Delaware has been selected as one of five states to receive a $1 million grant for the purpose of integrating high-impact tutoring into the school day during the 2023-2024 academic year.

The grant is awarded by the States Leading Recovery program at Accelerate, a national nonprofit organization working to make effective tutoring a standard feature of the American school day. 

Delaware has received funding to provide early literacy tutoring that aligns with the science of reading to students in grades K-3.

In 2022, the state passed legislation to support the implementation of the science of reading, expanding professional development for teachers, requiring universal screeners to identify students in need of support, and setting standards for tracking and reporting, both on the number of students who are behind in grade-level reading and on the literacy interventions that these students receive. In-school tutoring is a research-based literacy intervention.

Accelerate’s States Leading Recovery program is designed to help states like Delaware adopt evidence-based tutoring models and address academic gaps by ensuring students receive effective individualized instruction.

In addition to the $1 million in funding each state will receive, Accelerate will provide all States Leading Recovery grantees with implementation support. Delaware’s new initiative will invest a total of $2 million in scaling high-impact tutoring, as all grantees were also required to match the $1 million grant with public or philanthropic funds.  

The announcement of the inaugural cohort of States Leading Recovery grantees follows a competitive national selection process. Accelerate announced the grant opportunity in December 2023 and received applications from nearly a dozen states. The other state grantees include Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana and Ohio.