Innovative Schools

The latest NAEP results reveal that many students have made steps toward post-pandemic academic recovery, but overall progress remains slow. In both reading and math, most fourth and eighth grade students performed below 2019 pre-pandemic levels, with one-third of eighth-grade students scoring below “NAEP basic” in reading—the largest share of students in the assessment’s history. An analysis conducted by the Education Recovery Scorecard found that as of spring 2024, “the average U.S. student remained nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement in both math and reading. Students are now further behind in reading than they were in 2022.”

Pre-pandemic, a classroom likely contained students who performed at seven different grade levels; post-pandemic, the range was predicted to span up to nine grade levels. Enrollment for English learners has increased and the number of public school students enrolled in special education programs jumped by 243,000 students since 2019–20. The increased range of skill levels and needs in today’s classrooms results in an increasingly complex and demanding learning environment for teachers, inhibiting their ability to effectively personalize and individualize instruction and support.

Research consistently shows the potential of high-dosage tutoring to improve student outcomes, and as schools enter a tightened post-ESSER fiscal climate, demand for these tutoring solutions remains strong. According to a review conducted by the National Student Support Accelerator, 40 states have invested in tutoring since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—with many districts seeing positive results. As districts spend their final ARP dollars, our Foundation has invested in research to identify the best strategies to make tutoring programs less costly and more scalable while maintaining impact. An RCT of Saga Education’s less expensive hybrid tutoring approach compared math achievement for students randomly assigned to hybrid tutoring versus those who continued with business-as-usual instruction, with reported impacts of approximately 0.23 SDs, or about a year of learning, on math achievement for participating ninth graders.

Educators overwhelmingly see technology as a key resource to meet students’ needs. On average, schools used 2,739 edtech tools in SY 2023-24, up from 2,591 the year prior. However, teachers are increasingly stressed, overwhelmed by technology, and reluctant to invest their limited time in a potentially unproven tool or approach. With the expiration of ESSER, school and district leaders must ensure their limited funds are spent on effective, evidence-based technology and solutions. Less than 15 percent of districts ask edtech providers for any evidence that meets ESSA tiers and only 36 percent of districts have selected exclusively high-quality math curriculum for elementary school.

Even when education solutions are evidence-based, schools and districts can face diminishing impacts on student outcomes when these programs are scaled broadly due to a range of challenges with implementation. These challenges suggest that achieving impact at scale can be dependent on school conditions, including teacher readiness and resource alignment. District leader polls, for instance, reveal that larger schools consistently see lower student participation rates in tutoring programs, and only about one-sixth of principals reported facing no barriers in providing tutoring.