDE’s tutoring professional development and technical assistance supports for LEAs throughout the state. Amplify has supported more than 85 LEA teams in developing and scaling their high-impact tutoring programs in communities including Warwick, Westerly and Woonsocket. The Providence Public School District is also implementing a high-impact tutoring program, reaching more than 400 students in four high schools through leading national tutoring organization Saga Education. Read more about RIDE tutoring partnerships in the October announcement.  

Accelerate’s announcement of the inaugural cohort of grantees follows a competitive national selection process. In spring 2022, Accelerate, as part of its launch, released a Call to Effective Action to recruit partners to help it design, launch, and scale high-impact tutoring efforts and to build a community committed to impact and to shaping the evidence base for tutoring. Partners interested in the initiative were asked to first submit a letter of intent outlining their high-level vision. Following review of more than 200 letters by a panel of diverse experts, finalists were selected and invited to submit a full-length proposal. Beyond the inaugural cohort of grantees, Accelerate will continue to make additional investments in tutoring innovation over time. 

Learn more about RIDE’s vision on www.ride.ri.gov/tutoring. 

View a list of all grantees and a summary of their tutoring models.