Accelerating Reading Through High-Dosage Tutoring in Mississippi Communities

In this session, moderator Ashley Parker Sheils, Ph.D., Program Director at MiSsion Acceleration, talked about how and why MiSsion Acceleration started, described their funding proposal, discussed their definition of what high-dosage tutoring is and outlined how they have made decisions about program structure, content and staffing.

Next, Kari Lynn Somers, Director of Community Impact at United Way of Southeast Mississippi, focused on the role UWSEMS serves as the community lead, the importance of involving community partners in every aspect of the program and the ways partners have all played critical roles that led to the success MiSsion Acceleration is seeing in Hattiesburg. Kimberly Price, Intervention Coordinator with the Oxford School District, talked about how MiSsion Acceleration decided to operate during the school day in Oxford to ensure access for the children who need the support the most and were not able to participate after school. She also talked about creative problem-solving to ensure the school-day program is successful. Samantha Cox, Site Coordinator with the Tupelo and Lee County Early Childhood Coalition, provided an overview of the program at an afterschool community site in Tupelo and described how children, parents, partners and stakeholders are benefiting from the program. Andrea Milton, with MiSsion Acceleration, discussed her experience as an academic guide, her role with the young people she works with and why she is so committed to this work. Rachel Scott, Evaluation Associate with the Center for Research Evaluation at the University of Mississippi, talked about the MiSsion Acceleration program evaluation, details of their evidence-based design, key metrics and some of the exciting results they are seeing.