High-dosage tutoring. Supports for adolescent literacy. An extra block of math instruction. Schools are using these and other academic interventions to help improve student achievement. But are they working? During this virtual event, we will explore best practices in academic interventions and how to know whether they are making a difference.
Join us to discuss a range of learning interventions, such as maximizing time for instruction and targeted help during the school day, supporting teens who struggle with reading, optimizing virtual tutoring, and more. Attendees will:
- Hear from EdWeek journalist and experts on academic interventions to boost student achievement and get tips on implementing them effectively
- See exclusive EdWeek Research Center survey responses and federal data on learning interventions
- Get insights on the optimal use of time in schools, including disparities in learning time by state and district, common sources of distractions, and how schools can maximize the time students spend learning
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Agenda
2:00pm ET
Welcome & Introduction
We’ll highlight key insights from recent reporting on learning interventions and tutoring.
Lesli Maxwell was a managing editor for Education Week.
2:10pm ET
Interactive Session: Where are we with learning recovery?
Recovering from learning loss has been the order of the day in recent years. We’ll poll the audience and share new EdWeek Research Center data on educators’ attitudes about how much progress their schools have made toward erasing learning loss. We’ll also dive into data on the academic interventions schools have relied on most.
Matthew Stone is an assistant managing editor for Education Week.
2:20pm ET
Industry Perspective: Coaching & Development: The Key to Effective High-Impact Tutoring
Sponsor content provided by Saga Education
High-impact tutoring, also called high-dosage tutoring, is not a quick fix for today’s academic challenges—it's a strategic investment in a student's future. However, tutor training is just the beginning. Ongoing coaching and professional development are what ensure long-term success in high-impact tutoring. Learn how continuous coaching, feedback, and skill-building create confident, effective tutors who drive real student learning. Get insights on Saga Education’s approach to coaching and development, including real examples of how structured support helps tutors grow and how a well-designed curriculum can reinforce tutor development without additional training time.
High-impact tutoring, also called high-dosage tutoring, is not a quick fix for today’s academic challenges—it's a strategic investment in a student's future. However, tutor training is just the beginning. Ongoing coaching and professional development are what ensure long-term success in high-impact tutoring. Learn how continuous coaching, feedback, and skill-building create confident, effective tutors who drive real student learning. Get insights on Saga Education’s approach to coaching and development, including real examples of how structured support helps tutors grow and how a well-designed curriculum can reinforce tutor development without additional training time.
Halley Bowman, EdD
Senior Director of Academics,
Saga Education
Dr. Halley Bowman has over 15 years of experience leading and studying academic initiatives in education nonprofits. She specializes in mathematics education and high-impact tutoring in historically underserved communities. As the Senior Director of Academics for Saga Education, her work and research focus on support and guidance that can help novice educators keep cognitive demands high on students.
2:30pm ET
Panel discussion: Harness More Learning Time During the School Day
There’s no national policy dictating how many days or hours students must attend classes each year. That means students in some states and districts can end the year with substantially more learning time under their belts than students elsewhere. With the learning time that remains, research has shown that seemingly quick and minor disruptions—a call to the classroom phone, an intercom announcement—can add up to hours of lost instructional time each year, exacerbating those already stark differences. We will review common sources of distractions, how schools can minimize them, and ways schools have managed to add learning time to the day.
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens is a reporter for Education Week who covers special education and school district management.
Betsy Bockman, Ph.D.
Principal,
Midtown High School in the Atlanta School District
Lyndsay Cowles
Sr. Director of Academics,
Noble Schools, Chicago
Sarah Novicoff
Research Fellow,
Public Policy Institute of California
2:55pm ET
Q&A: Does Virtual Tutoring Have a 'Secret Sauce?'
Virtual tutoring has become prevalent, giving more flexibility to schools that want to provide intensive help for students. But it has seen mixed success. What are some essential elements for virtual tutoring to be effective? One Massachusetts school district has seen important reading achievement gains in the early grades after 1st graders participated in a virtual tutoring program. Superintendent Almudena Abeyta will highlight how and why the tutoring program is working, how leaders went about getting teacher buy-in, and the results they are seeing.
Lesli Maxwell was a managing editor for Education Week.
Almudena G. Abeyta
Superintendent,
Chelsea Public Schools, Chelsea, Mass.
3:15pm ET
Panel discussion: What Teachers Need to Support Struggling Adolescent Readers
New research shows that many older students lack critical, foundational reading skills that school systems typically assume they’ve mastered by the end of 3rd grade. When students lack these fundamental skills, they’re prone to fall even further behind as teachers expect them to shift from learning to read to reading to learn. It’s a common struggle, and schools serving older students often aren’t set up to help those who need extra support catch up. We will examine this phenomenon and how schools and individual teachers can respond.
Sarah Schwartz is a reporter for Education Week who covers curriculum and instruction.
Julie Burtscher Brown
Literacy facilitator,
Mountain Views Supervisory Union, Woodstock, VT
Julie is the founding teacher of the first public high school structured literacy program in her home state of Vermont. She is a licensed special educator, reading specialist, and multilingual learner teacher. Julie is currently a doctoral candidate at Mount St. Joseph University studying Reading Science with research interests in adolescent literacy instruction and intervention.
Rachel Manandhar
Education Specialist, Literacy Intervention,
Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif.
Rachel Manandhar is an education specialist who has taught in urban public school special education programs over the past 20 years. Rachel’s current work focuses on providing direct instruction to students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities at Berkeley High School. Rachel facilitates professional learning on adolescent literacy and collaborates with teachers across grade levels and content areas to share evidence-based practices for reading and writing instruction and intervention. Rachel serves on the Steering Committee for the Project for Adolescent Literacy.
Sue McCormack
High school English Teacher,
Cheektowaga Central High School, NY
Sue McCormack is an English teacher at Cheektowaga Central High School; she teaches primarily ninth-grade English. Sue has a background in performing arts; often incorporating drama based practices into her curriculum.
3:45pm ET
Interactive Session: The Work that Remains to be Done
If your school had more money to devote to learning interventions, how would you spend it? In the absence of additional resources, what are you keeping in your budget, and what’s going? We want to know. We’ll share EdWeek Research Center data on how districts would use additional time to spend federal stimulus funds and how they’re making decisions on what to keep in their budgets and what to let go.
Matthew Stone is an assistant managing editor for Education Week.
3:55pm ET
Closing Thoughts
Hear the big takeaways from the forum.
Lesli Maxwell was a managing editor for Education Week.
