By the fall of 2021, predictions of steep declines in students’ learning due to pandemic school closures had come true. Gaps between the highest and lowest learners were widening.
That’s when a large suburban school district in Texas, flush with COVID relief funds, signed a contract with a virtual tutoring provider to deliver extra help to students in 28 schools who had fallen below grade level. Research showed that high-dosage tutoring could produce significant gains for students and was far more effective than on-demand models.
But the district’s program didn’t work,