Amid a national crisis in student achievement, Paper™, the outcomes-focused K-12 education platform, today announced new data showing that its GROW high-impact tutoring program is helping districts across eight states close proficiency gaps at scale. Across participating districts, ELA and math grade-level proficiency in grades 3-5 GROW students increased by 201% in 12 weeks.

School districts nationwide are contending with historic learning loss, especially in math and English Language Arts. The steepest declines are among economically disadvantaged, multilingual, and historically underserved student groups. For many districts, Tier 1 instruction alone is no longer sufficient to close these widening gaps. GROW helps districts address this challenge head-on.

“Fifth-grader ELA proficiency rose from 10% to 42% in just 12 weeks in GROW,” said Carla Ragan, Executive Director of Federal Programs at Las Cruces Public Schools. “We’re seeing great attendance rates of 82% because students want to attend their GROW session. Before GROW, our i-Ready made it clear that significant percentages of students were performing below grade level. Now we’re accelerating learning at a pace we haven’t seen before.”

“Every district leader is grappling with the same question: how do we catch students up, quickly and meaningfully?” said Martina Tam, CEO of Paper. “GROW is designed to deliver measurable gains that change a student’s academic trajectory. It’s working and driving real results for thousands of students across the country.”

Launched in 2024, GROW is built on Stanford National Student Support Accelerator’s evidence-based model for high-impact tutoring. GROW delivers consistent, relationship-driven tutoring during the school day, customized to each district’s pacing, curriculum, and MTSS/RTI frameworks. Students meet with the same tutor in small groups multiple times a week via live video. GROW personalizes instruction using assessment data to meet each student’s needs, whether for standards-based skill building, targeted test preparation, or accelerated learning for students performing below grade level.

Districts that saw the strongest results started with high-need, high-readiness school sites, embedding tutoring into the school day and aligning it with pacing guides. Paper’s dedicated Program Designers worked side-by-side with school teams to integrate GROW seamlessly supporting teachers, not burdening them.

“Paper delivers more than tutoring. GROW is transforming how our teachers approach instruction,” said Mark Thompson, Assistant Superintendent, Visalia USD. “Teachers now have the tools to identify learning gaps and provide targeted support to close them.” 

See how districts are implementing GROW and the strategies driving successful academic outcomes in our blog: Behind the Outcomes: What We Learned From Districts Doing High-Impact Tutoring Right.