PLEASANT VIEW, Tn. — Dana Wallace believes in the power of her profession.

"Whether there had been a pandemic or not, teachers are rock stars and we're gonna take them from where they are to where they need to be," she said.

She’s been an elementary teacher for close to two decades, but for this school year, she’s taking on a new challenge: tutoring to combat covid-era learning loss.

"It definitely affected their academics but affected them socially too, and I look at my position as the cherry on top—that I just get to love on these kids and give them one more person to be their cheerleader," said Wallace.

This kind of tutoring isn’t the afterschool tutoring we might have endured years ago; this is high-dosage or high-impact tutoring as part of her state’s strategy to help kids bounce back. For 45 minutes, in small groups during the school day, she helps 42 kids throughout the week bridge gaps in their understanding of their classroom curriculum.

Last week, the National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, released numbers that showed just how much students’ skills suffered since 2019. Math scores dropped 5 and 8 points in fourth and eighth grade respectively, the lowest since the early 2000s. Reading scores dropped by 3 points.

Kevin Huffman is the former education commissioner for the state of Tennessee and the current CEO of Accelerate, a new national initiative to help school districts across America integrate high-impact tutoring in their lesson plans through grants and research.

"A lot of districts are saying, 'We want to do tutoring. We know that it works. We've read the research.' But the challenge of finding the people to deliver," said Huffman.

While there’s no hard data yet to see how intensive tutoring has helped students post-COVID learning loss, years of studies on the positive impact tutoring has on student success has led to some states—like Tennessee Colorado, Texas, Lousiana and New Mexico— using some of their portion of the billions allocated through ARPA funding to invest in tutoring efforts.

Dana Wallace’s state of Tennessee, for example, is matching funds for school districts that decide to integrate tutoring. Tutoring works— the challenge is figuring out how to make it happen on a larger scale to fit the need.

"All districts across the country have federal stimulus money, and so they've got resources right now to deliver tutoring. price is not the barrier right now," he said. "So, we have a window right now to experiment, learn, try to figure out how to do this in a way that is more cost-effective, but hopefully still delivers results."

While the national scores are alarming, those working on helping students say that parents should have confidence in the people behind the efforts to help their kids get back on track.

"Every person is working our tails off for these students, not because of that score that came out, just because that's our heart and that's what we want to do is help them do their very best," said Wallace.

Tips for parents of students who may have fallen behind due to pandemic

Updated: 9:33 PM EDT May 30, 2021

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HUMID AND WARM, NEAR 80. JENNIFER: WE ARE COMING TO THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR HERE IN MARYLAND. AND AS WE APPROACH THE SUMMER, SOME STUDENTS MAY HAVE FALLEN BEHIND IN THEIR STUDIES BECAUSE OF THE VIRTUAL LEARNING, AND SO JOINING US THIS MORNING WITH MORE IS EMILY LOVETT WITH SYLVAN LEARNING CENTERS WITH HOW KIDS CAN CATCH UP OVER THE SUMMER. THANKS FOR JOINING US >> THANKS FOR HAVING ME. JENNIFER: WHAT TYPES OF PROGRAMS DOES SYLVAN OFFER? >> WE OFFER ONE ON ONE IN PRE-K THROUGH 12. WE RUN THE GAMUT IN SUBJECTS AND AGES. >> WHAT ARE YOU HEARING FROM PARENTS? PARENTS ARE CONCERNED. AS A MOM OF TWO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS, I GET IT. I AM TOO. IT'S A ROUGH YEAR FOR KIDS A TEACHERS AND PARENTS. SO WHEN WE STARTED BACK IN THE FALL, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TO EXPECT. IS MY CHILD READY? WHAT WILL BE THE TRANSITION BETWEEN REMOTE AND FULL-TIME, EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK. JENNIFER: WHEN YOU DO THE ONE ON ONE OR SMALL GROUP TUTORING, ARE YOU USING THE CURRICULUM IN WHATEVER SCHOOL DISTRICT THE CHILD LIVE IN? >> WE U COMMON CORE BASED. IT ALINES WITH WHAT THE KIDS ARE DOING IN SCHOOL. >> ARE YOU ABLE TO DO TESTING TO SEE HO THE KIDS ARE DOING? >> WE DO. A LOT OF PARENTS ARE COMING OUT OF THE SCHOOL YEAR TO SEE IF THEIR KIDS ARE READY. WE PROVIDE TESTING TO GIVE PARENTS A CLEAR IDEA OF WHETHER THERE IS WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE UP OVER THE SUMMER, ARE THEY READY, OR MAYBE YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY. JENNIFER: WOULDN'T THAT BE NICE. YOU SAID YOU ALSO DO COLLEGE PREP. IS THAT PSAT, SAT, ACT? >> YES, WE DO THOSE THINGS AND HAVE FOR A LONG TIME WITH NICE SUCCESS. WE HAVE A COUPLE KIDS EVERY YEAR WHO GET PERFECT SCORES. WE ALSO HELP STUDENTS BE SUCCESSFUL ONCE THEY GET TO COLLEGE, LIKE MORE SOPHISTICATED TYPES OF WRITE IN READING AND STUDY SKILLS. >> WHAT TIPS ARE YOU GIVING PARENTS TO HELP KIDS CATCH UP? MAYBE THEY DON'T WANT TO DO A TUTORING PROGRAM BUT SOMETHING THEY CAN DO AT HOME. >> THIS SUMMER NEEDS TO BE A GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN FUN AND DECOMPRESSING FOR THE PAST YEAR. THERE ARE A LOT OF ACTIVITIES ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS YOU CAN FIND WITH HOUSEHOLD ITEMS, PINTERIST. IT'S A NICE RESOURCE FOR EDUCATIONAL GAMES TO DO AT HOME. JENNIFER: I'VE HEARD FROM TEACHERS, READ, READ, READ. IT'S ONE OF THE BEST THINGS THEY ADVICE TO DO TO HELP CATCHUP. >> ABSOLUTELY, YES. JENNIFER: IF SOMEONE IS INTERESTED, WHAT DO THEY DO? >> GO TO SYLVANLEARNING.COM AND PUT IN YOUR ZIP CODE. WE'LL LET

Tips for parents of students who may have fallen behind due to pandemic

Updated: 9:33 PM EDT May 30, 2021

As the end of the school year draws near, some students may have fallen behind in their studies due to struggles with virtual learning. Watch the video above, where Emily Levitt with Sylvan Learning Centers talks with sister station WBAL about how parents can help their students this summer.

As the end of the school year draws near, some students may have fallen behind in their studies due to struggles with virtual learning.

Watch the video above, where Emily Levitt with Sylvan Learning Centers talks with sister station WBAL about how parents can help their students this summer.