7 big ideas to fix education
Tutors, personalized plans, longer school days . . . here are some of the possible ways to catch up kids after the pandemic
Kids are still floundering post-pandemic, the state’s latest test scores show. Is it time for a nuclear option in Massachusetts to help them recover? Yes, parents, experts, and educators told — well, shouted at — the Globe. It’s time, they said, for the state to dream big and organize a massive push to catch kids up. Here are seven bold ideas:
Start a statewide tutoring army
Nearly every school has offered some form of tutoring or homework help since 2020 as a way to help kids catch up, but experts said it’s clearly not working — either because kids aren’t showing up or because the programs aren’t high quality enough.
So the state should build a large-scale tutoring army, said Robin Lake, director of the nonpartisan Center on Reinventing Public Education, which recently released a report, “The State of the American Student,” calling for urgent action. The report highlights statewide tutoring efforts in Texas, Tennessee, and Colorado.
In Oakland, Calif., the school system has recruited young men of color to work as reading tutors — they’re known as “Early Literacy Kings.” Community organizations are providing high-intensity tutoring as well, including one group that trains low-income parents as tutors.
Research shows “high quality” tutoring works when students are tutored at school, during school hours, at least three times per week, with one to three students per tutor, and ideally with tutors who are well-trained professionals or teachers.
But nationwide, only 2 percent of families reported receiving tutoring that loosely fit that definition, according to a study by the University of Southern California.
And in Massachusetts, there’s little evidence schools have offered such high-dosage tutoring at scale, said Ed Lambert, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. When the alliance examined plans by the state’s 20 largest school districts detailing how they would spend their third batch of federal COVID relief funds, he said, only Salem specifically mentioned high-dosage tutoring.
Teachers union contracts and school schedules have gotten in the way for many districts, Lambert said.
“We can’t let those things be obstacles to doing what’s necessary,” he said, “or we’re going to lose an entire generation.”
Tutoring programs nationwide have struggled with poor attendance, Lake said. One reason? Parents don’t realize how far behind their kids really are, advocates said. About 90 percent of parents reported their kids were at or above grade level for both math and reading, one national March poll found, but schools reported that half of students were behind grade level at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.
“If you don’t tell us our kids need tutoring, why would we sign them up?” said Keri Rodrigues, a Woburn mother who founded Massachusetts Parents United and the National Parents Union.
To entice students to show up for tutoring, schools should offer incentives — maybe points toward buying candy or taking cool field trips, said Hlaa Ahmed, 17, a Boston University freshman and recent Boston Community Leadership Academy graduate.
“Otherwise, they’d view it as a punishment or they’re being singled out,” Ahmed said.
Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said the state should recruit retired educators as tutors.
Longer school days, years
Students are behind in part because they missed classroom time, so clearly the solution needs to include more time in class — be it longer
school days or school years, experts said.
“The crisis calls for an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Lake said. “There are people in all walks of life who would be happy to help. Let’s ask them.”
It might make sense for schools to adjust the schedules of some students who are really behind to spend more time on core academic subjects, Lake said.
But the teachers union said it’s important to offer students interesting, fun programs.
“Just throwing kids in seats for longer hours does not do the job,” Page said. He called for the state to offer after-school programs that mix academic enrichment with arts or sports, like those “that the most fortunate among us are able to have for our kids.”
Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, supported a “much longer day” and potentially a “longer school year,” but he said the extra hours should include a lively variety of activities.
”Plenty of physical education, plenty of arts, interspersed with what goes on academically,”
Koocher said.
Some education advocates supported yearround schooling with more frequent, shorter breaks instead of a long two-month summer vacation.
“Quite frankly, our children don’t need any more gaps in learning time, and the summer is a significant time gap,” said Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston NAACP.
The teachers union said all kids should have access to great summer camps, which could include academics and which are often too pricey for lowincome families to afford. “Wouldn’t it be remarkable — if we’re talking pie in the sky — if it was a guarantee that every single kid got to go to a summer camp for a few weeks over the summer?” Page said.
Chad d’Entremont, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, agreed, noting that many affluent families can afford to bring enrichment into their kids’ lives year-round.
“We need to bring those same experiences to all children,” he said.