Fighting Educational Inequity Through the Power of Tutoring Relationships For every ten children from low-income families who enter high school in the US, only seven will graduate on time. Eighty percent of students who drop out of high school cite course failures as their top reason. Algebra I is the course most commonly failed: only 20% of students who fail Algebra I in ninth grade will go on to receive a high school diploma, compared to 85% of those who pass. Saga Education has developed an in-school, math tutoring program that targets ninth grade Algebra and raises academic growth by as much as two and a half years in one year, according to research conducted by the University of Chicago Urban Labs.
With a proven model, Saga is now exploring ways to expand across the US, including through the acquisition of an online platform, Woot Math, to improve virtual delivery and lower costs; a consulting model to help other nonprofits and school systems to adopt the model; and, a direct-to-student model to reach those most at need during the pandemic. The shift to remote and hybrid learning during the pandemic put many low-income students at risk of falling further behind in student achievement; at the same time, it has created an opportunity for Saga Education to deliver a high-impact virtual tutoring model to more students in need.