The pandemic has led to unfinished learning for a broad swath of students. This unfinished learning has also exacerbated existing disparities in student outcomes by race and ethnicity, income, and geography. Research has shown that high-dosage tutoring is the most effective way for improving learning for many students. But high-dosage tutoring is cost- and resource-intensive. Despite an influx of federal funding, including through the American Rescue Plan, districts can only afford to provide intensive tutoring to a small fraction of students who could benefit.

The Personalized Learning Initiative, conducted with the University of Chicago Education Lab, aims to determine how schools can provide tutoring and other supplemental instruction to serve the largest number of students in as cost-effective a manner as possible. To accomplish this ambitious goal, the initiative will help districts scale both traditional high-dosage tutoring as well as more sustainable approaches to personalized learning. A rigorous, national study will measure the comparative effectiveness of various forms of tutoring for students.

Districts or schools interested in learning more about the study can email PLI@mdrc.org for more details.