TDOE Announces $50M Grant Opportunity for Community Partners to Expand TN ALL Corps High-Dosage, Low-Ratio Tutoring Program
Funding for Additional 30K+ Tutoring Seats for At-Risk Tennessee Students
Nashville, TN— Today, the Tennessee Department of Education released a $50 million grant opportunity available for community partners to help expand the state’s TN ALL Corps high-dosage, low-ratio tutoring program to support students. Through the collaboration between school districts and regional community partners, these grant funds will provide an additional 30,000 at-risk students in 1st through 8th grades with access to one-on-one tutoring support to improve academic outcomes.
The TN ALL Corps Community Partner Grant opportunity will award eight grants, ranging from $4.5 million to $9 million, to an average of one awardee per CORE region, which will be responsible for recruiting and hiring tutors as well as coordinating with regional districts for student selection and design of the local tutoring program.
"Tennessee is home to incredible community partners and stakeholders, who continue to provide essential support for our districts, schools, educators and students," said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. "We are thrilled to expand our high dosage, low-ratio tutoring program, TN ALL Corps, to include partners across the state to increase the amount of learning time children have access to, which will accelerate student achievement and put them on a path to future success.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Tennessee has led the nation in creating innovative mitigation strategies for learning loss and providing academic supports to students. In January 2021, Governor Bill Lee convened the Tennessee General Assembly for a special legislative session to pass policies to help mitigate COVID-19 disruptions and support Tennessee students, including establishing the Tennessee Accelerating Literacy and Learning Corps (TN ALL Corps). Leveraging federal ESSER dollars, 83 Tennessee school districts opted to participate in the state’s TN ALL Corps program to receive matching grants from the department to further implement and strengthen tutoring services they could provide to students.
Community partners that apply for and win the community partner grant will follow the state’s low-dosage, high-ratio tutoring model for tutoring within their local program, which means English Language Arts (ELA) and math tutoring will be provided in small groups at a 1:3 adult to student ratio in grades 1-5, and 1:4 adult to student ratio in grades 6-8.
Applicants are welcome to apply for a grant for more than one region. Here are the full details of the grant opportunity, and grant applications are due April 22 at 5 p.m. CT.
“We recognize the importance of high-dosage, low-ratio tutoring to help our students become more academically proficient,” said Kim Worley, Director of Schools, Dyersburg City Schools. “In Dyersburg City Schools, we are focused on providing high-quality tutoring in small groups to accelerate student achievement. We are thrilled to expand our local program and collaborate with our wonderful community partners who are focused on supporting our students and their future success.”
“Community partners have been key in the creation and implementation of high-impact tutoring in Nashville. We know that tutoring is not just a short-term strategy, but an important long-term social-emotional and academic support for our students,” said Keri Randolph, Chief Strategy Officer, MNPS. “Collaboration with partners is allowing us to build sustainable systems for tutoring that can continue beyond the relief funding.”
“In Carter County, each of our elementary schools are participating in the TN All Corps tutoring. Without question, the high impact tutoring with low pupil-teacher ratios has vastly improved student outcomes in the area of math for our students,” said LaDonna Boone, Instructional Supervisor, Carter County Schools. “We purposefully identified students and matched them with many of our most highly effective teachers.”
For Tennessee Department of Education media inquiries, contact Edu.MediaInquiries@tn.gov.
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