Robust Process for Selecting and Implementing Strong Early Literacy Instructional Materials

The process for selecting and implementing strong early literacy instructional materials includes three phases.

• In Phase  , you will select or create strong instructional materials for tutors. A key decision in this phase is whether to align tutoring materials with Tier 1 English Language Arts classroom materials. Our process outlines considerations to make when coming to this decision.
• In Phase  , you will prepare to implement selected materials. Important steps in this phase include establishing an Implementation Plan and determining how you will monitor student progress once tutoring begins. You will also develop plans for tutor professional learning, so that tutors can implement well the instructional materials you have selected.
• In Phase  , tutoring begins, and you will work the plans you developed in Phase 2. A highlight of this phase is that you will collect data on implementation, reflect, and adjust in response.

The chart below outlines the core work in each phase.

Select/Create Materials	Prepare	Tutor and Learn
Develop Selection Process Set Expectations for Student Learning and Tutor Instruction Align with Tier 1 materials? Yes: Create Materials Obtain and Distribute No: Develop Selection Rubric Review and Decide Procure and Distribute	Develop Implementation Plan Establish Assessment and Progress Monitoring Plan Develop Professional Learning Plan	Implement Tutoring Reflect on Data and Adjust Reset Annually

Note: The first two Phases of this process, which outline action steps to take before tutors implement materials with students, require at least a semester of planning time. If your organization does not have that time available, consider the Expedited Process.

 

  Select Strong Early Literacy Instructional Materials

1.1 Develop Selection Process

WHY? The goal of this step is to develop your process for selecting strong early literacy instructional materials. This step matters because the selection process you use can inspire confidence in your many stakeholders and increase the cohesiveness of your program or it can breed suspicion and lead to a disjointed experience for tutors and students.

WHAT ARE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Determine who will serve on the Review Committee, the small group to help select the instructional materials. Consider including program leaders and advisors, district and school representatives with early literacy expertise, and school or community representatives with particular insight on student subgroups your program will tutor (e.g., English learners; students with disabilities; students from particular ethnic and racial groups; etc.).
• Settle on how the final decision will be made. The resource Selection Decision-Making Approaches outlines pros and cons of various approaches to making final decisions on instructional materials selections.
• Backwards map the schedule of events, in light of when you need to order materials to have them for program staff preparation.
• Advertise the opportunity to serve on the Review Committee, using all communication channels available for the stakeholders you seek to serve.
• Form the Review Committee. The resource Selection Team Process and Team Member Criteria outlines processes, competencies, and application considerations for assembling the teams and can be adapted for a tutoring context.
• Communicate the process to key internal and external stakeholders.

1.2 Set Expectations for Student Learning and Tutor Instruction (see Template here)

WHY? The goal of this step is to ground the Review Committee in what research has demonstrated about how young children learn to read and what adults can do to support their learning. This step clarifies the expectations for students at each grade level your program serves (e.g., as set forth in state standards), and your vision for culturally responsive and sustaining education.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Train the Review Committee on what research has demonstrated about how young children learn to read and the instructional practices that support them to do so most effectively. You may find the resources offered in the Accelerator’s Early Literacy Tutor Training Training Recipe Book helpful, specifically those related to How Children Learn to Read and Adults Teach Them to Do So.
• Identify goals for student learning. Tutoring providers should align with your district/schools and get upfront input about the most critical needs students have at each grade-level you serve.
  • For example: What are the core goals that students in each grade are struggling to meet that would move them most rapidly toward grade-level reading? (In Kindergarten, that could be mastering letter names and their primary sounds and reading texts that contain them. In first grade, that could be mastering all short vowel and common long-vowel patterns and being able to read texts fluently that contain them. Etc.)
• Name the core beliefs that will anchor your instructional materials, including for culturally responsive and sustaining education. Tutoring providers should align with district/schools on this vision.
• Define the specific student and tutor practices that you would expect to see enacted in tutoring sessions that met your vision. Concretely, this might lead you to develop an observation checklist.
  • For example: Reading Corps’ Phoneme Blending Intervention Integrity Observation Checklist is a 10-item checklist that coaches use when observing tutors implementing one intervention.

1.3 Decide Whether to Align with the District’s Tier 1 Instructional Materials

WHY? The goal of this step is to determine whether you will develop your program’s instructional materials or select them from existing materials. Research is not conclusive, but anecdotal reports support the idea that students benefit when tutoring aligns with and builds from what they experience daily in their classrooms. This alignment would mean using the same sequences, vocabulary, routines, and texts as students experience in their classroom. Alignment can be beneficial when Tier 1 curricula is high-quality and you have the time and expertise to develop tutoring materials that align.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• With the Review Committee, determine whether the students’ classrooms use high quality instructional materials (HQIM) for Tier I instruction. EdReports is one source of curricular evaluations.
  • If classrooms use HQIM:
    • If these HQIM have accompanying intervention materials, using them is likely a good choice.
    • If these HQIM don’t have accompanying intervention materials, assess whether you can invest the necessary time in developing tutoring materials to align.
      • Developing your own aligned materials requires front-end work to develop materials for students and for tutor training. As a result, you should:
        • Consider how complicated the Tier 1 HQIM are to implement. Tutoring providers should take this step with districts/schools. This knowledge will help you determine the amount of training and development your tutors will need in order to use the materials. Some HQIM are very user-friendly in their design and might be very simple for tutors to be trained to use. Others are not, and even experienced teachers find them challenging to learn. Consider the complexity of the Tier 1 HQIM when assessing how much work it will take to align tutoring materials.
      • Implementing any tutoring materials requires some progress monitoring coordination with classroom teachers. However, implementing tutoring materials that align with Tier 1 materials requires significant, ongoing progress monitoring coordination because classroom and tutoring instruction are interdependent. Each instructional context offers a unique contribution to moving the student along the same scope and sequence.  To facilitate this, areas for significant coordination include:
        • Establishing and maintaining regular data sharing practices with classroom teachers, such as regular weekly or bi-weekly meetings to share specific student progress and needs, as revealed through student progress monitoring,
        • Streamlining communication with families
  • If classrooms do not use HQIM, proceed to 1.4b.
• If you decide that it is strategic to invest time and capacity in developing tutoring materials to align to the Tier 1 curriculum, proceed to step 1.4a.

If aligning with high-quality school curricula proceed to 1.4a.

If selecting new instructional materials, proceed to 1.4b.

1.4a Create Tutoring Materials to Align to Classroom Curriculum

WHY? The goal of this step is to determine how to create or adapt tutoring materials so that a curriculum built for teachers in a whole-class environment can be leveraged for tutors in a one-on-one or small group setting.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Determine whether tutoring should focus on foundational skills only or should also include language comprehension. For tutoring providers, this determination should be done in consultation with partner districts, and in light of the length of each tutoring session and the number of sessions students receive per week. (Because early readers must master lifting language off the page before they can make meaning from it, almost all K-3 students identified for tutoring will need support with foundational skills. They may also need support with language comprehension, but if tutoring time is limited, your program should focus first on foundational skills.)
• Identify all relevant foundational skills components from the Tier 1 HQIM. Tutoring providers should consult with partner districts. For example:
  • Identify the scope and sequence of foundational skill instruction.
  • Locate the curriculum embedded diagnostic assessments that determine where students should be placed in the foundational skills sequence of instruction, based on what they have mastered and what still needs work.
  • Determine how progress will be monitored in an ongoing way, including which assessment tools will be used and who will administer them to students.
  • Establish a communication protocol for sharing progress monitoring data between teachers, tutors, and families/caregivers.
  • Identify the instructional routines and related materials that the curriculum uses to teach foundational skills in the sequence.
  • Locate scaffolds specific to English learners.
• Organize the relevant foundational skills materials from the Tier 1 HQIM for tutors in a user-friendly way (e.g., a simple guide for tutors).
• (If including language comprehension) Determine whether the tutoring program will preview core texts students will read in class in upcoming units/modules, work on core texts students are currently reading in class, and/or read supplementary texts on topics related to core texts being read in class to build background knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Students whose foundational skills are not yet at grade level will benefit from previewing core texts from upcoming units/modules to allow time to work out challenges with decoding and unfamiliar vocabulary, to build up fluency with the text, and to build initial comprehension.
  • English Learners will benefit from previewing core texts from upcoming units so they can learn important vocabulary and background knowledge before their first exposure to the text. They’ll also benefit from reading supplementary texts on topics related to core texts being read in class, as it is important to build vocabulary and background knowledge and this strategy can give students choice over texts to read and increase volume of reading.
  • Students who need more practice and support providing evidence-based explanations of texts will benefit from reading, discussing, and writing about core texts they are reading in class.
• Identify all relevant language comprehension components from the Tier 1 HQIM. Tutoring providers should consult with partner districts.For example:
  • Identify how units/modules progress across the year and for each one, the core texts, essential understandings, and standards addressed.
  • Determine how progress will be monitored in an ongoing way, including which assessment tools will be used and who will administer them to students.
  • Identify the instructional routines and materials the curriculum uses to teach language comprehension, such as:
    • Vocabulary instruction routines to build vocabulary knowledge relevant to text
    • Text-dependent questions to discuss the big idea of texts
    • Writing routines to process and respond to texts, at the sentence, paragraph, and whole text levels
  • Locate scaffolds specific to English learners.
• Check instructional routines and materials relative to your vision for culturally responsive and sustaining instruction, striving to ensure an inclusive curriculum that elevates historically marginalized voices and provides the opportunity to learn about perspectives beyond students’ own scope.
• Organize the relevant language comprehension materials from the Tier 1 HQIM for tutors in a user-friendly way (e.g., a simple guide for tutors).
• See the Haywood County Case Study for an example of how one Tennessee district developed a tutoring program that uses their EL Education English Language Arts curriculum.

1.5a Obtain and Distribute Necessary Materials

WHY? The goal of this step is to obtain all necessary materials from the high-quality instructional materials the district/school uses and get them into the hands of tutors before their training. It is much easier to learn how to implement instructional materials when they are in your hands than when you are hearing them described or seeing screenshots or photocopies. If you are not able to make that happen, knowing in advance will allow you to set realistic expectations with tutors (e.g., when materials will arrive, how you expect them to prepare in the meantime, etc.).

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• List all materials needed, including:
  • specific materials needed from the HQIM to which you are aligning your tutoring program
  • any additional materials needed to implement the tutoring program (e.g., progress monitoring tools; data capture systems; simple guides for tutors outlining how they should use the selected materials from the HQIM)
  • any enabling materials needed to implement the tutoring that are not included in the HQIM  (e.g., technology; white boards; manipulatives like letter tiles; implementation guides you have created; etc.)
• Get the total count of materials needed, including extras in the order to account for students who will move through the program over the year (if materials are consumable)
• Determine an internal division of labor and timeline for all procurement and delivery responsibilities (e.g., knowing whether the district will work with the HQIM vendor to procure what you need or you will need to work with the vendor, if you are a tutoring provider; developing materials lists needed for all materials; soliciting and reviewing bids for and selecting printers for any material printing needs; etc.)

If you decide to select new instructional materials:

1.4b Develop a Selection Rubric and Prepare for Reviews

WHY? You have decided to select strong instructional materials rather than align with existing Tier 1 curricula. The goal of this step is to finalize a rubric that you will use to review and decide on the instructional materials your program will use for tutoring. Establishing objective selection criteria, before a review team ever looks at materials, helps build trust across stakeholders in the process your team is using and helps hold your team accountable to the vision for student learning and tutor instruction that you established.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Solicit input from key stakeholders, through surveys, focus groups, or both. Important stakeholders to hear from likely include district and school-based representatives, families, advisory board members, and tutors themselves.
• Develop a rubric. Use input from the community to understand its needs and values. Consider the following criteria for strong early literacy-specific tutoring materials that are culturally responsive and sustaining:
  • The program uses an organized, systematic, and cumulative scope and sequence of instruction, beginning with basic concepts and building on learned skills.
  • The content in the scope and sequence is aligned to standards.
  • The program offers (a) assessments that pinpoint students’ needs and determine the appropriate placement of students in the scope and sequence, (b) resources and tools to collect ongoing data about student progress, and (c) strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners so that they demonstrate independent ability with grade-level standards.
  • Program materials include a consistent set of instructional routines for tutors to use with students in each session, to support students’ self-regulation, focus, and risk-taking in learning and to lower the burden for tutor preparation.
    • Those instructional routines include:
      • explicit instruction that is direct, precise, and unambiguous
      • student application of what was taught in connected text (words, phrases, sentences, books)
      • cumulative practice, so students practice new items along with items already learned
      • reading, writing &/or drawing, listening, and speaking about texts, using evidence from the text as support 
  • Materials are culturally diverse, such that students of all backgrounds read texts that include the historical and contemporary heritages, experiences, and contributions of various ethnic groups and individuals.
  • Materials are inclusive and not reliant on assumptions about particular groups of people that were widely accepted in the past but rejected today (e.g., materials are inclusive of transgendered people; children living in a variety of family configurations and not just with a mom and dad, including gay families, single parent households, grandparents, etc.; free from gender or racial stereotypes, etc.).
  • Materials and instruction build on the language, literacies, and cultural practices students bring with them to the tutoring program.
  • Materials and instruction support students to understand, embrace and respect their identities (e.g., racial, gender, ethnic, linguistic, religious), and the similarities and differences between themselves and others, as a natural part of humanity.  (For age-appropriate specific examples, refer to the grade-level outcomes in the Identity and Diversity domains of Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards.)
  • Materials and instruction support students to build age-appropriate sociopolitical consciousness so that they are able to critique the larger norms, values, policies, and institutions that have produced and maintain inequities. (For age-appropriate specific examples, refer to the grade-level outcomes in the Justice and Action domains of Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards.)
• Identify options for early literacy tutoring materials you will review. Early literacy interventions often make good choices because they are often diagnostic in nature, meaning they are designed to target the underlying reason a student is struggling to read at grade-level, and then target specific instruction in that area. Part Three of this guide profiles several early literacy interventions you might consider. Ensure you spend time reviewing options that are within your budget.
• Train the Review Committee on the rubric and the process. Ensure they have easy access to materials and a clear process by which to upload their notes and final evaluations.

1.5b Review and Decide

WHY? The goal of this step is to reach a decision about the materials that will best support student learning and tutor instruction and to communicate that decision to all stakeholders.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Conduct the reviews. Determine which materials have the strongest scores. Determine whether you can eliminate some and whether others require more discussion or information. For finalists, consider seeking feedback from other tutoring providers and districts that use the materials.
• Make the final decision, using the process you developed in step 1.1. Discuss what the team is most excited by and what you anticipate might need attention and support during implementation.
• Communicate the decision to stakeholders, emphasizing rationale. Determine the sequence of who will hear the decision and the division of labor in sharing the news.

1.6b Procure and Distribute

WHY? The goal of this step is to obtain all necessary materials from the vendor you have selected and get them into the hands of tutors before their training. It is much easier to learn how to implement instructional materials when they are in your hands than when you are hearing them described or seeing screenshots or photocopies only. If you aren’t able to make that happen, knowing in advance will allow you to set realistic expectations with tutors (e.g., when materials will arrive, how you expect them to prepare in the meantime, etc.).

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Determine an internal division of labor and timeline for all procurement and delivery responsibilities (e.g., working with the vendor to determine pricing options for materials and secure best value for the investment; developing materials lists needed for all materials; soliciting and reviewing bids for and selecting printers for any material printing needs; etc.). Though this step will usually involve you making a purchase, some materials are open-source. You will need to budget for printing and distributing and possibly for enabling materials (e.g., technology; white boards; manipulatives; etc.) to support implementation.
• List all materials needed, including:
  • specific materials from the instructional materials you’re purchasing/obtaining
  • any additional materials needed to implement the tutoring program that are not included in the purchase (e.g., progress monitoring plans; data capture and sharing systems)
  • any enabling materials needed to implement tutoring that are not included in the purchase (e.g., technology; white boards; manipulatives like letter tiles; etc.)
• Get the total count of materials needed, including extras in the order to account for students who will move through the program over the year (if materials are consumable)

 

  Prepare to Implement

2.1 Develop Implementation Plan (see Template here)

WHY? The goal of this step is to articulate what will make a successful implementation effort through an Implementation Plan (see Template here), defined and described in the steps below, and to determine the people in your organization responsible for putting this plan into action and the people inside and outside of your organization who will advise you.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Create an Implementation Support Team (see Template here). You will need a group of people with knowledge about key aspects of tutoring implementation to give input. We recommend most providers or districts running their own tutoring programs use an Implementation Support Team to plan for materials implementation and monitor the progress of the implementation effort.
  • Responsibilities of the Implementation Support Team include:
    • Understanding the materials deeply
    • Supporting decision-making on student selection, progress monitoring, communication, scheduling, training, and ongoing professional learning
    • Soliciting feedback from other stakeholders
    • Investing others in decisions by sharing rationale
    • Observing and gathering data about implementation to support continuous improvement
    • Problem-solving challenges that arise
    • Supporting the implementation process and problem-solving challenges that arise, through active participation in team meetings on a regular cadence
  • Tutoring providers will need to include people from your organization and your district partners who can support decision-making on a range of topics, including selecting students; progress monitoring for students; communication between teachers, tutors, and families; training and ongoing professional learning for tutors; answering implementation questions and problem-solving challenges that arise; and progress monitoring the efficacy of your program.
  • Prioritize people with content-area expertise and those responsible for leading and supporting implementation. Roles to include on the Implementation Support Team include a tutor coach, provider leadership, a district leader with decision-making rights in relevant areas, a district or school leader with expertise in English Language Learners (ELL) and Special Education (if relevant to the communities you serve), and school leaders.
• Some tutoring providers can forgo a formal Implementation Support Team in favor of a group of informal advisors. Make this choice if your tutoring program is fairly self-contained from the district and school staff and processes. Whereas a tutoring program that operates fairly independently from the day-to-day operations of the school might suffice with a group of informal advisors to call upon with implementation questions, a program that is dependent on communication with teachers, coaching from school staff, or scheduling and location updates from administrators will benefit from the more formal Implementation Support Team. Districts running their own tutoring programs will almost always need a formal Implementation Support Team, given the interdependent nature of their programs and their school operations.
• If using an Implementation Support Team that includes members who did not serve on the Review Committee, train them on your expectations for student learning and tutor instruction. See Step 1.2.
• Develop goals for successful implementation of the instructional materials. You might consider goals related to stakeholder (tutors, principals, district leaders, students) investment in the materials; tutor skillfulness in implementation; and student outcomes on progress monitoring tools. Instruction Partner’s resource Goals for Implementation might be useful to adapt to the tutoring context.
  • For each goal, determine when and how you’ll know whether you are on track. Consult the Measures & Data Collection section of the Accelerator’s Toolkit for Tutoring Programs for guidance. Additionally, Instruction Partner’s resource Progress Monitoring Plan and Approaches might be useful to adapt to the tutoring context.
  • Determine what data you need and who is responsible for getting it.
• Set dates for step-backs on progress toward goals and determine who should be invited to those.
• Create an Implementation Plan (see Template here), ensuring that someone determines:
  • what assessments will be given, by whom, and how they’ll be used to monitor student progress;
  • how student progress will be communicated with stakeholders;
  • the scope and sequence tutors will follow and how it relates to placement assessments;
  • the instructional routines tutors will use or select from and how those decisions relate to progress monitoring;
  • what individualization decisions tutors can make and guidance for how they should make them;
  • a framework for professional learning, including tutoring training and ongoing continuous development, and the role instructional materials play in that;
  • how staff and coaches will understand the instructional materials
• Clearly define roles and responsibilities, so that all decisions and the work that flows from them have an owner.
• If using an Implementation Support Team, set a cadence of meetings and establish norms to support your work. Develop a way to track decisions made and plans created.
• Return to your Implementation Plan and make sure roles and responsibilities are clear. Make sure workloads are balanced and adjust as needed. Communicate the plans to all relevant stakeholders and ensure workstream owners build out their own project plans.

2.2 Establish an Assessment and Progress Monitoring Plan (see Template here)

WHY? The goal of this step is to clarify how diagnostic assessments will determine where students are placed in a sequence of instruction, what their goals will be, and how student progress will be monitored. This step helps you ensure that students are receiving instruction targeted to their needs for the appropriate length of time and helps you check the quality of tutoring instruction.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Examine the diagnostic assessments in your selected instructional materials. Determine if they provide you the level of targeted information needed to place students appropriately in a scope and sequence of instruction (e.g., student has mastered these 8 letter-sound relationships only vs. student is in the pre-alphabetic stage or at a particular lexile or reading level). The goal is to ensure that tutoring is focused on the skills with which students need instruction and practice. For tutoring providers:
  • If using materials aligned to Tier 1 HQIM, take this step collaboratively with the district.
  • If using other instructional materials, consult the district about diagnostic assessments administered to students to determine if data-sharing might be viable.
• Select external diagnostic assessments only if there are none that will serve your purpose within your selected materials or within what the district/school administers.
  • Reading Rockets’ Reading 101: Assessment In Practice offers guidance on what is measured with each literacy skill assessment, the age/grade when a skill should be mastered, sample assessment questions and videos of those being administered to students, and links to widely used diagnostic assessments.
• Determine if those same assessments can also serve to monitor students’ progress over time, or if other assessments are needed
• Determine who will administer diagnostic and progress-monitoring assessments (e.g., tutors or other school staff). Tutoring providers should take this step in coordination with districts/schools.
• Locate any progress monitoring tools within your selected instructional materials. Determine if those are sufficient or you need to find/develop others. Your purpose is to be able to track and report out student goals and progress toward them over time in a user-friendly way and to be able to “roll-up” data so that you can see trends at different levels (across groups of tutors, by coach; across grade-levels; at the school-level; etc.).
• Organize progress monitoring tools so they are easily accessible to all users.
• Establish the frequency with which progress monitoring will happen and how decisions about student progress will be made, including any regular meetings that will take place in Phase III and an “annual reset” meeting that will take place toward the end of the school year. Though all decisions will be made based on data, you might decide to equip tutors to make decisions themselves. Alternatively, you might have tutors review data with their coaches before making decisions. Or, your program may be set up so that teachers or other school-level staff make all data-based decisions and instruct tutors on how students should progress.
• Determine how student progress will be communicated with stakeholders (with students; between tutor & teachers; with caregivers), tutoring providers in coordination with districts/schools. Develop any systems to facilitate that, paying careful attention to that communication happens in the home languages of the students you tutor.

2.3 Develop a Professional Learning Plan

WHY? The goal of this step is to make a plan for how all forms of professional learning your organization employs will support tutors to learn about and use instructional materials to tutor effectively. We recommend you include practice-based formal learning, feedback and individualized coaching, and a community of support and social learning as three methods by which you train and continuously develop tutors, as outlined in the Accelerator’s Framework for Professional Learning. This step will help you decide how the instructional materials feature in your professional learning plan.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Understand -- or make decisions about -- the methods of professional learning, both initial training and continuous development, your organization (tutoring provider or district) uses.
• Determine how each method of professional learning can help tutors to understand and build capacity to implement instructional materials with students in culturally responsive and sustaining ways. For example:
  • Practice-based formal learning: Place the instructional routines, activities, or interventions that are taught through your materials at the center of practice-based formal learning opportunities.
  • Feedback and individualized coaching: Ensure observation tools prompt coaches to look for the evidence of implementation of the materials that is meaningful to your program and aligned to your instructional vision.
  • Community of support and social learning: Offer digital communication and networking tools that allow tutors and coaches to prepare lessons, share videos of practice, and give & receive feedback.
• Consult the resources in relevant sections of the Framework for Professional Learning for more ideas and support.
• Plan for the training of coaches and trainers, so that they understand the materials and are prepared to support tutors.
• Communicate this plan to all relevant stakeholders.

 

  Tutor and Learn

3.1 Implement Tutoring and Gather Data

WHY? The goal of this step is to implement the plan you developed in Phase 2, using your Implementation Support Team or advisory group. Plans can be beautifully written and then sit in digital or physical binders, only loosely supporting action. The goal of this step is to put the plan in motion, with a focus on supporting tutors and monitoring progress.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Implement your plan for professional learning. Pay attention to how you’re tracking toward deadlines and what support is needed to implement the plan with excellence. Problem-solve any matters that are diverting your focus.
• See the work happening. Observe at all levels of implementation to get a full picture. Note what is going well and what needs work.
• Listen to questions and concerns and seek to understand where they are coming from. Determine which concerns you can address easily -- and do so -- and which will require deeper problem-solving.
• Hold regular meetings and celebrate your successes. Refine and adjust as needed.

3.2 Reflect and Adjust (see Checklist and Template here)

WHY? The goal of this step is to examine progress to goals, determine what’s working, and learn from and solve for significant challenges. Your team will meet regularly to check on how the work is progressing and address issues that arise. But having a meeting set aside at longer intervals (suggested quarterly) to step away from daily challenges and look at the big picture of how implementation is going will support deeper reflection and more effective problem-solving.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Gather all quantitative and qualitative data needed to measure progress toward goals. Disaggregate data to evaluate your progress for particular subgroups of students (students of color, students in low-income households, English learners, students with disabilities), to monitor how equitably you’re serving all students. Consult the Measures & Data Collection section of the Accelerator’s Toolkit for Tutoring Programs for guidance.
• Prepare an agenda for the data reflection meeting, ensure facilitators are prepared, and share the goals and agenda, and any pre-work to participants, if relevant.
• Conduct the meeting so that you step-back to reflect on progress and challenges.
• Get clear on your current progress to goals and analyze what’s leading to successes and what’s inhibiting progress.
• Celebrate successes!
• Identify a small number of priorities for change. Uncover the root causes of the problems. Determine action steps needed to make change.
• Determine how you’ll know if the changes were successful.
• Adjust the Implementation Plan and communicate changes to all relevant stakeholders.

3.3 Reset Annually

WHY? The goal of this step is to reflect back on the year, celebrate growth, name areas for improvement, and determine the work ahead. The end of a year of tutoring allows for reflection on how effectively short-cycles of progress monitoring have worked and for consideration of a broader swath of data, including students’ overall growth as a result of tutoring. Also, it may allow for more significant adjustments, given new possibilities for tutors, a longer runway for adjustments to materials or training, etc.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ACTION STEPS?

• Gather all quantitative and qualitative data needed to report on how the organization (tutoring provider or district) performed against goals. Disaggregate data to evaluate your progress for particular subgroups of students (students of color, students in low-income households, English learners, students with disabilities), to monitor how equitably you’re serving all students. Consult the Measures & Data Collection section of the Accelerator’s Toolkit for Tutoring Programs for guidance.
• Prepare an agenda for a Reset Meeting, ensure facilitators are prepared, and share the goals and agenda, and any pre-work to participants, if relevant.
• Conduct the meeting so that you step-back to reflect on wins and misses.
  • Identify the goals you met. What enabled success? Celebrate!
  • Identify the goals you missed. What held you back?
• Discuss what you’d like to be different next year and identify a few areas of priority and focus.
• Discuss goals for the coming year, in light of wins and areas of priority focus for change.
• Solidify goals for the upcoming year, building off of discussions in the step-back.
• Adjust the Implementation and Progress Monitoring Plans for year 2 to reflect new goals, priority areas of focus, and any changes to how you’ll manage implementation to reach goals.
• Determine division of labor for year two work, particularly work that is different than in year one.
• Celebrate success and invest others in the next year of implementation.
• Determine the best ways to communicate your annual successes and priority areas of focus for the coming year. This communication might differ slightly for different stakeholders. For example, caregivers and school staff may receive a one-page overview while district leadership may get more in-depth materials.
• Find a way to appreciate the hard work of all team members who worked on early literacy tutoring instructional materials in year one.