A Descriptive Study of Enrollment in Supplemental Educational Services in the Four REL Appalachia Region States

The supplemental educational services program is a core provision of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The program offers free tutoring in reading/language arts and math from state-approved providers outside of regular school hours. This report explores differences across states and school urban and rural locales in providing supplemental educational services. Although specific challenges persist in administering specialized academic programs in remote areas, no formal studies have compared, across school locales, the percentages of eligible students who enrolled in supplemental educational services or the types of instruction (conventional, computer-only, or mixed-mode, which combines face-to-face and computer-delivered services) offered by providers and used by students. This report addresses these issues using 2007/08 data from state department of education websites, state and district supplemental educational services coordinators, and the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data (U.S. Department of Education 2008). The study examines six research questions: (1) What percentage of students were eligible to enroll in supplemental educational services, what percentage enrolled, and how did enrollment vary by state and school locale?; (2) How many tutoring hours did enrollees contract for, and how did these hours vary by state and school locale?; (3) How many tutoring hours and what percentage of contracted hours did enrollees attend, and how did these hours vary by state and school locale?; (4) How many approved providers did each state have, and how did the number of providers vary by state?; (5) What types of instruction were offered, what percentage of providers offered each type, and how did the percentages vary by state and locale?; and (6) What percentage of enrollees received each type of instruction, and how did the percentages vary by state and locale? An appendix describes the data sources and methodology.