Data-Driven, Personalized Tutoring Helps Students Improve Academic Growth and Confidence in North Dakota District
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Grand Forks Public Schools (ND)
Challenges
Students needed personalized support in reading and math.
Due to staffing shortages, GFPS could not provide that level of support, despite their best efforts.
Different students, at different schools, had different needs, requiring different approaches.
We looked at student achievement data from multiple measures and through the lens of different student groups, and we saw an immediate need to provide additional intervention in reading and math.
Results
Improvements
Students who participated in tutoring improved 62.85 points on the Star Reading Assessment, compared to 33.63 points for students who did not
Reached more students without having to worry about staffing concerns or the work traditionally associated with monitoring student progress
Provided students with an additional caring adult in their lives
Grades
preK-12
Students
7522
Schools
18
Students with Free and Reduced Lunch Access
27%
English Language Learners
3%
Students with Disabilities
18%
White
66%
Black or African American
10%
Hispanic or Latino
10%
Indigenous or Native American
8%
Asian or Asian American
5%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
1%
Data-Driven, Personalized Tutoring Helps Students Improve Academic Growth and Confidence in North Dakota District
Located in North Dakota’s third largest city, Grand Forks Public Schools (GFPS) comprises the Grand Forks and Grand Forks Air Force Base public school districts. The districts work together in a unique arrangement to serve approximately 7,500 students who attend schools in the two communities.
Like many school systems across the country, GFPS is working to help students recover from effects of the COVID-19 pandemic amidst staffing shortages.
Littera works closely with our principals to help identify students for tutoring and ensure that they stay in the program for the right length of time.
Delivering high-impact tutoring tailored to student needs
In 2022, GFPS partnered with Littera Education to design a high-impact tutoring program that would work within the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework.
The Littera Design Services Team worked closely with GFPS on student identification, program design and monitoring, and accountability reporting, using a continuous improvement process (Design-Deliver-Monitor-Adjust) aligned with the district’s already-established data cycles and structures. Throughout this process, Grand Forks administrators were supported in transforming their data into actionable insights to create tutoring programs that are personalized to each student’s needs.
“We looked at student achievement data from multiple measures and through the lens of different student groups, and we saw an immediate need to provide additional intervention in reading and math,” said GFPS Assistant Superintendent Brenda Lewis. “The Littera Design Services Team helped us determine which students would benefit from academic support and the best times to schedule sessions to impact achievement.”
Within each school, GFPS students are selected for tutoring based on their assessment data and recommendations from their teachers and principal. “Littera works closely with our principals to help identify students for tutoring and ensure that they stay in the program for the right length of time,” said Lewis. “We want to provide a research-based intervention, but only for the duration that each student needs that support — not necessarily for the whole school year.”
Supporting K-6 reading and middle school math
In April 2022, three GFPS elementary schools began working with Littera tutors and their Tutoring Management System (TMS). Since then, three middle schools have signed on, too. The TMS makes it easy to provide large-scale tutoring to multiple students by automating scheduling, tutor-student matching, and program reporting. It supports both in-person and virtual tutoring, and offers curriculum integrations in any LTI-compliant curriculum.
Grand Forks students participate in 1:1 and small group sessions with Littera virtual tutors and district staff during the school day or after school. They receive tutoring at least three times a week for 30 minutes a day. The K-6 reading tutoring curriculum, chosen by the district and delivered by the tutors, encompasses foundational reading skills as well as fiction and nonfiction comprehension. GFPS middle school students are tutored using a research-backed math tutoring curriculum.
In 2022, GFPS chose to offer tutoring over the summer as well. “The elementary schools that launched Littera in the spring also offered it during summer school so students could continue building their reading skills,” she said. “One middle school also launched Littera during the summer so students could engage in skill building and recovery, and get the boost they needed to be ready for their fall math classes.”
Not only are students getting great content, but they’re building relationships. They get to have one more caring adult in their lives, and they enjoy that.
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Focusing on relationships first between tutors and students
To build rapport between tutors and students, Littera pairs students with the same caring adult. Tutors and students meet in a secure virtual classroom with embedded lessons, live audio/video, and an interactive whiteboard.
“Students really look forward to seeing their tutors,” said Lewis. “That connection is so important. Not only are students getting great content, but they’re building relationships. They get to have one more caring adult in their lives, and they enjoy that.”
We have an intervention we can utilize in the middle of staffing shortages without having to worry about filling tutoring positions. Our students are building and recovering key literacy and math skills.
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Increasing academic growth and improving student confidence
GFPS has seen a number of benefits since beginning its partnership with Littera six months ago. “At the district level, we have an intervention we can utilize in the middle of staffing shortages without having to worry about filling tutoring positions,” said Lewis. “Our students are building and recovering key literacy and math skills. They’re showing academic growth, and their confidence has grown.”
In the fall of 2022, students who participated in the Littera tutoring showed greater growth on the Renaissance Star Reading assessment than students who did not participate. On average, students who completed Littera tutoring sessions between the pre- and post-assessments improved their scaled scores by 62.85 points, compared to an average improvement of 33.63 points for students who did not participate in the tutoring. In addition, students who completed Littera tutoring sessions were 16 percentage points more likely to improve their scores, test over test, than students who did not participate in the tutoring.
Reaching more students while saving time
“Our goals with Littera are to help students with skill recovery and provide the intervention they need to meet grade-level standards,” said Lewis. “Without Littera, we would not be able to serve as many students as we do. It gives us the ability to implement a high-dosage tutoring program while taking care of all of the administrative tasks. Littera not only saves us time, but it provides us with another set of professionals who can support our principals in looking at students’ data and determining how to best meet their needs.”
It’s helping us eliminate opportunity gaps and close learning gaps. The only thing that would be better is if we had been providing tutoring with Littera for the entire second semester last school year instead of only two months.
Increasing equity and eliminating opportunity gaps
In addition to prioritizing students who have fallen behind, the work that GFPS is doing with Littera is helping to increase equity and address historical inequities, according to Lewis. “It’s helping us eliminate opportunity gaps and close learning gaps,” she said. “The only thing that would be better is if we had been providing tutoring with Littera for the entire second semester last school year instead of only two months.”