RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia's top education leader expressed optimism about how school divisions across the Commonwealth are moving forward with tutoring programming after a significant investment from the state, known as the "All In" initiative.
As was shown in the most recent Standards of Learning test scores, Dr. Lisa Coons, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Virginia Department of Education, said the commonwealth's students are still struggling to recover from pandemic learning loss -- and they're doing it more slowly than students in other states.
"We are seeing some states across the country who are recovering at a faster pace than Virginia was using that high intensity tutoring approach," Coons said. "One of the things that Virginia has been doing is all their school divisions have been working very hard, but no one was bringing in the new research, the new evidence, the new experiences that were really changing learning recovery for students."
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in early September the state would provide a total of $418 million to school divisions to combat learning loss. The governor recommended school divisions use the funding to address high-intensity tutoring, the Virginia Literacy Act, and chronic absenteeism.
Youngkin gave school divisions less than six weeks to present a spending plan, detailing how the district would utilize the funding, to his Department of Education. It was a timeline Coons called a "challenge" -- but described by school officials in Chesterfield during a November School Board meeting as "aggressive" and "ridiculous."
21% of Virginia's school districts were able to present a spending plan by October 16. Nonetheless, Coons said she was "pleased" that other districts decided to take their time and be "intentional" and "thoughtful" in their planning.
As of Dec. 13, nearly every district's plan has been approved by the state.
“I think it's going fantastic. I'm really proud of our school divisions," Coons said.
The state wants school divisions to use most of their funding, 70% to be exact, to implement high dosage tutoring. According to recommendations from the Department of Education, high dosage tutoring works best in teacher-student ratios of no more than 1:5 and done consistently for 3-5 hours per week.
The "All In" initiative calls for all 3-8 grade students who failed or were at risk of failing reading and/or math to qualify for high-intensity tutoring. That accounts for 50% of Virginia's 3-8 grade students in reading and 66% in math.
School districts with greater needs will have even higher percentages of students who qualify for tutoring. For example, 15,228 3-8 grade students in Richmond Public Schools qualify for tutoring in reading or math or both subjects, according to the district's spending plan. To put that into perspective, the district's total enrollment is about 22,000 students.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Education last year, 11% of students across the country were receiving high intensity tutoring in public schools.
“We want to be at 50% and 66%. Looking at the trends nationally, do those numbers seem doable and achievable?” reporter Tyler Layne asked Coons.
"I think those are the numbers of students who are at risk, and so some of our school divisions are already supporting those students in different ways," Coons responded. “That doesn’t mean that 50% or 66% of our students aren't already receiving support. It's just helping us understand the volume of students who are at risk.”
She added, "And it is ambitious."
Coons said every district is implementing a tutoring plan differently, depending on the unique needs of its community and availability of staff.
For example, Chesterfield County Public Schools, where 70% of the district's students could benefit from additional tutoring according to its spending plan, hired 53 tutoring coaches. The tutoring coaches will serve as liaisons between the school and families to stress the importance of tutoring and coordinate live virtual tutoring sessions with students who need extra support.
The school district will utilize and expand its existing digital tools and online tutoring services to implement its "All In" plan, leaning on mostly virtual resources due to "limited minutes and teacher capacity" in the school day for learning support, according to its spending plan.
During a November 13 School Board meeting, at least one board member raised concerns about the plan, suggesting the board "push back" against the state's recommendations. She cited a greater need for the state's support in addressing mental health issues.
“What might along those lines help our kids more than tutoring in a time of stretched resources? And while our tutoring program is great, the research shows online tutoring doesn’t work for literacy," said School Board Member Kathryn Haines. "I would encourage us… to kind of push back in the way that we also did during the pandemic and say this isn’t working for us.”
However, Superintendent Dr. Mervin Daugherty was quick to disagree.
"We think it's going to work, not that it's not going to work. This is not the only thing we're doing for our students," Daugherty said. "We think the materials we have in place and the people we have in the buildings are going to be very successful."
Daugherty added, "There's a lot of balls in the air with this plan, and I commend our schools and our district staff for getting this together, all these pieces that all of a sudden were put onto us by Richmond."
When asked how much of a role virtual tutoring should play in the implementation of high intensity tutoring, Coons said digital resources should be used as "practice" and "reinforcement" of what students have already learned in-person.
"We certainly don't want to replace that in-person tutoring with online, digital tutoring. We want to collaborate and partner that and really expand the power of the tutor and expand the power of the tutoring opportunity," Coons said.
Though some school divisions continue to face teacher vacancies, Coons said she hasn't heard any concerns from local superintendents about challenges finding available tutors. However, she said the plan allows for flexibility in the case that a district is struggling to fill positions.
Richmond Public Schools plans to hire an additional 60-90 tutors. A district spokesperson said the division has already received nearly 100 applications and continues to actively recruit. She added 30 tutors already working within the district will be transitioned to support the 'All In' efforts.
Hanover Public Schools is still actively filling positions and plans to implement "All In" tutoring in January.
"Also ongoing is our coordination with the Virginia Department of Education and vendors regarding digital resources as we will be utilizing a mixture of in-person and digital supports," said Hanover Schools spokesperson Chris Whitley.
Henrico Public Schools said it's not making any "wholesale changes," rather expanding upon its existing tutoring resources. The district said it's fully staffed to support "All In" initiatives and most of the tutoring will take place in-person.
"Given the robust tutoring program that was in place previously, HCPS will continue to leverage existing resources. Individual schools are using the recommendations to build upon that foundation to meet student needs among their school population," said Henrico Schools spokesperson Eileen Cox.
Coons recognized that some school divisions already had tutoring programs underway and wouldn't need to roll out large-scale projects, but she said it was her hope that, through this initiative, all students across the state who need help will be supported by the end of the year.
"Everybody has to pitch in -- not just our school division supporting students, but we have community members, we have organizations, we have interfaith agencies, we have aspiring educators, and university partners. It's about everybody pitching in," Coons said.
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