Grant Recipient: WestEd
Term: 2023 — 2026
Principal Investigators: Tony Fong, WestEd
Neal Finkelstein, WestEd
Funding: $370,425
Summary: This project is an evaluation of an online math tutoring program for upper grade elementary school students performing below grade level, aimed at improving math achievement. The program will use live online tutoring where tutors will provide instruction in foundational math skills. The program will be delivered at school during the school day and maintain a ratio of four students to every tutor. Tutoring sessions will last 45 minutes, with five occurring each week for at least 12 consecutive weeks. For this study, students will receive the Air Tutors tutoring program at a cost of $1,300 per student.
Air Tutors is backed by promising prior evidence: a well-conducted RCT of Air Tutors in three elementary schools in Georgia and Texas found that the program produced a gain of 0.10 standard deviations in math achievement (compared to the control group), which corresponds to what would be expected from roughly two and a half months of additional learning. A key study limitation of the past evaluation was the sample size, which was only 276 students.
Under the project, researchers will recruit a sample of approximately 3,700 struggling math students in grades 4, 5, and 6 in 20 schools. Of these 3,700 students, 2,800 will be assigned to a treatment group that receives Air Tutors tutoring in school, and 900 will serve as comparison students who receive typical educational programming. The study will use covariate matching, where treatment students are matched with control students based on student baseline academic performance and demographics. The study will use the states’ standardized tests to measure math achievement two years after study entry.
The study’s pre-specified analysis plan is linked here.
