Improvements to artificial intelligence are moving extremely fast these days (see ABPTL 2/19 post “Tomorrow as Today”). The potential impact on young learner’s ability to improve their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills is promising.
Take for example virtual tutoring. Although most virtual tutoring models still include a human element in the form of a certified teacher at the other end of the virtual connection, most experts believe it’s only a matter of time before AI will take over that function.
A recent study completed by Johns Hopkins University found that first graders who received virtual tutoring services were still on track in reading performance a year later with no additional help from human teachers.
An article posted by The 74 (2/25/26) offers more on the Johns Hopkins’ research:
“When schools flocked to tutoring in response to pandemic learning loss, experts initially said they preferred in-person sessions.”
“But new studies bolster the evidence that done well, virtual models can be just as effective at moving students forward as face-to-face instruction.”
“In Massachusetts, first graders who spent 15 minutes a day online with a tutor from Ignite Reading stayed on track a year later without additional tutoring, according to data shared exclusively with The 74. Students gained, on average, at least five additional months of learning over their expected growth.”
“Another virtual program, Hoot Reading, produced positive results in the Kansas City, Missouri, schools. Students who receive one-on-one tutoring from certified teachers made greater progress than those who didn’t receive the extra help, new data shows.”
“’Virtual model are getting stronger,’ said Amanda Neitzel, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of the Ignite Reading study. ‘If you go back just a few years, we had no examples of evidence-proven models and now we are getting them.’”
“In addition to following Ignite Reading for two years, she recently published a study showing that elementary school students in Texas and Louisiana who received virtual tutoring from Air Reading, outperformed their peers and gained nearly three additional months of learning.”
“’We obsess over student attendance,’ said Jessica Reid Sliwerski, Ignite Reading’s founder. Now in 24 states, the program focuses on building phonics skills and reading fluency.”
“In the Johns Hopkins Ignite Reading study, which focused on 13 Massachusetts school districts, 85% of students who mastered foundational reading skills ‘during the crucial first grade window’ were still keeping up at the end of second grade, Neitzel wrote. But if students didn’t meet expectations on time, they couldn’t catch up. Some were just too far behind.”
“’Many kids start our program still not knowing basic kindergarten skills, like letter names and sounds,’ Sliwerski said. That means tutors have two years of content to get through.”
“To Sliwerski, the findings demonstrate that third grade, when many states decide whether students are strong enough readers to advance, is too late to intervene. If kids struggle to decode unfamiliar words, the won’t be able to comprehend more complex reading assignments.”
“’We are so caught up in ‘reading by grade three’ that we aren’t honoring that kids are actually supposed to have fully cracked the code and be able to fluently read grade-level text at the end of first grade,’ she said. ‘We act like kids have all the time in the world, when they don’t.’”
The traditional K-12 system is a prisoner to pacing guides, a district-approved document that tells teachers what kids are supposed to have learned and when they were supposed to learn it. Because of pacing guides and other artificial methods of determining where young learners should be in their academic pathway, too many of those learners are prevented from accelerating their own learning, or to receive proper support to improve their learning.
Virtual tutoring, supported by artificial intelligence, can change all this. Kids can learn what they need to learn anytime, anywhere.
The future is bright when it comes to learning potential, if we are eager and willing to change some of our practices.
Friday News Roundup tomorrow. Til then. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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