NEW YORK, May 14, 2025 -- A new randomized control trial (RCT), funded by Accelerate, found that middle school students who received virtual small-group tutoring from Littera Education made statistically significant academic gains compared to peers using other intervention tools and software.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago Education Lab and MDRC as part of Accelerate's Personalized Learning Initiative, which aims to identify effective, scalable strategies to combat unfinished learning. Littera's program, which matches students with high-quality tutors in a 1:3 virtual setting, outperformed control groups across key learning metrics.
The work took place in Greenville County School District 1, a 77,000-student district in South Carolina. Littera provided high-impact math tutoring services for approximately 750 students in grades 6-8 across three Title I middle schools as part of a three-arm randomized control trial with over 2,000 students participating. The 2023-2024 school year program consisted of two 10-week tutoring sprints with training, site-visits, surveys, and progress monitoring as part of the implementation.
On average, students who received Littera's virtual tutoring made a statistically significant improvement of .11 standard deviations (p value=.006) as measured by an index of end-of-year math scores. This acceleration equates to approximately 32% of the math that an average middle school student learns in a school year. Of the participants, 87% were students of color and 46% were English Language Learners.
"This study breaks new ground as the first large-scale randomized controlled trial to demonstrate statistically significant gains in middle grades math through virtual small-group tutoring," said Dr. Matthew Steinberg, Managing Director of Research and Evaluation at Accelerate. "These findings are a major step forward in identifying scalable, cost-effective tutoring models that can help school systems address existing and longstanding learning gaps and accelerate student progress in core academic subjects, and adds to a growing body of evidence on the promising effects of virtual tutoring."
"Skilled math tutors for upper grades content are difficult to source locally at the scale necessary to address the needs of school districts," says Justin Serrano, Founder and CEO of Littera. "Demonstrating that significant results can be achieved in a small group, fully virtual format speaks to the transformative potential of high-impact tutoring."
This study marks Littera's second study focused on virtual tutoring for middle school math. The first study, conducted by Brown University, compared 1:1 and small group tutoring outcomes. The current research further illustrates effectiveness with small group tutoring.
Littera Education and Greenville County School District are excited to continue the collaboration this fall through South Carolina's Palmetto Math Project.
Read the full study findings here.
About Littera Education
Littera partners with K-12 districts to customize high-impact tutoring, designed to unlock student potential and foster success in Reading, Math and English Language Acquisition. Littera provides customized tutoring solutions to drive student outcomes. With our virtual tutors, curriculum integrations, and the Littera Tutoring Management System, schools can reach every learner with individualized support. For information, visit www.litteraeducation.com.
Contact Person:
Alison Burke
alisonb@litteraeducation.com
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