Randomized Controlled Trial Finds Statistically Significant Gains from Littera's Virtual Math Tutoring for Middle School Students

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Newly released results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT), funded in part by Accelerate, found that middle school students who received virtual small-group tutoring from Littera Education made statistically significant academic gains compared to peers using other intervention tools and software.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago Education Lab and MDRC as part of the Personalized Learning Initiative (PLI), which aims to identify effective, scalable strategies to accelerate student learning. Littera's program, which matches students with high-quality tutors in a 1:3 virtual setting, outperformed control groups across key learning metrics.

The work took place in Greenville County School District 1, a 77,000-student district in South Carolina. Littera provided high-impact math tutoring services for approximately 750 students in grades 6-8 across three Title I middle schools as part of a three-arm randomized controlled trial with over 2,000 students participating. The 2023-2024 school year program consisted of two 10-week tutoring sprints with training, site-visits, surveys, and progress monitoring as part of the implementation.

On average, students who received Littera's virtual tutoring made a statistically significant improvement of .11 standard deviations (p value=.006) as measured by an index of end-of-year math scores. This acceleration equates to approximately 32% of the math that an average middle school student learns in a school year. Of the study participants, more than 85% were students of color and more than 40% were English Language Learners.

"This study breaks new ground as among the first large-scale randomized controlled trial to demonstrate statistically significant gains in middle grades math through virtual small-group tutoring," said Dr. Matthew Steinberg, Managing Director of Research and Evaluation at Accelerate. "These findings are an important step forward in identifying scalable, cost-effective tutoring models that can help school systems address existing and longstanding learning gaps and accelerate student progress in core academic subjects, and adds to a growing body of evidence on the promising effects of virtual tutoring."

"Skilled math tutors for upper grades content are difficult to source locally at the scale necessary to address the needs of school districts," says Justin Serrano, Founder and CEO of Littera. "Demonstrating that significant results can be achieved in a small group, fully virtual format speaks to the transformative potential of high-impact tutoring."

This study is Littera's second focused on virtual tutoring for middle school math. The first study, conducted by Brown University, compared 1:1 and small group tutoring outcomes. The current research further illustrates effectiveness with small group tutoring.

Littera Education and Greenville County School District will continue to partner in the upcoming school year through South Carolina's Palmetto Math Project.

An overview of the tutoring program by Littera at Greenville County School District can be found here. The full PLI report can be found here.

About Littera Education
Littera partners with K-12 districts and non-profit organizations to customize high-impact tutoring, designed to unlock student potential and foster success in Reading, Math and English Language Acquisition. Littera's Tutoring Management System (TMS) makes virtual tutoring a seamless extension of district systems. Littera's advanced data capabilities ensure that tutoring programs are delivered as designed - and that student outcomes are achieved. For information, visit www.litteraeducation.com.

About Accelerate - The National Collaborative for Accelerated Learning
Accelerate is a national nonprofit that helps states turn strong evidence into real results for students. By aligning research, policy, and practice, Accelerate supports states to scale proven strategies in public schools. Through grantmaking, research partnerships, and hands-on state implementation support, Accelerate ensures that what works in studies translates into measurable gains in classrooms nationwide. Learn more at accelerate.us.

Accelerate is supported by Arnold Ventures; Arrow Impact; Gates Foundation; Griffin Catalyst; Bill & Crissy Haslam Foundation; Overdeck Family Foundation; and Walton Family Foundation.

Contact Person:
Jacky Poulos
[email protected]

SOURCE Littera Education