2020 Outcomes & Insights
2020 Tennessee Tutoring Corps Pilot Results
In 2020, Tennessee Tutoring Corps was developed to help slow the “summer slide” and address COVID learning losses by connecting qualified college students with children preparing to enter kindergarten through 6th grade to provide tutoring in key subjects, including math and reading. Approximately 430 college students served as tutors in 2020 and provided learning support to over 2,000 students in 27 Tennessee counties.
Supporting Student Achievement
Children who participated in the tutoring program were assessed both before and after participating in 7 to 8 weeks of tutoring. Results from the 2020 pilot showed participating students made noticeable academic gains over the course of the summer tutoring programs:
Across all grades and subjects, the average national percentile rank increased from the pretest to the posttest with the largest gains seen in grades K-2 and in math.
On average, students in K-2 demonstrated the equivalent of a third of a year of academic growth.
Across all grades and in both ELA and math, students who scored lower on the pretest had greater average growth over the course of the program.
Feedback from Tutors
Participating college students who served as tutors in the 2020 pilot were asked to complete a survey to obtain feedback on the program. The vast majority of tutors surveyed (85%) said they established a meaningful relationship with a student as a result of the program. Furthermore, nearly all tutors (98%) said they would recommend the Tennessee Tutoring Corps experience to other college students.
Here are a few comments directly from college students who served as tutors during the 2020 pilot:
“Keep doing [the Tennessee Tutoring Corps]. All of my students were eager to meet with me, and two out of four students asked me to come every day and told me they would miss me once the summer was done.”
“I just really loved this program and I hope that it does have a second year. As an aspiring teaching, this program gave me some really great experience and I loved building relationships with all of the wonderful kids!”
“It was truly an astounding experience and it was heart-warming to get to know the students personally. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this amazing experience and it has better prepared me to become an educator.”
“I truly hope that this program is continued because it was beneficial to me as a tutor and I think it definitely helped combat some of the loss of learning that can happen in the summer months between semesters for the students.”
For more information about the success of last year’s program, please reference our evaluation summary here.