By: MADINA TOURÉ
NEW YORK — New York is getting close to implementing an intensive tutoring program aimed at boosting reading and math performance, following a yearslong effort to bring it to fruition.
Gov. Kathy Hochul earmarked $9 million in funding exclusively for high-impact tutoring for students in high-need districts in her $260 billion executive budget proposal introduced last month.
The tutoring method, also known as HIT, is a research-backed intervention that pairs students with professionally trained tutors in one-on-one or small-group sessions at least three times a week.
It has been rolled out in 30 states, and the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, has endorsed it as a way to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss.
Lawmakers and advocacy groups that have been pushing for high-impact tutoring over the last four years sought a $10 million allocation and plan to continue advocating for that amount. The budget is due to pass by April 1.
Jacquelyn Martell, executive director of Education Reform Now New York — a nonpartisan advocacy organization that has pushed for high-impact tutoring — said her organization has been working with 30-plus partners statewide, including tutoring providers and community-based organizations, to gather data and share the information with the Hochul administration.
“They see the power of the people, and they also see evidence-based data to back how HIT has been very, very successfully implemented and thinking about scale,” Martell said in an interview.
Those partners include ExpandED Schools, Read Alliance, United Way of Central New York and Read to Succeed Buffalo.
Tennessee — the only state to incorporate high-impact tutoring into its permanent K-12 funding formula — as well as Colorado, Louisiana and Washington, D.C., are among places that have seen success with it.
“Nationwide, we’ve seen good showings of this work, and one thing about our bill too is that we will continue to collect data to make sure it’s working and being brought to the most needy communities,” said Democratic state Sen. Nathalia Fernandez, one of two lawmakers behind legislation for a $10 million HIT pilot.
It is not yet known where the tutors will come from, which districts the program will operate in or how the $9 million will be allocated. Advocates suggested utilizing current school staff and focusing on the five largest school systems — New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and Yonkers — as well as downstate districts.
New York is proposing partnerships between high-need districts and tutoring providers, according to a policy book that accompanied Hochul’s State of the State address last month.
In a statement, Hochul spokesperson Emma Wallner said: “The Governor looks forward to negotiating with the legislature in the coming weeks to hammer out final details and ultimately ensure all New York students have access to a quality education.”
The push comes at an urgent time. Statewide, students showed improvements on math and reading exams last year. But nearly half of students are still not passing the tests, despite the fact that New York has ranked first nationally in school district spending per pupil for 19 consecutive years.
Melanie Ojefua, vice president of high-impact tutoring at ExpandED Schools — a nonprofit that has partnered with New York City to implement a HIT pilot — said results won’t come overnight, especially in large districts, but she stressed the need for interventions. The organization is in 106 schools across 12 school districts this year. “High-impact tutoring can be tailored to the needs of the community and the school and the students,” Ojefua said.
The state has begun taking steps to address such challenges, including a “back to basics” plan to revamp the way kids learn to read by emphasizing a phonics-based approach. Last month, Hochul unveiled a similar proposal focused on math. Stalled efforts
In 2023, the governor proposed using $250 million in state school funding to pay for and require high-impact tutoring for students in third through eighth grade. That effort stalled after lawmakers and school leaders objected to using existing school funds and to imposing new mandates. They argued that the plan ignored older students and duplicated tutoring already expanded with federal pandemic relief funds. At the time, organizations within the New York State Educational Conference Board — which includes the state’s powerful teachers union and the New York State Council of School Superintendents — spoke out against the proposal.
Democratic Assemblymember Brian Cunningham then introduced legislation in June 2023 to establish a $10 million pilot program to provide grants to local education providers. In January 2024, Fernandez introduced the Senate version. Cunningham said he nearly passed his legislation last year, but that came after the budget period.
“The budget proposals that she [currently] has focuses on really how do we keep New York affordable and how do we actually make sure we invest heavily in education as well,” he said.
Hochul’s current proposal is limited to “interested districts,” according to the State of State policy book — an approach that previous skeptics prefer. “This sum is reasonable — there is some evidence to support the policy, and so to me it kind of feels like it’s worth a try,” said Bob Lowry of the state Council of School Superintendents. “It’s not forcing districts to spend money that they might have other plans for.”
The state’s education chairs are also on board, though details like how the money will be distributed still need to be hashed out.
“There’s a bill that gives some context [as] to how this money should be distributed, so we’ll be reviewing that,” Senate Education Chair Shelley Mayer said. “But on balance, this is a very good first step.”
‘We can’t afford to wait’
Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and New York City all have HIT programs in place already. The programs have seen results. In Syracuse, 88 percent of students participating in high-impact tutoring improved their phonics skills, according to ExpandED Schools. Rochester parent and education advocate Ashara Baker partnered last winter with The Oakland REACH — a California parent-led group — for a pilot that allowed some families in Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls to receive high-impact tutoring.
Baker, who at the time led the National Parents Union’s New York chapter, also started a statewide math coalition to improve performance, particularly in large districts.
“I was like, we can’t afford to wait at this point,” Baker said. “We need to figure out how to get resources for families with their kids who are struggling. Ideally we would have loved to see this [HIT] happen four years ago, but here we are now.”
In New York City, a high-impact tutoring program launched during the 2022-23 school year has reached more than 11,500 students across 123 schools, according to the city’s Department of Education. The tutors, who are paid, include college students, recent graduates and trained educators.
This year, about 4,400 students at 106 schools are participating, the department said. The city plans to allocate $4 million beginning this fiscal year.
“We are committed to aligning state and local efforts so that investments are coherent, evidence-based, and directly responsive to the needs of students and schools across New York City,” spokesperson Onika Richards said in a statement.