Student Achievement

‘Don’t Reinvent The Wheel': How One District Made a Tutoring Program That Works

By Libby Stanford — February 10, 2023 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Tutoring has become a popular strategy for schools looking to help students recover learning lost over the pandemic. But Andrew Houlihan, the superintendent of the Union County school district in Monroe, N.C., started using tutoring to help students make academic gains long before the world first learned about COVID-19.

In a live interview with Education Week, Houlihan shared how his district developed an intensive math tutoring program after seeing how well small-group instruction worked at his former district in Houston. Starting in the 2017-18 school year, the district enrolled 4th- and 7th-grade students at schools with low math performance in a intensive tutoring program, during which they received instruction in groups of three students to one tutor.

The program includes district-designed training for tutors, involving a math test to ensure tutors’ skills meet district standards and ongoing collaboration with teachers to ensure tutoring is aligned with the curriculum and involves best teaching practices.

So far, the strategy has worked. It helped pull all four of the low-performing elementary schools off the state’s low-performing schools list by the end of the 2018-19 school year. The district is now using the program to help students who have fallen behind since the onset of the pandemic.

Houlihan’s advice to districts trying to have the same impact? “Don’t reinvent the wheel.”

“Take something like this that has a proven track record that works. We’ll give you everything,” Houlihan said. “I say to our staff, ‘don’t reinvent the wheel.’ Steal the wheel and make it work for your district.”

See Also

Casey Rimmer, left, is the director of innovation and ed-tech for the Union County School District in North Carolina. She's helped both staff and students navigate the glut of tech tools and applications that became a part of daily life during the pandemic. Andrew Houlihan, right, is the superintendent in Union County and developed a high-dosage tutoring strategy to combat student learning loss. Pictured here on Dec. 16, 2021.
Casey Rimmer, left, and Andrew G. Houlihan have kept Union County, N.C., steps ahead of the pandemic's disruption. Rimmer, an innovation and ed-tech leader, helped staff and students navigate the glut of tech tools that became a part of daily life, while Houlihan, the superintendent, developed a tutoring model to bolster academics.
Alex Boerner for Education Week

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Achievement Spotlight Spotlight on Online Tutoring
This Spotlight will help you examine research outlining the benefits of online tutoring, identify best practices, and more.

Student Achievement Talking High-Dosage Tutoring: A Researcher and Schools Chief Share Strategies
Two champions of high-dosage tutoring explain what makes a successful program.
1 min read
Charvi Goyal, 17, gives an online math tutoring session to a junior high student Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, in Plano, Texas. Goyal is part of a group of high school students that put together their own volunteer online tutoring service to help k-12 during the pandemic.
Charvi Goyal, 17, gives an online math tutoring session to a junior high student on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, in Plano, Texas. Virtual tutoring was used in another Texas district to scale up a high-dosage tutoring program.
LM Otero/AP
Student Achievement What the Research Says The State of School Tutoring, in Charts
Only 1 in 10 students is receiving intensive tutoring supports.
2 min read
teacher tutor student librarian 1137620335
SDI Productions/E+
Student Achievement Q&A Under Her Watch, This State's Schools Saw Some of the Fastest Improvement in the Nation
Carey Wright stepped down last year as Mississippi's state superintendent of education.
5 min read
Reaching for Diploma 02062023 1347244179 01
iStock/Getty