The Everyone Graduates Center and the Partnership for Student Success (PSS) are excited to announce the publication of a new report, Are K-12 Students Getting the Evidence-Based Supports They Need? Progress and Challenges Four Years After the Pandemic. The report, authored by Dr. Robert Balfanz and Vaughan Byrnes of the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, analyzes findings from a third annual nationally representative survey of K-12 public school principals, fielded by the RAND Corporation in partnership with PSS, to examine the deployment of evidence-based student supports and evolving student need.

The report concludes that four years after the height of the pandemic, there is widespread use of evidence-based and people-powered student supports—such as high-intensity tutoring, mentoring, student success coaching, postsecondary transition coaching, and wraparound supports—in public schools across the United States. But, public school principals indicate that continued growth is needed to meet the scale of student needs.

Key insights from the report include:

• High-intensity tutoring, mentoring, and wraparound supports are each provided in about half of the nation’s K-12 public schools, and in about two-thirds of high-poverty schools, with most schools offering these services providing them to 20% or fewer of their students.
   
• Over the past three school years, an estimated 400,000 additional adults have stepped up to support K-12 students in public schools as tutors, mentors, postsecondary advisors, and wraparound support providers.
   
• Four years after the height of the pandemic, public school principals report no let-up in student need with 30% to 40% reporting an increase in the number of students needing high-intensity tutoring, mentoring, or wraparound supports.

The report emphasizes that while implementation barriers exist to expanding evidence-based programs, there is a subset of schools that are proving that serving students at scale is possible, and outlines a range of resources and opportunities to support expansion of high-quality programs.

Join the Partnership for Student Success and Dr. Robert Balfanz for a webinar that delves into the findings of this report on Thursday, December 4th from 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET.

Robert Balfanz wrote an OpEd piece for The74 that New Survey Shows 440,000 More Tutors, Mentors Supporting Students – But It’s Not Enough