South Bend schools are offering a specialized reading tutoring program to some kindergarteners.
The program is part of a research study through Stanford University, so no taxpayer dollars are being spent on it.
Stanford University's National Student Support Accelerator graduate program is studying Once Early-Reading Program.
It is a high impact reading tutoring curriculum that aims to teach literacy to students while also coaching the adult tutors.
146 kindergarteners between two South Bend schools are getting daily tutoring with the program, while their tutor gets weekly professional development.
Each session is about 15 minutes.
Additionally, the tutors, who are often instructional aides, paraprofessionals or other support staff receive 30 minutes of personalized video coaching weekly.
“So, high impact tutoring is tutoring that happens with a qualified tutor and that means someone who is trained and is receiving coaching. It also happens frequently. So at least three to 5 times a week, in a small group or one-on-one. It is very personalized,” says Director of Partnerships and Policy for the National Student Support Accelerator Nancy Waymack.
The NSSA has been looking at this type of high-impact tutoring and its effect on literacy.
The NSSA will look at where students are relative to their school’s benchmark standards after a year of high-impact tutoring.
"We study different projects in different communities and what we want to do is be able to understand what is working well so that we can share that with their peers across the country," says Waymack.
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