Union County Public Schools touts high-dosage tutoring: district reports gains and seeks recurring state support
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Summary
UCPS officials presented a multi-year evaluation showing the district's high-dosage, in-school tutoring produced measurable gains in math proficiency in targeted grades and urged state recurring funding to expand and sustain the program.
Union County Public Schools representatives presented results June 16 from a multi-year evaluation of their high-dosage tutoring program and asked county officials to support continued, recurring funding.
Superintendent (referenced in the meeting as Dr. Houlihan) and UCPS staff described a program that began in 2017 to support persistently low-performing schools and was scaled as a post-pandemic recovery strategy. The model provides daily, in-school tutoring in fourth and seventh grade math using a 3:1 student-to-tutor ratio and dedicated curriculum materials developed by the district.
UNC–Chapel Hill evaluated UCPS’s two-model approach (a whole-grade model and a targeted model) and reported that the whole-grade model produced robust impacts. UCPS officials said the district suspended the targeted model and implemented the whole-grade approach in the most recent school year, and they projected continued gains in proficiency based on that change.
District staff presented historical results showing gains before the pandemic, strong rebounds after in-person instruction resumed and particularly notable gains in middle-school math in schools that implemented the program. UCPS said the average student in participating grade levels gained about 12 percentile points in math proficiency year-over-year in identified schools, and that the gains were both cost-effective and sustained into subsequent grades.
Presenters said the program uses non-certified tutors who must pass a district math assessment, receive robust onboarding and monthly training, and teach from a district-provided binder of lessons. UCPS leaders said the work is locally funded and that they had requested recurring state funding to allow broader replication across North Carolina.
Ending: UCPS officials said they will supply updated results from the most recent accountability year and asked commissioners to help advocate for recurring state funding that would allow expansion and sustained implementation.
