About Saga Education Tutoring

Saga Education works with school systems around the country to provide high-dosage math tutoring in middle and high schools that predominantly serve low-income families. Saga’s original high school model was delivered in person, providing 9th and 10th graders with 50 minutes of in-school tutoring per day, 5 days per week, for one school year. Evaluations of the in-person version of the program found positive, sizable effects on math test scores.

During and since the COVID-19 pandemic, Saga has been implementing a live-online version of its model, where students work independently and with a remote tutor in Saga’s online tutoring platform, called Saga Connect. 

About the Study

In collaboration with MDRC, the Research Alliance is evaluating Saga’s live-online model for three recent cohorts of New York City high school students. MDRC’s evaluation will use propensity score matching (PSM) to assess Saga’s effects on students’ math and more general academic performance during high school. Their study will also assess the per-pupil costs of Saga’s live-online model. The Research Alliance’s work on the project focuses on an analysis of Saga’s implementation in participating high schools. 

This study has important broader implications, as high-dosage tutoring has been shown to be effective in improving math achievement but is often costly to implement. Saga’s exploration of cost-saving strategies could inform future initiatives to make tutoring programs more accessible and sustainable. This information is particularly salient in the context of ongoing efforts to help students recover from Covid-related learning losses. 

The Research Alliance’s work on this project is made possible with support from the Overdeck Family Foundation.