Tier 2 racial disparities in reading: An illustration of exploring opportunities and outcomes

Abstract Important questions exist about the extent to which racial gaps exist in instructional opportunities and achievement outcomes for elementary students in schools implementing multi-tiered systems of support. In the United States, concerns about gaps for Black and White students are of particular concern. Our work illustrates a systematic evaluation of racial differences in instructional opportunities and outcomes of a high impact tutoring program as implemented across 50 high needs schools in a midwestern state. The program provides high impact tutoring to K-3 students with reading difficulties through well-trained community-based tutors. Although this approach is used in schools in more than a dozen states, the extent to which implementation and outcomes are similar for students of different racial backgrounds has not been systematically examined. Using data from the 2022–23 academic year, we compared various indicators of instructional opportunities (e.g., attendance, intervention changes, materials sent home) and outcomes (e.g., spring reading score, program exit, reading growth) for Black or African American and White students matched on grade and fall reading score. Multi-level regression models accounting for school clustering were used to explore whether race was a significant predictor for each of six targeted indicators. Race was found to predict only one of the six indicators: program exit by the end of the academic year. School accounted for considerable variance in all models, suggesting that unique characteristics of one’s school may account for racial differences in implementation and outcomes. Overall, this work illustrates how systematic data collection and analysis can help pinpoint if and where racial opportunity and achievement gaps are evident within tiered programs to help inform decision-making.