Setting
The study sample was 3rd - 8th grade students in the Minneapolis Public Schools from the 2004-2005 school year (QED 1) and for the 2005-06 school year (QED 2 and QED 3). Among the QEDs, the authors do not provide any information about how the samples may overlap from 2004-2005 with Catapult Learning, from 2005-06 with Catapult Learning Online SES, and from 2005-06 with Club Z Tutoring. The author provides no detailed information about where the studies were implemented, or how many classes were involved.
Study sample
QED 1 had a total of 569 students in the intervention group and 569 students in the matched comparison group, and included Grades 3, 5, and 7. Overall, 13% of the intervention group was special education, 21% were English learners, and 71% were free and reduced price lunch eligible. QED 2 had a total of 108 students in the intervention group and 108 students in the matched comparison group, and included Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (Total n=216). The authors did not specify demographic characteristics of the intervention or comparison groups for this analysis. QED 3 had a total of 60 students in Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, with 30 who received the Club Z math tutoring and 30 in the comparison group. The authors reported that the final sample of 30 intervention students and 30 matched students were 73% English learners for each group.
Intervention Group
The report includes information on the 13 SES providers and the numbers of students served, as well as the number of sessions each student received during the 2004-05 school year. The number of sessions per student ranged from 2 to 65. The means of sessions per student per provider ranged from 14.8 to 56.8. With Catapult Learning in 2004-05, students received an average of 35-40 hours of additional instruction during the school year by after school instructors (some were unlicensed teachers). In 2005-06, licensed teachers were used as instructors and small group tutoring was employed. The services provided by Club Z tutoring were one-on-one in-home tutoring.
Supplemental education services (SES) are mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, when schools do not make Adequate Yearly Progress for two or more years. The article did not report on a definition of supplemental educational services. As background from Sunderman (2007), NCLB specifies that supplemental educational services should support student achievement, expand educational opportunities for students, and provide support for low-performing schools to improve instruction. SES services most often include tutoring in reading, math, or other key academic subject, and NCLB requires that SES services be provided outside the school day. NCLB requires that the programming be research -based, high-quality, and focused on improving student achievement.
Comparison Group
The matched sample to the intervention group did not receive supplemental education services during the 2004-2005 (QED 1) or 2005-2006 (QED 2 and 3) school years.
Support for implementation
Supports for implementation are not described in the article, however, supplemental education services mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 are generally supported by school-level administration and the implementation procedures specified by the state-level approval process that SES vendors must undergo. Supports for implementation would have included training and quality assurance procedures in place by Catapult Learning, Catapult Learning online SES services, and Club Z tutoring services for its tutors and providers.