TO address learning loss due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Public School System is launching today, Monday, June 14, “high-dosage tutoring” for students who have fallen behind academically, Education Commissioner Alfred Ada said.
High-dosage tutoring will help students who are not at their grade level in reading and mathematics. A fifth grader, for example, is not at his or her grade level if that student’s mathematics or reading level is at the second or third grade level.
Ada said PSS data from STAR assessments showed that 67% of elementary to middle school students are not at their grade level in reading, and 54% are not at their grade level in mathematics.
“Because of learning loss due to the pandemic, a lot of these students are really behind,” he added.
PSS will implement high-dosage tutoring for kindergarten to middle school students, Ada said, adding that high school students will have summer school.
Ada said high-dosage tutoring is proven effective, and is a research-based strategy to help students catch up.
He said when the federal Education Stabilization Fund came out, schools across the nation implemented high-dosage tutoring.
Ada said PSS already has over 150 tutors who are high school students, mostly AmeriCorps students or members of the National Honor Society. Their orientation and training will begin today at Marianas High School.
Ada said PSS is paying each of these tutors $10 an hour, and it will be considered their summer job.
High-dosage tutoring will run for five weeks, but some tutors will be given an opportunity to continue performing their job into the Fall semester.
