During the 2021-22 school year, Chapter One launched, in cooperation with Stanford University’s National Student Support Accelerator, one of the largest random control trials of high impact tutoring for beginning reading instruction. Nearly 800 kindergarten students in Broward County, Florida were randomly assigned at the beginning of the school year.

The treatment group received 1:1 supplemental high impact tutoring in phonics from Chapter One staff. All 1:1 sessions were conducted during the school day in short bursts to maximize student focus at this age, and minimize classroom disruption. Students also received 20 minutes per day of independent practice time on tablets synched to the instruction conducted that day.

Researchers from the Accelerator analyzed the data of assessments conducted at the beginning and end of the school year. The analysis demonstrates that 36% more students in the treatment group achieved grade level phonics skills by the end of kindergarten than students in the control group, a difference that is both large and highly statistically significant (p<0.01).