The purpose of this guidance is to provide HEIs seeking opportunities to partner with a school district with information about how to identify districts interested in and/or already offering tutoring services. By finding a point of contact and engaging your local district in a formalized partnership through a contract and/or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), HEIs are able to set clear expectations for what services they are able to provide to the school district and to identify what responsibilities the district staff must fulfill in order for the partnership to be successful for students. Furthermore, HEIs currently offering tutoring services to their local school districts shared that entering into a formal agreement or contract that stipulates the funding and resources each entity will provide has enabled them to provide more sustainable services for students, as it is clear that the HEI is not solely responsible for funding the tutoring program.
Identifying Interested Districts
Given the extensive research on the positive impact of high-impact tutoring, many school districts have some type of tutoring initiative occurring in their system. In order to determine the right point of contact in districts surrounding your HEI, consider reaching out to district leadership to determine what opportunities may exist to offer tutoring services. Current HEI tutoring programs shared the following ideas about how they identified interested districts:
- Determine whether or not a tutoring partnership and/or service learning project already exists between your HEI and the local school district to ensure you are able to build upon pre-existing structures and partnerships.
- If you or one of your colleagues already have a contact at the local K-12 district, ask them if they know who is in charge of tutoring and/or intervention services in the district.
- Search the district website for the department in charge of tutoring services. Frequently, this function will sit within the academic, teaching and learning, extended learning, or curriculum and instruction office.
- Search BidNet for current Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in your state. Individuals may set up free accounts to access these public records.
Formalizing District Partnerships through a Contract or MOU
Once the HEI has identified a district partnership and/or the district has connected with the HEI, there is an opportunity to formalize the partnership. This step can ensure clarity in the roles and responsibilities of each institution, determine the scope of the project and scale for a given year, and provide an opportunity to develop a shared funding model. Current HEI tutoring programs shared the following tips for how they developed their contracts and formal partnerships with school districts:
- Ask your local school district how they currently contract for tutoring and/or intervention services, and if your partnership can be formalized through a similar process.
- Use the HEI Funding/Cost Tool for Planning a District Tutoring Initiative to understand and articulate the costs associated with running a quality high-impact tutoring program. Work in partnership with your local school district to determine available funding sources from each institution to ensure sustainable funding for the program.
- If you currently work with individual principals to offer tutoring services to schools directly, consider formalizing these partnerships through a contract and/or MOU with the school district to scale and sustain programming.