According to the latest research from the Annenberg Institute, there is strong evidence that high-dosage tutoring can produce significant learning gains for a wide range of students. Tutoring can increase meaningful learning for a wide variety of K-12 students and is one of the most effective ways to increase achievement for students from lower income families. In the endeavor to address pandemic learning loss or find interventions that improve student learning and achievement, selecting a tutoring partner may be the right solution for your district.-1.png?width=211&name=Untitled%20design%20(93)-1.png)
Once you’ve decided to find a tutoring partner to improve outcomes for struggling students, it’s important to create a thoughtful Request for Proposal (RFP) to ensure you can select the best tutoring program for your district. An RFP for a tutoring solution should include a wide scope of considerations, with a strong focus on partnering with teachers and families and utilizing research to guide the tutoring approach.
As you're planning to create an RFP for a high-impact tutoring solution, here are five questions you should consider:
1. Is the solution research and evidence based?
Recent and emerging research suggests that one of the key indicators of a successful tutoring program is a foundation in evidence-based methods. High-quality, high-dosage tutoring can reduce learning loss, which is critical after the pandemic. The program should be rooted in research, so it’s also important to ask:
- Have there been any third-party research studies performed on the services?
- Does the solution hold any certifications?
- Do they maintain an up-to-date library of case studies with relevant data?
2. What qualifications do the tutors receive and maintain?
Tutoring requires a different skill set than classroom teaching, so a wide variety of tutors can successfully improve student outcomes. Tutors that are subject matter experts along with different backgrounds, including volunteers and college students, can effectively provide tutoring services after adequate training and with ongoing development and support. When preparing your RFP, it’s important to ask how the tutoring partner trains and supports its tutors along with any required qualifications.
3. What data does the vendor use as a foundation for their program?
Does the solution use pre-existing district data as the foundation for the program? Research shows that tutoring programs that support data use and ongoing informal assessments allow tutors to tailor their instruction more effectively for individual students. It’s also important to ask if the vendor maintains any integrations with other education tools (Canvas, Google, Clever, etc.) –– the closer your solution is integrated into existing academic ecosystems, the easier it will be to get the program up and running. And the lighter the lift is on educators; you will likely experience more impactful results.
4. Does the solution provide ongoing progress monitoring and reporting? How easy are the reports to read and access?
It’s important that your district can track the success of the tutoring solution––not only when the program is completed, but also throughout the course of the program. Because of this, you should consider whether the solution has an internal data team to capture data and share easy-to-read student achievement reports, commentary from tutors, raw data, snapshot summaries, and recent trends. If your tutoring partner monitors data on an ongoing basis, it will be better able to change and adapt each program to meet and exceed program outcome goals.
5. Does the solution offer support for teachers, families, and students?
Ideally, a tutoring partner will offer a main point of contact for teachers and easily accessible support for families, such as an Academic Success Coaches to collaborate with educators, or a Family & Student Engagement Team to develop a productive partnership with parents. Often, a vendor will charge an extra fee for these support services, but the best tutoring partners already include these services along with their program.
Asking these questions as you create an RFP for a tutoring solution can help guide you to select the best solution for your district. FEV Tutor meets all these standards and more, utilizing a collaborative, strategic approach to deliver high-dosage and high-impact tutoring programs for K-12 schools. If you would like more information or if you would like FEV Tutor to respond to an RFP solicitation, please submit the proposal to rfp@fevtutor.com.