City on a Hill Charter School Case Study: A Tutorial-Led Turnaround?

City on a Hill Charter School, launched in 1994, serves urban Boston students. While CoaH became well known as a caring community, its students scored roughly the same as traditional Boston schools on MCAS and lagged state averages by wide margins. Staff and trustees agreed that the Achievement Gap needed to be closed. In the fall of 2004, a dynamic new leadership team was determined to find a solution.

All high-poverty high schools get federal funds (“Title I”) designed to pay for “extra help.” CoaH paid teachers “extra” to remain in their classrooms after school for students who seek extra help. But few students sought help, and the program’s effectiveness was unknown.

CoaH leaders were looking for a better way to spend these funds.

Consultant Mark Destler set up his program: “Reading MD” (actually a math and reading program). The key was to use both grant monies and Title I funds to hire “work-study” college students as tutors. Because the federal government subsidizes “work-study” students, they earn $10 to $15 per hour but the “host” (in this case, CoaH) pays just $3 to $4 per hour. Because these tutorial jobs were well paid, Destler was able to screen aggressively and hold tutors accountable.

After a spring 2005 “test” run, RMD launched in full during the 2005-06 school year: 75 tutors for 100 kids. In 2006-2007, RMD served all 9^th and 10^th graders: 150 tutors for 200 kids, between 30-75 tutoring hours per student.

This was not an “optional program.” Nor was it “for the strugglers”: every 9^th and 10^th grader at CoaH received tutoring. Students who did not show up to a tutorial were held accountable in the same way as if they’d missed class. Tutorials were not to support “homework” – they were to build math and literacy skills. Tutors prepared for each session as a teacher would prepare for a class, with a lesson plan built around short and long-term learning objectives. The program was data-driven in many respects.

The results were fantastic. Was the spike in MCAS attributable to RMD?

Other aspects of City on a Hill changed and developed over this period. Administrators, teachers, and tutors combined to improve student behavior. But the high-dosage tutorial was the only significant addition to instruction that CoaH made. Well on its way to joining an elite group of open admissions high-poverty high performance high schools, CoaH is now working with RMD on an expansion of its programs that will bring in 20 full-time tutors for the 2008-2009 school year.

CoaH ELA 10^th Grade MCAS Scores 2004->2007

	Spring 2004	Spring 2005	Spring 2006 (After 1 Yr Tutor)	Spring 2007 (After 2 Yr Tutor)
Advanced	0%	0%	2.6%	6%
Proficient	41%	46%	57.7%	66%
Needs Impvmnt	55%	50%	34.6%	28.60%
Failing	4%	4%	5.1%	0

CoaH Math 10^th Grade MCAS Scores 2004->2007

	2004	2005	2006	2007
Advanced	3%	9%	9.1%	38%
Proficient	39%	32%	45.5%	38%
Needs Impvemnt	38%	52%	39.0%	24.60%
Failing	20%	9%	6.5%	0

Takeaway: Two years of tutorial drove CoaH student achievement from mediocre (≈42% of kids demonstrating proficiency) to above-average (≈74% of kids meeting these standards).

MCAS Scores in Context

Takeaway: RMD was launched for the 2006 school year. CoaH student achievement has “achieved separation” from its sending district; its students now meet (ELA) or exceed (math) state averages. It is well on its way to bringing its (urban, African-American, low SES) students up to par with their (suburban, Caucasian/Asian, high SES) counterparts.