LANSING, Mich. — A small summer experiment in one-on-one tutoring produced measurable gains for some of Michigan’s youngest students, according to an independent evaluation the state released Friday, and it arrives as schools prepare to compete for a much larger pot of tutoring money.
The 2026 Summer High Impact Tutoring Pilot reached 92 students at six school sites over five to six weeks. Seven trained tutors from Michigan Education Corps, a Hope Network program, worked mostly with kindergartners and first graders on reading, math and early learning skills. The state Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential, known as MiLEAP, paid for it with federal preschool development grant dollars.
Students improved on every reading and math measure the evaluators checked. Kindergartners picked up 7 more letter sounds per minute, and children in grades one through four read 3.7 more words correctly per minute; researchers called both gains statistically significant. Math students got 6 percentage points better at addition and subtraction, and the youngest children learned to name about one more letter on average.
The typical student came to about 11 sessions and logged roughly 167 minutes with a tutor, with attendance averaging 67%. Summer school staff said they could have used more tutors to meet demand. The evaluation recommends refinements in coach onboarding, tutor caseloads and data tracking but concludes the model can work in the looser setting of summer school and is worth expanding.
The results matter because Michigan is about to spend far more on the same idea. The 2026-27 state school aid budget sets aside up to $50 million for high-impact tutoring, a one-year allocation. Tutoring providers must partner with districts and apply for the money, and the state will hand it out competitively, weighing cost per student and evidence that a program gets results. Providers that misuse the money can be forced to return it.
MiLEAP Executive Director Beverly Walker-Griffea said in the release that focused summer help can keep children from sliding backward over the break and supports the state’s Every Child Reads literacy push.
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