Florida Teaching Fellows: Partnering with Parents to Multiply Academic Growth

At 6 PM on a Tuesday, Maria Santos is helping her third-grader with math homework at their kitchen table while dinner simmers on the stove. Down the hall, her kindergartener struggles with reading practice. Like 60% of Florida families, Maria wishes she knew more about how to help her children succeed academically. She wishes her school had an after-hours homework hotline.

Last Thursday was Preston's last day of first grade. Preston loved his teacher and has a positive attitude about school. But his year-end test indicated that he is not quite ready for second grade. Preston's single mom is working two jobs. Over the summer, Preston will spend three to four days a week with his grandmother. Preston's mom is struggling financially and doesn't know where to begin in developing a plan to support his academic progress over the summer.

Maria and Preston's mom represent hundreds of thousands of Florida families caught in an impossible squeeze: they want to support their children's learning, but lack the tools, time, or resources to do it effectively within the constraints of their daily lives.

The Challenge: A School System Built for Yesterday's Families

Florida’s schools still operate on a schedule built for a different era — a time when most families had a stay-at-home parent and learning happened between 8 AM and 3 PM. Today, that model no longer fits the realities of students, working families, or the modern economy. Yet teachers are already stretched thin — juggling lesson planning, instruction, grading, and countless other responsibilities.

The numbers tell a stark story: only half of Florida’s incoming kindergarteners are “ready” for school, meaning roughly 100,000 children start behind each year. To close that gap by third grade, 25,000 additional students would need to reach grade-level performance annually. Right now, Florida schools are closing only 10 percent of that gap, with just 2,200 students per year catching up between kindergarten and third grade. To support every student who starts behind, Florida would need to increase early-grade gains tenfold.

The stakes are enormous. Research shows that students who are not reading proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. The social and economic costs of early academic failure ripple outward — affecting not just individual lives, but entire communities and the broader economy. 

The solution: Florida teaching Fellows as growth multipliers

To increase academic acceleration tenfold, Florida needs growth multipliers — people who expand a school’s capacity by connecting families and students with the right tools, support, and opportunities.

There are more learning resources available than ever before — but for many families, that abundance can feel overwhelming. Parents need someone to come alongside them with a personalized, step-by-step approach. Not during the school day, when they’re at work — but at 8:30 on a weeknight or 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon.

The Florida Teaching Fellows program is designed to create exactly this kind of multiplier effect. It focuses on what no other initiative does: equipping parents to guide their child’s learning, while helping students become self-directed learners.

What are florida teaching fellows?

Florida Teaching Fellows are full-time, college-educated professionals embedded in schools — but with a crucial distinction: most of their working hours fall outside the traditional school day.

While Fellows do support classroom instruction, the core of their role is to provide high-quality parent coaching, student mentoring, and family engagement during evenings, weekends, school breaks, and summers. They help shift schools from “banker’s hours” to something more like a “7-11 model” — open, accessible, and aligned with the needs of families.

This is not a “drop your kids off and let someone else teach them” program. Instead, Teaching Fellows empower parents with the tools to lead their child’s learning and support students in becoming confident, self-directed learners.

Real life impact: maria and preston

For Preston’s family, a Teaching Fellow would work with his mother and grandmother to establish a 30-minute daily summer learning routine, using digital platforms that allow the Fellow to monitor progress remotely.

For Maria, a Fellow might join a few homework sessions to demonstrate how to access and use key learning resources. Together, they would create a personalized homework game plan, with the Fellow following up regularly via Teams to offer encouragement and troubleshoot challenges.

Over time, Maria goes from feeling overwhelmed by homework to feeling calm, confident, and engaged. And when a new academic challenge arises, she knows she’s not alone — she has a Teaching Fellow in her corner.

Proactive partners in school improvement

Teaching Fellows aren’t just extra hands — they are proactive problem-solvers who collaborate with principals and school leaders to design and implement strategies tailored to each school’s unique challenges and family circumstances.

Here’s how a school might partner with its Fellows to address common barriers to student success:

• Chronic absenteeism: Develop targeted outreach plans that include flexible check-ins and weekend catch-up sessions designed around parents’ schedules.

• Homework completion: Coach parents on how to create effective home learning environments — not just offering help with assignments, but building sustainable routines.

• Underutilized learning tools: Host hands-on workshops for students and families to explore digital learning platforms, with follow-up coaching to ensure confident use.

• Students falling behind: Provide parents with individualized strategies to support learning at home, backed by tutoring outside of school hours when needed.

• Developing mastery: Help families build practice routines that fit real-life schedules — mornings, evenings, or weekends — and show parents how to track and celebrate academic growth.

• Summer learning loss: Partner with extended family members (like Preston’s grandmother) to maintain momentum during breaks, using easy-to-access, tech-supported learning plans.

• Low parent engagement: Meet families where they are — both literally and culturally — with flexible options and responsive communication that builds trust and leverages family strengths.

Teaching Fellows extend a school’s reach by making support more accessible, more personalized, and more aligned with what families actually need.

A Unique approach with proven elements

While no program mirrors Florida Teaching Fellows exactly, its design draws from a strong foundation of evidence-based strategies:

• Parent engagement programs consistently show positive effects on student achievement, across all income levels.

• High-dosage tutoring — frequent, focused, and personalized — is one of the most effective interventions for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

• Extended learning time initiatives are most successful when they focus on individualized support rather than just “more of the same.”

What sets Florida Teaching Fellows apart is how it combines these proven elements in a modern, flexible framework. By using technology — video calls, digital platforms, and remote monitoring — Fellows can deliver timely, relevant support that fits into families’ real lives.

Similar initiatives in North Carolina and Tennessee have successfully used non-certified personnel to deliver high-impact tutoring. FTF builds on those successes while adding the crucial element of parent empowerment — a factor that research increasingly shows is essential for sustained student growth.

A smart investment in student success

The Florida Teaching Fellows Pilot Program proposes placing 3–4 Fellows in each of 15 pilot elementary schools, with at least 10 of those schools serving students with below-average kindergarten readiness rates.

This model utilizes resources that schools already have: existing facilities, school-day alignment, and strong teacher teams. By extending learning opportunities outside traditional hours, it delivers high-impact support without adding pressure to already-stretched classroom teachers.

Research on comparable high-dosage tutoring programs suggests that investments like this could generate $2 to $3 in economic returns for every $1 spent — through improved student outcomes, reduced remediation, and long-term social and economic benefits.

Addressing key questions

How Will Teaching Fellows Be Trained?

Florida Teaching Fellows will be trained through a cohort-based model that builds both individual skills and shared systems for long-term success. One lead district, supported by a college or research university, will anchor the pilot and receive funding to hire a full-time program director. Fellows will be trained in evidence-based tutoring, parent coaching, and student support strategies, with a focus on literacy, family engagement, and real-world application. Training will combine in-person sessions, online modules, and ongoing mentorship. Weekly check-ins and monthly cohort meetings will ensure continuous learning, shared problem-solving, and alignment with the program’s mission: to partner with families and accelerate student growth outside of the traditional school day.

Won’t this be expensive?

Not compared to the cost of doing nothing. The per-student cost of the pilot is modest relative to current remediation and support expenses. And because early intervention is far more cost-effective than later repair, even a small improvement in student outcomes could yield large-scale savings in academic and social support services down the road.

Will families actually participate?

Yes — because FTF is built around the real constraints families face. It removes common barriers like cost, transportation, and rigid scheduling by providing support on parents’ terms — when and where they need it. That flexibility is key to reaching the 50% of families who currently struggle to access traditional programs.

How is this different from existing afterschool programs?

Unlike most afterschool programs, FTF focuses on empowering parents and building student agency. It’s not about doing more of the same — it’s about giving families the tools to take charge of learning.

Teaching Fellows are integrated into the school team and aligned with classroom instruction. They coach families for long-term success and provide strategic support — like tutoring, weekend homework clinics, and summer learning plans — only when needed and tailored to each family’s unique journey.

The Bottom line

Time, attention, and practice — these are the essential ingredients for learning success. But just as vital are the tools and confidence parents need to guide that practice, and the self-direction skills students need to take ownership of their learning.

By operating outside the boundaries of the traditional school day, the Florida Teaching Fellows initiative has the potential to transform not just the rhythm of school life, but the core relationship between schools and families.

The risk? Minimal — a modest investment in a four-year pilot.The potential? Enormous — a scalable, family-centered model that could finally address the real constraints keeping too many students from achieving early academic success.

The Next step

Policymakers should authorize the Florida Teaching Fellow pilot program, giving Florida the opportunity to test this innovative approach and gather the data needed for informed scaling decisions.

Florida needs a bridge between the traditional school schedule and the 24/7 reality families live every day. By equipping and empowering parents — with guidance from Teaching Fellows — FTF becomes a powerful resource multiplier.

At the first sign a child is struggling, a Teaching Fellow can step in — collaborating with the teacher and family to get that student back on track. And that early action is key — because the sooner we respond, the less likely a child is to fall further behind.