Measuring Effectiveness

Side by Side’s Great Start program has boosted the academic achievement of students. We have tracked kindergarten students’ scores on a standardized reading comprehension test, the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), since 2012-2013. The test is given three times a year, so we can see how much students progress from the beginning of the academic year to the end. Students whose parents have attended at least half the Great Start sessions offered in a year have averaged greater progress each year than their peers. Here are the numbers.

There is no calculation for 2019-2020 because of the closing of school buildings in March due to the COVID-19 crisis, prompting the cancellation of end-of-year testing.

Going forward, Side by Side has adapted a new measurement of effectiveness and a more specific goal. Through the combined effect of our Great Start and Side by Side Tutoring programs, we are committed to lowering the percentage of students who end the year reading below-grade level by at least 6 percentage points over three years. This goal will begin with kindergarten students at the two schools where we began our full Side by Side Tutoring program in 2019-2020, but will eventually be adopted for other schools and other grades.

Below is the benchmark percentage of students reading below grade-level at our six partner schools, calculated as a three-year average from 2016-2017 to 2018-2019.