Biden administration recognizes Guilford County Schools for tutoring program

The Guilford County School district received national attention from the Biden-Harris administration for its spending of COVID-19 relief funds. 

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education released a Back-To-School checklist for American Rescue Plan spending. 

The list offers several recommended strategies to support students' learning, mental health, and safety. Some examples include using funds to attract and retain teachers, offering tutoring services, and expanding after-school programs.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona says the list is intended to kickstart conversations between parents and school leaders as they make decisions about the funds. 

“I'm encouraging schools and families to reach a new level of communication and transparency together to make sure our students and educators are getting the support they need,” he said. 

The list highlights 15 states and school districts as examples of how the funds supported students across the country. Guilford County Schools was one of them.

It specifically mentions the district's high-dosage tutoring program. The district implemented this program with local partnerships between the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. 

On a Zoom call with the White House administration, Acting Superintendent Whitney Oakley said that the district also hired its own high school students as tutors to “invest in local talent” and “reflect the diversity” of the student population. 

“For us, high-dosage tutoring has two purposes — to address learning loss and to create a pipeline of educators,” she said. “As our tutors see the impact they are making on the lives of students, some have already expressed a desire to teach in public education after they complete their studies.”

In the last school year, Oakley said students had more than 420 tutors and 66,910 hours of tutoring. There were more than 109,145 tutoring sessions. 

As a result, she said preliminary data show learning gains across many student groups and schools compared to last year.

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.