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

‍Following a Competitive Process, The ASSISTments Foundation has been Selected to Join National Community of Practice toBuild Evidence Base for Cost-Effective, Sustainable Learning Solutions

WORCESTER, MA (October 31, 2022)—ASSISTments, a nonprofit organization founded in learning-science, recently announced it has been awarded $250,000 in competitive grant funding to pilot an innovative tutoring program in Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) across 30 schools, reaching 800 underserved students in grades 3-8. The ASSISTments Tutoring pilot will research the effects of high-dosage, proactive school-based tutoring that is directly connected to classroom instruction.

ASSISTments’ low-cost learning acceleration model is designed to streamline tutoring instruction so students can engage in grade-level content combined with targeted tutoring for prerequisite skills they need to master. ASSISTments Tutor increases alignment of intervention content with individual student need; resulting in deeper and more personalized learning experiences.

“Schooling is at a critical juncture today, and most school districts are racing to implement accelerated learning options to close pandemic learning gaps. Our pilot with City Schools, funded by the Accelerate grant, will help students achieve, while also answering important research questions,” commented Cristina Heffernan, Executive Director of ASSISTments. “We believe, due to the low-cost model, ASSISTments Tutor has the potential to facilitate the tutoring of many more students.”

The ASSISTments learning science-based pilot is founded on ASSISTments’ flagship product, ASSISTments Teacher, a free math practice and assessment tool that provides students with immediate feedback and gives teachers data to effectively implement their curricula.

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 boosts academic achievement for all students.

The ASSISTments Foundation 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 national research and policy agenda.

“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."

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 ASSISTments vision for learning acceleration via a high-impact, low-cost tutoring strategy. High Impact Tutoring https://new.assistments.org/product/tutor

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

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About The ASSISTments Foundation

The ASSISTments Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2019 with generous funding from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and Schmidt Futures, and sponsored by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The organization is dedicated to scaling the reach and impact of ASSISTments in classrooms nationwide, driven by the belief that every student deserves the opportunity to be good at math. The ASSISTments Foundation works with WPI to conduct cutting edge research on the learning sciences. www.assistments.org

About Accelerate

Accelerate is a nonprofit organization that seeks to embed high-impact tutoring programs into public schools now and for the long term.  Launched in April 2022 with an initial fund of $65 million, Accelerate funds and supports innovation in schools, launches high-quality research, and advances a federal and state policy agenda to support this work.

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Accelerate is supported by Kenneth C. Griffin, chief executive officer of Citadel; Arnold Ventures; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and the Overdeck Family Foundation.

For more information, visit http://www.accelerate.us.

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Media contact:

Janet Pinto

ASSISTments

201-953-2584

janet.pinto@assistments.org

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