Manassas Park updates on state-funded "All In" tutoring as elementary, middle schools report early gains

Manassas Park City Schools officials on Wednesday described early progress in a state-funded "All In" tutoring program that aims to accelerate learning in grades 3-8.

Rachel Kirkland, the tutoring specialist at Manassas Park Middle School, told the school board the after-school program began Jan. 22 with about 100 students and has grown to roughly 160 — about 20% of the middle-school population. "Our staffing consists of about 30 teachers, IAs and other staff," Kirkland said. She described small-group ratios generally near 5-to-1, with a maximum of 10 students per tutor, and said the program provides snacks and bus transportation.

Lauren Ambrose Smith, the tutoring specialist at Manassas Park Elementary, said the elementary model embeds 30 minutes of tutoring into the school day during a care block and currently serves about "400 students," a figure she cautioned will fluctuate as students move in and out of intervention groups. "We are utilizing licensed teachers for all of our tutoring," Ambrose Smith said, noting staff include homeroom, specialist, special education and ESOL teachers.

Division presenters said tutoring uses digital platforms to identify skill gaps and provide targeted lessons. "Imagine Math and Lexia provide assessments that identify gaps and prescribe lessons tutors use for one-on-one instruction," the presenter noted, adding the division launched Lexia recently and is continuing Imagine Math and Achieve3000 pathways.

Staff also highlighted Varsity Tutors, a 24/7 on-demand tutoring resource available via ClassLink; presenters said the service will be offered free to students through June 2027 and includes bilingual support and an essay-review feature. The division reported it will track usage: "Varsity Tutors will provide those metrics to us every two weeks," the presenter said.

Board members praised the early implementation and the staff who have piloted the program. Several members asked about outcome metrics and how the division will compare external tutoring data with in-house progress monitoring; division staff said they are building progress-monitoring tools and plan to analyze correlations between platform usage and assessment outcomes.

The board was told summer tutoring and alignment with summer learning experiences are being planned, and the division expects to return with an update at the April meeting.