Kid Power is tackling the significant academic challenges faced by students attending Title 1 DC Public Schools. The barriers students encounter highlight the deep inequities in our region, creating obstacles to their academic success and personal growth.

To address these challenges, Kid Power launched the High Impact Tutoring program, piloted at Stanton Elementary School in Ward 8. This innovative program combines social-emotional learning with evidence-based academic support for 2nd to 5th-graders, helping students recover from the learning loss caused by remote education during the pandemic.

HIT is a structured, research-based intervention that supports students with foundational literacy needs. Students work in small groups, with a staff-to-student ratio of no more than 1:3. We use the UFLI Foundations and Word Connections curricula, aligned with the Science of Reading to increase students’ decoding skills, along with a daily Social Emotional Learning mini-lesson to support the whole child.

PROGRAM IMPACT

• Students grew on average one year in foundational reading skills, based on the Quick Phonics Screener.
• Students averaged 88% on phonics mastery progress monitoring assessments
• 85% of students reported active learning engagement
• 77% of students reported a sense of belonging at school