High-dosage personalized tutoring as a solution to closing the achievement gap has never been so essential as it is in the current state.
Prior to the pandemic, due in part to Saga’s 2019 pilot of an online SAT tutoring program with College Board, our team was thinking of ways to successfully adapt our program to meet the needs of remote learning. This gave us the ability to continue providing personalized tutoring to our students during school closures and has since made Saga a leader in the work of finding a solution to diminish the impacts of COVID-driven learning loss.
Even as schools slowly return to in-person instruction, students, particularly those of color, are falling behind at an alarming rate. A McKinsey research study estimated that by the beginning of the 2020 school year, White students had lost one to three months of learning in math alone while students of color had lost three to five months. Educators, researchers, and national leaders have made a call to action for organizations with evidence-based tutoring interventions, like Saga’s, to step in and help catch young people up to where they need to be academically.
In the wake of COVID-19, Saga has expeditiously and effectively met the call from districts, educators, and funders to augment and expand organizational support for target student populations. In an effort to translate Saga’s typical program into a remote learning environment, the Academics, Information Systems & Analytics, and Program teams have worked to determine specific goals and program modifications for the 2020-2021 school year. While our teams will continue to support students in their work to meet Saga’s academic goals (passing their math classes and meeting growth goals on the Foundational Skills Assessment), there will also be an organizational push to explore and improve student engagement in the online space.
Until the national pandemic stabilizes, the team at Saga has committed ourselves to maintaining the flexibility, rigor, and quality of our programs to support students academically, while ensuring that systemic inequity does not factor into their ability to overcome the challenges presented to them this past year.
National Updates
Saga recently acquired Woot Math, an educational technology company, as an in-house Products Team charged with developing a proprietary adaptive platform for Saga’s programs. Saga has known the team at Woot Math since the end of 2018 when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation identified each of our organizations as enterprises moving the needle for Black and Latinx and low-income students in math. Saga sees the acquisition of Woot Math, and subsequent development of a Saga adaptive platform, as essential during this undefined period of remote instruction and key to serving more students across the country.
Saga has spent the past several months working to expand our public revenue stream. Saga’s Grants Team submitted applications for five State Commission AmeriCorps Grant competitions including Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C.. These grants would allow Saga to initiate our program in new regions while expanding in our established partner cities. Each AmeriCorps state grant would also contribute to our longevity and development in each district as they are three-year commitments of public funding. As the nation transitions to non-pandemic operations, Saga believes there will be a greater focus on federal funding of high-impact educational support and tutoring, and our team views AmeriCorps grants as one of many new avenues to securing additional public funding, support, and buy-in.
Saga’s President, Vice President, Chief Finance Officer, and Senior Director of Information Systems & Analytics also spent a portion of the fall exploring Outcomes-Based Contracting (OBC) with public school districts. Third Sector and the Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) collaborated to lead an OBC summit, working with Saga leaders as consultants to develop a four-workshop virtual series exploring outcomes contracting in K-12 math instruction. Saga was one of eight tutoring providers that participated in the study along with representatives from seven school districts, two of which expressed interest in collaborating with Saga on a potential OBC project.
Regional Tutoring Programs
Saga received a total of 1,884 tutor applicants for the ‘20-’21 school year application cycle, with program team leaders reporting that members of the ‘20-’21 cohort have exceeded their expectations for intention, dedication, and social awareness in service. Our team believes that an increased interest in service, specifically educational service, in the wake of the national COVID-19 crisis supplied a very competitive applicant pool.
Saga’s current total enrollment is 3,824 students in 42 schools, with 2,016 students in Chicago, 850 students in Broward County, Florida, 812 students in New York City, and 146 students in Washington D.C.; there is a possibility that more students will be added to Saga’s rolls as schools start their second semesters. Unfortunately, attendance rates in Saga’s schools have mirrored the national percentages, which have declined and fluctuated relative to previous school years.
The challenges Saga faced last year in the wake of COVID-19 mostly pertained to schools scheduling remote instruction and connecting our teams with students via the platform of their choice. This fall, however, despite having time to prepare, scheduling conflicts and uncoordinated implementation of district reopening plans were the central cause of challenges we faced.
Broward County Florida - Schools pushed back the reopening classes several times, from August to late September and in some cases, October. Any students attending schools that opened in August and September participated in remote instruction. Starting on October 9th, all schools provided students with the option to attend in-person classes or continue remote instruction. Though the program startup took longer than expected, we are pleased with how the program stabilized, especially considering that this is Saga’s first year in Broward County Schools.
Chicago - Given immense challenges in the spring with student access to devices and reliable internet, CPS leaders decided to preserve the typical school day schedule for students in 2020-2021 to minimize confusion and focus problem-solving efforts on technology distribution and support. The district announced a tentative reopening plan for PreK through 8th grade students in January and high school students in February at the start of the second semester. To further support CPS in serving target student populations, 8 AmeriCorps Members started service as Saga Fellows for four Options School campuses in November.
Overall attendance rates in Options Schools since the start of Saga’s program have been low. Our team feels scheduling conflicts and tutoring not being registered as a credit bearing course have contributed to these low rates. Nevertheless, CPS administrators have indicated to Saga’s Senior Director of Programs in Chicago, Nicole Prahin, that they are considering expanding the Options School program in the future to help with potential shifts in student enrollment from traditional high schools to Options Schools.
New York City - Saga teams pivoted quickly when schools closed down in the Spring and led remote instruction tutorials using either Google Meets or Microsoft Teams. This fall, however, New York City schools lacked coordination and planning in their openings and scheduling; some schools tried to open immediately with hybrid models while others remained fully remote, resulting in confusion across the district. There is also great variation between schools implementing hybrid models—namely in scheduling—resulting in further interruption to the consistency in student access to and engagement with Saga. Student enrollment has fluctuated since the start of the year given the uncertain circumstances of schools switching between various schedules and instruction models. Re-opening has become even more sporadic with delayed announcements, false openings, and sudden shutdowns. Saga has found that communication between the district and the schools is consistently strained or non-existent, which has required our students and teams to pivot on little notice several times since the start of the school year.
Washington D.C. - Each partner school started the year with a 100% remote learning model. Students connected with teachers and tutors using Microsoft teams. There was a delay in Saga’s engagement of students due to the restrictions of DCPS’s block scheduling. Schools gave teachers discretion to transition from direct instruction to personalized small-group support from our teams. Teacher transitions were subjective and often resulted in fluctuating amounts of student-tutor interaction.
At the end of the first quarter DCPS leaders shared that discussions were ongoing about a quarter-three reopening at the end of January or the beginning of February. DCPS administrators determined that students would only attend core math classes for the 1st and 2nd quarter. Saga’s DC team is still awaiting revised schedules from the district.
Stay tuned for updates on what’s to come in 2021!
