Virtual Tutoring That Delivers: How OpenLiteracy Supports Students Anywhere with Certified Teachers
As districts across the country continue to invest in targeted interventions, recent research, including Done Right, Virtual Tutoring Nearly Rivals In-Person Version, suggests that virtual tutoring, when designed and delivered effectively, can produce outcomes comparable to in-person instruction.
This finding is significant for schools facing challenges such as staffing shortages, limited intervention time during the school day, or difficulty reaching students in rural or underserved areas. OpenLiteracy’s virtual 1:1 tutoring model was built with these challenges in mind.
Program Overview
OpenLiteracy delivers structured, high-impact tutoring virtually to K–6 students, with a focus on foundational reading skills and reading comprehension. Our model includes:
Certified Teachers: All OpenLiteracy tutors are certified teachers with an average of 15 years of classroom teaching experience, ensuring a high level of instructional expertise.
Evidence-Aligned Instruction: Instruction is grounded in the Science of Reading and includes explicit phonics, vocabulary development, oral language, and comprehension strategies using a systematic and sequential scope and sequence.
Structured Routines: Each session follows a consistent routine and draws from a research-based scope and sequence to support skill progression and increasing student confidence.
Personalized Learning through Progress Monitoring: Tutors use formative assessments to design initial lesson pathways, track growth, and adjust instruction as needed.
Why OpenLiteracy’s Virtual Tutoring Works
OpenLiteracy’s model reflects the key elements identified in national studies as critical to successful virtual tutoring:
Certified teachers with an average of 15 years of experience.
Students meet with the same tutor, allowing for students to build relationships and take risks
Consistent, frequent sessions (three times a week, 30 minutes per session).
High-quality instructional materials and research-based instructional strategies.
Real-time interaction and student engagement. OpenLiteracy prioritizes student engagement. Our tutors are trained on how to keep students engaged and learning.
By delivering instruction virtually, we’re able to reach students regardless of location and minimize the logistical barriers often associated with in-person tutoring, such as travel time, space constraints, or limited local staffing.
Implementation and Reach
OpenLiteracy currently partners with schools and districts in a wide range of settings, including urban, suburban, and rural communities. Virtual delivery has allowed programs to launch quickly and operate efficiently across time zones and school calendars.
Virtual instruction is delivered 1:1, 3-4 times per week, in 30-minute sessions. Teachers and school leaders report high levels of student engagement and noticeable gains in decoding, fluency, and reading confidence.
Interested in learning more about virtual tutoring?
Research continues to affirm the potential of virtual tutoring when implemented with quality. OpenLiteracy’s approach which is always delivered 1:1 with certified teachers, aligned with a students specific learning needs, and designed to allow schools to efficiently meet their intervention goals - means that virtual tutoring is a solution that meets the real-world needs of schools today.
To learn more about how this model is working across different contexts, contact hello@openliteracy.com.
