天美麻豆

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Five years after the height of the pandemic, students are still experiencing its negative impacts. Achievement remains below pre-pandemic levels, absenteeism is still elevated, and well-being 鈥� in particular, the mental health of students 鈥� continues to be stressed. There has been some progress, but far from what is needed to be able to say: The kids are alright.  

Evidence-based supports exist that can address these challenges 鈥� and more than 400,000 additional adults have helped deliver them in the past three years, . The support includes high-dosage tutoring, which can accelerate learning. Success coaching, which combines academic and social-emotional support and problem solving, improves attendance and achievement. In-school mentoring builds interpersonal relationships that foster school connectedness.

Wraparound support, bringing in community organizations to help with such issues as health and housing, addresses obstacles to well-being. Postsecondary advising gives students clear pathways to adult success and helps them see why full engagement in school matters.    

The challenge schools face in delivering these evidence-based supports more broadly is three-fold. First, they must implement them in ways that align with what the evidence shows drives impact. Second, to be effective, all this must be delivered in the context of supportive, human relationships. This requires 鈥減eople power,鈥� often beyond what existing school staff can provide.

Finally, it takes significant organizational capacity to provide the full range of support to the large number of students who often need them. Schools therefore need strategies to reduce the number of students requiring additional help, along with systems that get the right supports to the right students at the right time.  

Results from a recent nationally representative survey of school principals provide encouraging news about the spread of evidence-based student support. Yet, the findings also offer a sobering reminder of the work that remains to reach all students who need help.  

鈥� a coalition of 250 nonprofits, 200 school districts, and 80 institutes of higher education working to expand evidence-based student supports for all K-12 students 鈥� has partnered with the RAND Corporation to survey the nation鈥檚 principals annually over the past three school years.  

Among the most encouraging findings: about half of the nation鈥檚 public school principals report that their school provides high-intensity tutoring. This grows to two-thirds of schools in high-poverty neighborhoods. These results are aligned with a administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Mentoring and wraparound support can also be found in about half the nation鈥檚 schools.

Nearly all high schools report providing postsecondary guidance. Slightly more than a quarter of schools have success coaches. Over the past three school years, principals report that over 400,000 additional adults have been engaged as tutors, mentors, postsecondary advisors or wraparound support coordinators in their schools.

Clearly, evidence-based student supports have expanded substantially since the pandemic. 

Moreover, half of principals report partnering with a local college or a nonprofit to provide some of these programs. Connections with community organizations that were frayed by the pandemic have been rebuilt and strengthened, bringing more adults into schools to provide critical support for students.

Finally, more principals report the use of student success systems to monitor student progress on key indicators, enabling more proactive and strategic action.  

Despite the positive news, the plurality of principals reports that only some to a few of their students who need help are receiving it. Only 20% to 30% of principals report that most or all students get the support they need. Principals do not see student needs decreasing, four years from the height of the pandemic: Less than 10% reported that fewer students needed support in 2024-25, than in prior years.

When asked what stands in the way of more students receiving support, principals report both supply and demand constraints. Half cited funding as an issue, and a similar share said staffing was a challenge. A third reported that finding enough time in the school schedule was a barrier. Smaller but significant numbers cited lack of student interest, parental reluctance and limited awareness of the support available. 

 A number of schools surveyed have overcome these challenges and scaled evidence-based approaches. About 20% of schools could be described as 鈥渇ull-student support schools,鈥� where principals report providing high-intensity tutoring, mentoring or success coaching, and wraparound support. Around one in five principals report providing high-intensity tutoring or mentoring to more than 30% of their students, at least three times as many as typically received this support pre-pandemic.

This shows that significant numbers of schools, including those who serve high-need student populations, have figured out how to solve the challenges associated with providing a wide range of help to large numbers of students.  

Some schools are trying new approaches, including using Federal Work-Study dollars to support eligible college students working in K-12 schools as tutors and mentors, as well as developing pathways from tutoring or success coaching into teaching careers.

Others are tapping one of the most underutilized and most affordable sources of people power: high school students themselves. Good models exist and in a forthcoming survey from TeenVoice the majority of high school students said they would use peer supports, if offered, and would also be interested in providing them. There are also ongoing efforts to identify how high-intensity tutoring, mentoring and postsecondary advising can be delivered both online and in person. Finally, efforts are underway to broadly expand student success systems.  

For the kids to be alright, we need to provide schools where they want to be, schools where they receive high-quality instruction, and schools where they receive the support they need to attend regularly, focus in class, complete their schoolwork and thrive. We are making progress but still need to scale what has been proven to work. 

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