American University’s School of Education and CityTutor DC partnered in 2021 to create AU Future Teacher Tutors to bring high-impact tutoring to DC elementary school students in northeast Washington, DC. It has since expanded to include southeast, and northwest DC through a grant for up to $739,000 over two years through the High Impact Tutoring Scaling Scaling Grant from the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). This additional funding will allow Future Teacher Tutors to expand from two local schools to five schools to now include the Perry Street Preparatory Public Charter School, the Langley Elementary School, the Sousa Middle School, Hendley Elementary School, and the Francis L. Cardozo Education Campus.

School of Education (SOE) students provide tutoring twice a week to elementary, middle, and high-school students throughout the District of Columbia thanks to this new grant.

SOE Dean Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy said the partnership supports learning for DC students receiving tutoring as well as AU students. “Not only does our partnership improve learning outcomes for our D.C. public school students, it also offers American University School of Education students the opportunity to receive real-world training,” she said. “There are only a few teacher education programs doing tutoring in communities, particularly urban communities. As tutors, they will work with educators to build off lesson plans being taught in classrooms.”

Tutors are paid for their time and receive a stipend for transportation via Uber or Lyft to make getting to an in-person tutoring site possible. Funding is possible due to grants SOE receives from the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and the Benedict Silverman Foundation, who also provides the curriculum used by the tutors.

SOE continues to expand the AU Future Teacher Tutors program to:

• Serve more DC public schools,
• Include up to 50 SOE undergraduate and graduate students, and
• Continue training tutors to ensure DC school students meet grade-level expectations and improve literacy outcomes.

CityTutor DC continues to partner with organizations to expand opportunities for more DC students to receive high-impact tutoring – a research-backed practice that involves frequent, consistent small group or one-on-one sessions between a trained tutor and student to supplement classroom learning. For more information on CityTutor DC, visit CityTutorDC.org.