Tutoring Triumphs in Texas: Ector County ISD’s Unique Approach is Yielding Remarkable Results

THEJournal.com editor and podcast host Kristal Kuykendall digs into a story of tutoring triumphs in Odessa, Texas, with guest Dr. Scott Muri, superintendent of Ector County Independent School District, which has 33,500 students and 44 schools. ECISD entered the pandemic already ramping up to tackle big challenges; the district was failing many of the state’s academic growth indicators. Under Muri — who took the helm at ECISD in summer 2019 — the district has implemented district-wide high-dosage tutoring strategically and quickly, with some unusual features such as pegging the tutoring providers’ payments to how much the students being tutored actually grow in their learning and on state assessments. Muri’s efforts — and the remarkable academic growth that has resulted from his tutoring strategy — are notable not only because of the unique outcomes-based contract tutoring; the Texas Legislature passed a law in 2021 that began requiring individualized intervention for every student falling below state standards on core subjects in several grades. The requirements and the urgency with which they went into effect have proven to be a heavy lift for many Texas districts, and ECISD has stood out as an early success story for what high-dosage tutoring implemented strategically and within the structure of the school day can accomplish. In this episode, Muri shares a number of valuable lessons his district learned along their journey — lessons likely to save time and money for any K–12 school or district selecting a tutoring provider, negotiating a contract, or deciding when and how the tutoring sessions should be held. He also explains outcomes-based contracting, which he and ECISD helped pilot in a study with Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research. Read the extended article at bit.ly/Texas-tutoring.  THE Journal Insider podcast explores current ed tech trends and issues impacting K–12 educators, IT professionals, instructional technologists, education leaders, and ed tech providers. Listen in as THEJournal.com Editor Kristal Kuykendall chats with ed tech experts, educators, and industry leaders about how they are 'meeting the moment' in the U.S. public education system. Find all podcast episodes as well as K–12 ed tech news updated daily at THEJournal.com. Video version available at https://youtu.be/ymEeiA3bVpA. Resources: High-Dosage Tutoring Beats Opt-In Tutoring for Learning Recovery Texas Education Agency list of Vetted Tutoring Providers TEA primer on Texas HB 4545 (the law requiring learning acceleration such as tutoring) Learning Accelerator summary of Outcomes-Based Contract Tutoring pilot Ector County ISD Quick Facts Ector County ISD Accountability Standards and Growth Achievements (2019–2022) Sample Outcomes-Based Tutoring Contract (provided by ECISD) FEV Tutor