Sharma: A local focus, professional development, accelerated classwork and policies that keep costs down can help make tutoring programs a success
At the conclusion of the 2021-22 academic year, I visited schools and districts in Tennessee that are a part of the statewide tutoring program, the TN All Corps. I observed many students and tutors working together in the pursuit of catching up in their math learning. At each I visited, I witnessed sparks going off. Kids were truly engaged in learning math. In the face of two-plus years of pandemic-era learning, this left me feeling hopeful.
As the new school year commences, however, students are still way behind. As economist and Harvard University Professor Thomas Kane demonstrated through his recent research, unfinished learning is not only quantifiable, but also inequitable. Scalable solutions for addressing unfinished learning, Kane says, are often hard to implement.
As the CEO and co-founder of Zearn, I have had the privilege of supporting state education leaders in Tennessee and Texas who are making monumental investments in high-impact, large-scale tutoring programs. Through the TN All Corps and the Vetted Texas Tutor Corps, more than 125,000 kids in 375 districts and over 2,800 schools are accelerating their math learning.