Match Program Expands to Include 1000 CPS Students Next Year
Following a study that shows CPS (Chicago Public Schools) high students who were at risk of dropping out but improved their math scores with the help of an intensive tutoring and mentoring program, the City of Chicago and the University of Chicago will expand the program to include 1000 students next year.
“This study is welcome news to students, teachers and families who have been working to tackle the achievement gap facing too many of our students,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. “To build off the program’s proven track record of success, our goal is to expand access to the Match and BAM programs to reach 1,000 students by next school year. This partnership with the University of Chicago is part of a larger City-wide strategy to invest in expanding youth access to learning, mentoring and employment opportunities that will better ensure all of our students graduate 100 percent college ready and 100 percent college bound.”
According to the study, released by the University of Chicago Urban Education Lab, high school students who were at risk of dropping out greatly improved their math test scores and school attendance with the help of Match Education, an intensive tutoring and mentoring program.
“By broadening access to the Match Education program, led by the University of Chicago Urban Education Lab, we are strengthening the District’s commitment to ensuring all students, particularly our most vulnerable, are prepared for success in the classroom and in life,” said CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. “This innovative model for driving academic achievement is a welcomed addition to the District’s rigorous plan to foster growth and success in and outside of the classroom.”
The Match pilot program began at Harper High School during the 2012-2013 school-year when 106 ninth- and tenth-grade students who had missed an average of about five weeks of school and were in the 22nd percentile in math test scores the previous school-year were chosen for the program.
After just six months, math scores increased by nearly two-thirds of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) black-white test gap; student misconducts dropped by 67 percent; and the program is predicted to reduce violent arrests among students by 50 percent and reduce course failures by 37 percent, according to the study.
Additionally, students receiving tutoring and mentoring, on average increased their likelihood of being “on track” for graduation by nearly one-half.
“These results come from a randomized experiment of the sort that generates gold-standard evidence in medicine, but remains far too rare in the area of social policy,” noted Roseanna Ander, Executive Director of the UChicago Urban Education Lab.
One benefit of the Match tutoring approach is that it takes on the “mismatch” between a student’s grade level and the actual skills he or she has developed, which can be four to seven years behind grade level, said Jens Ludwig, Co-Director of the Urban Education Lab and McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law, and Public Policy.
“So much of the energy in education policy is in improving the quality with which grade-level material is taught in classrooms,” Ludwig said. “But that’s not going to help a ninth-grader from a disadvantaged background who is struggling with third- or fourth-grade math problems.”
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