VES Randomized Control Study

As part of the Accelerate Funded State’s leading Recovery Grants, Reading Assist participated in a randomized control trial study.

The study, led by Verite Educational Services, provided helpful insights about the effect of Reading Assist’s intervention program for 197 of the 1,105 total students who received our school day services during the 2023-24 year.

Key findings from the study include:

Treatment-group students who receive high-frequency and long-term tutoring are likely to outperform control-group students. Additionally, when students assigned to the treatment group receive, on average, four days of tutoring per week, their growth is predicted to far outpace that of their peers assigned to the control group.

The longer students receive tutoring, the larger gains they realize. Students who received 35 weeks of tutoring achieved significantly higher reading scores than those who only received tutoring for 25 weeks.

30-45 minutes is the necessary length of a tutoring session and 3-4 sessions a week is the ideal frequency of sessions.

Tutors interviewed as part of the study reported that students were learning to read and understanding what they were reading.

School satisfaction was high enough that several schools expressed interest in staying with the Reading Assist program beyond the 2023-24 school year, with some schools indicating they would prioritize funding for Reading Assist support beyond the grant. Although the grant funding has expired, all Accelerate schools decided to continue their Reading Assist partnership with their own funding.