Willis ISD students have a new tool at their disposal since the district launched its new partnership with Paper, an online tutoring service that is available every day, year-round.
“It provides us an option to integrate the whole school system. So parents, students and teachers,” Sara Goolsby, assistant superintendent of innovation, teaching and learning for Willis ISD, said. “With other tutoring programs that we researched it was limited to certain stakeholders in education.”
The district signed a three-year contract with Paper for $245,000, using federal emergency COVID-19 funds. At least 20 percent of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds the district received have to be used to address learning loss. If the district chooses to continue using Paper after three years, it will use funds from the annual budget.
Superintendent Tim Harkridersaw the company give a presentation last year. After meeting with Paper representatives and talking it over with district leadership, Harkrider felt it was a tool that could benefit the students.
Paper offers personalized online academic support through tutoring and essay review. It is available to students at all hours of the day, every day of the year, even in the summer. While the students are the main users of Paper, teachers will be able to converse with the online tutors to learn their students’ needs.
Students will be able to access Paper through Clever, the district’s online learning platform. Paper covers all district courses and subjects, Goolsby said, and can also offer support in Spanish.
The success of the program will be measured by how many students use Paper, how much time they are spending on it and whether it improves their educational outcomes.
Under House Bill 4545, which took effect in 2021, students that fail the state STAAR test are required to go through 30 hours of remediation per test failed. The hours that students spend using Paper can be applied to these hours of remediation.
“We've all struggled with trying to figure out an efficient and effective way to meet that mandate and not cripple what we were doing for kids,” Goolsby said. “This gives us an immediate way to monitor hours on students on specific courses.”
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