The UMBC Reach Together Tutoring Program (RTTP) engages UMBC students to personalize and accelerate learning for Baltimore students through high-dosage tutoring. UMBC Math Coaches serve as a tutor and mentor for a small group of students while earning $18/hour. Each tutor group requires a 3-hour commitment per week.
Apply to be a UMBC Math Coach!
Interested, but want to learn more? Reach out to reachtogether@umbc.edu.
The Reach Together Tutoring Program is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy.
RTTP works with school-based educators to help all students access and master rigorous, grade-level concepts through high-dosage tutoring for identified students and continuous improvement professional development for classroom educators. Our comprehensive acceleration model combines current UMBC partnership math PD and tutoring programs to meet the need of unfinished student learning. Our experience partnering at Lakeland EMS and other Baltimore schools teaches us that deep partnership in a cohort of schools can yield significant improvements to student outcomes. We believe this comprehensive model with high-dosage tutoring and school-wide continuous improvement PD with four schools will yield transformative student and school outcomes and will serve as a model for school-level academic acceleration.
Reach Together Tutoring Program Design
- High Dosage Tutoring – Near-peer UMBC students will serve as paid “math coaches” to provide tutoring at least two times per week for 45 minutes over 24 weeks. Tutoring will be held during the intervention block of the school day in small groups with a coach-to-student ratio of 1:2 or 1:3. The tutoring program will provide targeted support to pre-requisite skills in-service to grade-level standards to provide just-in-time supports that promote access and mastery of grade-level concepts over time.
- Teacher Professional Development – Professional development for school-based staff is rooted in continuous improvement and improvement science by triangulating data, engaging in data cycles, collaboration among colleagues, and iterating practice. The model requires intensive data collection and analysis at formative and summative points in time, in conjunction with the core academic program.
- School Leadership Coaching & Consultation – School leaders are supported through on-going data analysis and strategic planning focused on improving student learning outcomes and teacher practice.
Pilot Implementation – SY 2021-22
We conducted a pilot program providing high-dosage tutoring for 350 City Schools students during the 2021-22 school year at:
- Arundel Elementary School
- Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School
- Lakeland Elementary/Middle School
- Westport Elementary/Middle School
Continued Expansion – SY 2022 – 2023 Through SY 2025 – 2026
Since our pilot year we have continue to expand our programming, reaching additional students throughout Baltimore City and Baltimore County. We currently provide high-dosage tutoring for over 500 students in 1st through 8th grade across 14 schools. There are 90 UMBC students serving as math coaches. The Reach Together Tutoring Program partners with the following schools:
- Arundel Elementary School
- Bay Brook Elementary/Middle School
- Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School
- Clay Hill Public Charter
- Fallstaff Elementary/Middle School
- KIPP Baltimore
- Lakeland Elementary/Middle School
- Lansdowne Elementary School (Baltimore County Public Schools)
- Lansdowne Middle School (Baltimore County Public Schools)
- Pimlico Elementary/Middle School
- Riverview Elementary School (Baltimore County Public Schools)
- Vanguard Collegiate Middle School
- Westport Elementary/Middle School
- Windsor Mill Middle School (Baltimore County Public Schools)
History
The Reach Together Program is built off of UMBC’s history of supporting personalized learning for students at Lakeland EMS and in Baltimore schools.
- In 2016, the UMBC Sherman Program launched the Math Coach Program, enlisting the support of 25 UMBC students to provide individualized student support in math each semester.
- In 2017, the Sherman team deepen partnership efforts to provide professional development for teachers at Lakeland. The team scaled the project to partner with 5 other Baltimore schools in the 2017-18 school year. By 2019, this cohort of schools demonstrated on average 5% gains in math on state exams.
- In the summer of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sherman Program launched the UMBC Summer Math Program to provide a virtual summer experience math experience for 150 Lakeland students (WJZ).
- In Fall 2020, the UMBC Sherman Program piloted the Reach Together Program to provide online tutoring for 120 Baltimore students in five schools (Digital Harbor HS, Glenmount EMS, Liberty ES, Maree G. Farring EMS, & Windsor Hills EMS) for 8 weeks.
- In Summer 2021, the UMBC Summer Math Program shifted to in-person learning providing math acceleration and STEM enrichment for 100 3rd-8th graders at Lakeland over five weeks.
- In the 2021 – 2022 school year we completed the pilot year of our current version of the Reach Together Tutoring Program, providing high-dosage, in-person tutoring to 350 students.
- In the 2023 – 2024 school year we expanded to four additional schools; Bay Brook, Curtis Bay, Dickey Hill, and Fallstaff
- In the 2024 – 2025 school year we launched our first Baltimore County School partnering with Woodlawn Middle School.
- In the 2025 – 2026 school year we continued our partnerships in Baltimore County expanding to Riverview Elementary, Lansdowne Elementary, and Windsor Mill Middle School. We also collaborated with Lansdowne High School to uplift a math peer tutoring program. We added additional partnerships in Baltimore City which included Pimlico, KIPP, Clay Hill Public Charter, and Vanguard Collegiate Middle School.
In the News
The Reach Together Tutoring Program expanded into additional schools during the 2023 – 2024 and 2024 – 2025 school years as part of a partnership with Baltimore City and Baltimore County as they were each recipients of the Maryland Tutoring Corps grant program. The 74 Million highlighted the impact of this grant program on local school districts with a focus on the Reach Together Tutoring Program in their article published in January 2025.