Students at Western Hills Elementary give a demo of their new online literacy tutoring tool. Little Rock School District

A thousand young learners in the Little Rock School District are working on their reading skills with daily 15-minute, one-on-one sessions with tutors beamed in on the computer screen.

A student at Western Hills uses a new literacy tool.

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District students and Jessica Reid Sliwerski, founder and CEO of the tutoring company Ignite, gave a demo today at Western Hills Elementary. Adding the Ignite tutoring program to the district’s literacy tools will hopefully help make up some of the pandemic learning loss that put students behind.

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Students using Ignite tutoring program in the 2021-2022 school year recorded an average of 2.4 weeks of reading progress for every week in the program, with no achievement gap for students of color, students with IEPs, multilingual learners or students receiving free or reduced-price lunches, a release from the district said.

The online tutoring program takes 15 minutes a day.

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“We’re always looking for effective, innovative ways to improve outcomes and elevate academic excellence. That is why we are extremely excited to partner with Ignite! Reading to deliver targeted, one-on-one reading foundational skills tutoring that will ensure Little Rock’s students have a strong foundation in literacy – the building block for future success in life. We’re confident that a proven program like Ignite will be the spark that levels up our next generation of leaders,” said Little Rock School District Superintendent Dr. Jermall Wright.

The 15-minute sessions happen during the school day and help deliver differentiated instruction for students reading at different levels.

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