Pearl is excited to announce it has been awarded $250,000 in a competitive grant that will increase interoperability between tutor data and district systems via single-sign-on rostering and school-information-system integrations. Pearl will use the funding to support partners including the Illinois Tutoring Initiative, a statewide program, and enterprise tutoring platform, OnYourMark serving the Texas area.
The award, presented by nonprofit organization Accelerate, is part of a broader national effort to develop and scale sustainable, cost-effective models for high-impact tutoring that boosts academic achievement for all students. The Annenberg Institute at Brown University will act as the research body that will study the impact of Accelerate’s grant to Pearl.
“Pearl is honored to partner with Accelerate to combat learning loss and help bring sustainability to tutoring,” says John Failla, CEO. “Our platform is rooted in the core values of relationships, research and efficacy. This grant money will help us to continue our research-based approach to filling the current gaps in high-impact tutoring programs across the United States.”
Pearl is one of 31 research and education partners selected to receive the award, as well as to join a community to share best practices and resources and ultimately help inform Accelerate’s national research and policy agenda.
“We know that good tutoring programs work — partly because well-off families have used them to boost student success for generations. And we know that those same programs can be a powerful tool to close racial and economic opportunity gaps when we give less privileged students the same access. What we haven’t figured out yet is how to make high-impact tutoring available for everyone,” said Accelerate CEO Kevin Huffman. “With districts deciding how to spend one-time federal funds to combat the effects of the pandemic, solving that challenge has never been more urgent.”
Accelerate’s announcement of the inaugural cohort of grantees follows a competitive national selection process. In spring 2022, Accelerate, as part of its launch, released a Call to Effective Action to recruit partners to help it design, launch, and scale high-impact tutoring efforts and to build a community committed to impact and to shaping the evidence base for tutoring. Partners interested in the initiative were asked to first submit a letter of intent outlining their high-level vision. Following review of more than 200 letters by a panel of diverse experts, finalists were selected and invited to submit a full-length proposal. Beyond the inaugural cohort of grantees, Accelerate will continue to make additional investments in tutoring innovation over time.
Learn more about Pearl’s vision.
View a list of all grantees and a summary of their tutoring models.