Why Early Intervention and High-Impact Tutoring Can Be the Solution to Declining Literacy Rates

Education is a major cornerstone that sets you on the path to professional success. With declining global literacy rates, it may be time to identify and address the issues as a priority. The National Literacy Institute (NLI) findings suggest that only 44% of U.S. adults read at a strong level, which is considered level 3 or above, with this percentage dropping from 48% in 2017. Their findings also suggest that 40% of fourth graders read below the basic National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) levels, falling from what it was in 2022.

To curb this crisis, it's vital to focus on early interventions. These intervention could begin at the school level and continue even at home, to ensure the sort of consistent education parents want for their kids. National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggests that early intervention can start as young as 2 or 3 years old, especially for children with developmental or intellectual disabilities. A young child's brain is still forming, which means it allows them to form large number of neural pathways at this age. Early interventions not only give children an early start but also give them the best possible chance at reaching their full potential.

Academically, high-impact tutoring is deemed the optimal model for early educational intervention. Stanford University's National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) explains how this model can help a wide range of students, even those who are academically far behind.

High-impact tutoring is a process that involves tutors, instruction, integrated learning, data use, equity, safety, and cohesion. This makes it expensive for most schools and families. As a result, far fewer students gain access to high impact tutoring than could benefit.

This is where more effective reading interventions are required. At the center of this shift is Once and Matt Pasternack, co-founder and CEO. Once is an early-childhood reading platform that focuses on children from the ages of 3 to 7 years, attempting to dismantle the literacy crisis at its roots. The platform focuses on the 'science of reading' approach, empowering adults to provide in person reading tutoring to get the best results. The mission isn't to avoid human connection, but to enable it by equipping schools, teachers, and parents with the digital tools and structural frameworks that children need to excel academically on a day-to-day basis, as Pasternack explains.

He notes that schools, especially, need a more scalable approach for early literacy. He adds that upskilling high school students or parents to teach early elementary school students how to read is an example of how schools make Once more scalable and cost-effective.

"For school district stakeholders, expanding reading tutoring for early elementary students is one of the single most cost-effective investments we can make," says Pasternack. He adds that because the impact is greatest in these early years, people need to think creatively about the delivery models. And that the data demonstrate that by utilizing innovative mechanisms, they can scale these programs, maximize resources, and truly move the needle for younger learners.

He emphasizes that the best method to boost the falling literacy rates is high-impact tutoring. But the question is how people can resource high-impact tutoring to make it an affordable option to choose. Pasternack suggests that there are multiple ways to resolve this issue. Training existing paraprofessionals, leveraging technology to streamline tutor coaching, and embedding brief, highly focused 15-minute daily sessions directly into the school day are all working examples.

He believes that the earlier schools and parents can bring in this early intervention, the better it improves literacy rates, while setting each individual up for success. School districts can empower parents to provide evidence-based tutoring at home and school districts can also provide tutoring during the school day by repurposing existing school staff.

"Now that there are so many different potential delivery models, the question for school districts and parents is no longer why would I provide early elementary literacy tutoring, but instead why wouldn't I?" explains Pasternack. For all stakeholders involved, be it schools or families, investing early can be both an educational necessity and an economic lever.