24/7, High-Dosage Tutoring Gains Momentum in Florida Schools as Superintendents Address Equity Concerns, Pandemic 'Learning Slide'

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- High-dosage, 24/7 online tutoring is gaining momentum across Florida, with nearly 215,000 students in grades 6-12 now having access to personalized tutoring from Paper, at no cost to students' families, following recent school board decisions and multiple other districts. The expansion comes as school districts in Florida and across the nation seek to bridge both longstanding equity gaps and the 'learning slide' exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Palm Beach County, Martin County, and Putnam County school boards last week approved Paper for a total of 114,736 students. More than 100,000 Hillsborough County Public Schools students in grades 6-12 have been using Paper since the fall.

"We want to make sure that education is something that's not just in the classroom and feels like a burden. It's something you enjoy taking part in, even at home," said Alexandria Ayala, District 2 School Board Member, Palm Beach County School District. "The learning loss over the pandemic and over the last year has been hard. We are really looking for things to offer to augment their education," she added.

The addition of Palm Beach County School District, coupled with Hillsborough County Public Schools, means that two of the largest districts in Florida and the U.S. are now giving students unlimited access to Paper's tutors 24 hours a day, in more than 200 subjects and four languages including English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin. 

"The District is excited about the opportunity to provide 24/7 support for students, whether they need help with accelerated courses such as physics or calculus,  or a regular class such as sixth-grade world geography," said Diana Fedderman, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Palm Beach County School District. "The real-time assistance will help students remediate any learning loss and accelerate their studies, and we look forward to watching them grow."

The momentum in Florida over the course of the last few weeks reflects a trend towards 24/7 academic support happening across the country from California to Ohio, Massachusetts, and Georgia. Nationally, more than 1.5 million students across 22 states have access to Paper. In February of 2020, Paper served fewer than 60,000 students – illustrating a user base growth of over 2000%. Over the last year, Paper has started supporting some of the other largest and most prominent school districts in the nation, including Columbus City Schools, OH, Atlanta Public Schools, GA, and Boston Public Schools, MA.

Hillsborough was the first Florida school district to adopt Paper for its 100,000 students in grades 6-12. In two months, students have submitted over 1,000 essays and are averaging 200 tutoring sessions per day. Over 70% of sessions have happened after hours when one-on-one tutoring would not have normally been available. 

"Students are staying up until midnight and one o'clock, so I think the availability of this 24-7 assistance is really attractive because this is the way kids operate and this is the way kids really want to work," said Dr. Mary White, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Martin County School District.

Philip Cutler, formerly a teacher in Canada, founded Paper after he saw that while most of his students needed one-on-one tutoring, only about 10 percent could afford it. His company began with a mission of bridging that tutoring equity gap by bringing it online through school district agreements that allow them to offer the service for a small amount per student per year.

With Paper, any student can connect with a tutor for on-demand academic support, anytime, anywhere—with no limits on the length and number of tutoring sessions. Learning gaps are not a new challenge for school district leaders, but school closures in the past two years since the pandemic began have heightened the need to offer more services to students. This, plus the availability of federal dollars set aside to address learning gaps related to the pandemic, has helped to fuel the growth across many states, including Florida.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed existing inequities in education," said Philip Cutler, co-founder and CEO of Paper. "Students need support inside the classroom and at home, and we are dedicated to providing that support whenever they need it, in any subject they need help with."

To learn more about Paper, visit paper.co.

SOURCE Paper