Key Takeaways:
- Live Online High-Impact Tutoring Works—Even in Rural Settings: Early results show strong math learning gains for middle school students across New Mexico, confirming that daily, live online, in-school tutoring can deliver results comparable to in-person models. This is especially promising for rural districts facing teacher shortages and logistical barriers.
- Saga’s Co-Design Approach is Essential to Success: Saga Education’s hands-on support—through curriculum design, training, scheduling, and school integration—ensured high attendance and consistent program delivery. Their “co-design” strategy proved critical in adapting the program to meet local needs and realities.
- Embedding Tutoring in the School Day Is a Game-Changer: One of the clearest findings is that in-school tutoring drives participation and learning outcomes more effectively than after-school models. By making tutoring part of the daily schedule, New Mexico’s program overcame key barriers to student engagement.
Overview
The University of Chicago Education Lab recently published a new research brief that outlines the implementation and initial results of live online high-impact tutoring for middle school math in New Mexico. This program started in 2022 as a collaboration between the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED), Saga Education, and the Personalized Learning Initiative (PLI), providing small-group tutoring virtually during school hours.
Saga Education: The Technical Engine
We have been a key player and technical support partner for the PLI. Our ” co-design ” approach focuses on customizing high-impact tutoring to fit each school’s specific context and requirements. We highlight the importance of regular scheduling, relevant content, and the support of school stakeholders in boosting attendance and effectiveness.
In the rural areas of New Mexico, we implemented a completely live online delivery model to tackle teacher shortages and logistical issues. This allowed for daily tutoring sessions without interfering with school schedules. They also offered important resources:
- A structured curriculum designed for small group tutoring has been shown to enhance learning speed.
- Support for scheduling, attendance monitoring, and professional development to maintain high-quality
Findings and Impacts
While detailed results are still on the way, there have been some encouraging outcomes from the 2023–24 school year:
- High-impact inspired by Chicago’s Saga initiative: small-group tutoring integrated into class time with a well-structured curriculum (educationlab.uchicago.edu).
- Early quantitative impact: Students involved in New Mexico’s tutoring program showed significant improvements in math skills, similar to previous results from our in-person high-impact tutoring in Chicago and Georgia (for instance, two-thirds to over a year of grade-level advancements)
- Our live online model effectively tackled common participation challenges in after-school or home programs, enhancing consistency and reach (educationlab.uchicago.edu).
Our method of co-design—bringing virtual tutoring into the school system, working alongside teachers, and offering continuous support—was influenced by findings from earlier PLI reports regarding attendance issues and effective strategies.
Broader Context & The Path Ahead
This project in New Mexico builds on a history of models that are powered by our solutions and based on evidence:
- Saga’s RCTs in Chicago and NYC demonstrated that high-impact tutoring could double or even triple math learning gains, even when implemented on a large scale (educationlab.uchicago.edu).
- In a pilot program in Fulton County, Georgia, under PLI, in-school tutoring resulted in about two-thirds of a year’s worth of math learning recovery, surpassing the results of after-school models.
- A synthesis from Saga-Education Lab in March 2024 highlighted that in-school delivery and structured support from tutors are key factors that drive impact.
These insights have shaped federal funding and national policies: they are involved in the Biden Administration’s Improving Student Achievement Agenda and Secretary Cardona’s initiative to allocate pandemic relief funds towards high-impact tutoring.
What’s Next
- The Education Lab will continue monitoring reading outcomes, which remain inconclusive, and collect further data across more virtual implementations (educationlab.uchicago.edu).
- Additional research will refine best practices around tutor staffing, technology integration, and cost-effectiveness — aiming to reduce costs (e.g., via blended tech-tutor models like Saga Tech) without sacrificing learning gains.
- A detailed “playbook” is in development to support districts looking to scale similar virtual or hybrid tutoring systems.
Final Thoughts
New Mexico’s journey represents a crucial step forward: it shows that live online high-impact tutoring can lead to notable improvements in math performance when carefully planned and developed. This method tackles ongoing inequalities and access challenges by incorporating tutoring into the school schedule—even in areas facing staffing shortages.
We will continue to play a key role in helping schools design programs, train, schedule, and create curricula. This has provided proof and the tools to make our model work and easy to replicate. As more data comes in, New Mexico’s initiative has the potential to serve as an important example for expanding personalized learning in rural and underserved school systems all over the country.