Staffing increased to support academic recovery in 2022–23 school year

An estimated 187,000 more adults provided high-intensity tutoring, mentoring, college and career advising or wraparound supports during the 2022–23 school year through the National Partnership for Student Success — a public-private partnership spearheading the White House tutoring initiative — according to a report from the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Based on the RAND Corporation’s 2022–23 National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS) Principal Survey, the report indicates local educational agencies are boosting efforts to offer student-centered support by increasing staffing and collaborating with organizations that specialize in student support services.

The White House declared it is nearly 75 percent of the way toward meeting its goal to place an extra 250,000 tutors, coaches and mentors in public schools by summer 2025. And 87 percent of principals surveyed reported providing at least one of the evidence-based student supports identified by the NPSS as critical to addressing the impacts of the pandemic in the 2022–23 school year.

Among the findings:

  • More than 1/3 of schools reported increasing the number of adults providing NPSS student supports in 2022–23.
  • 53 percent of public schools provided high-intensity tutoring in 2022–23 with the help of 78,000 more high-intensity tutors than they had in 2021–22.
  • School leaders reported having 60,000 additional mentors in 2022–23 compared to 2021–22 as well as 29,000 additional adults providing wraparound supports and 20,000 additional college and career advisors.
  • In schools where these supports were provided, 44 percent of principals reported more students receiving high-intensity tutoring, and 33 percent reported more students receiving mentoring.
  • About a quarter of respondents said they had no tutors, mentors or success coaches in 2022–23.

While the results show significant progress in ensuring students have access to the types of supports needed to recover academically from the pandemic, researchers also noted that “more work remains, and that more adults, including AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps Seniors Volunteers, college students receiving Federal Work-Study funding, and volunteers and staff members from youth serving non-profits are needed to augment schools’ capacity for all students to receive the support they need.”