Nearly 60,000 JCPS students used FEV Tutor or Paper in Fall 2022
By Juliann Morris
March 28, 2023–More than 57,000 Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) students tapped into live, online tutoring services in the fall of 2022, logging close to 250,000 hours on two platforms that give students extra academic support free of charge.
The platforms—FEV Tutor and Paper—offer students “just-in-time” support where they are, when they need it.
“With these services, students work one-on-one with a tutor and can focus on specific areas of need or standards they need to recover,” said Dr. Ronda George, JCPS executive director of Curriculum Design & Learning Innovation. “Students can interact, they can get critical feedback, and they can revisit their work.”
The district introduced FEV Tutor in 2020 and Paper in 2022 as a way to help recover learning loss stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The services also help ensure equitable access to extra support.
Paper delivers academic support for middle and high school students on-demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Any student who wants to improve their work, regardless of their academic level, can utilize the tool.
Yaquelin T. V., an 11th grade student at Fairdale High School, said she uses Paper in her English class regularly and has also logged on for help with tricky math problems. When submitting essays, Yaquelin said she had feedback within 24 hours. For math help, she had a tutor within seconds of logging into the site.
Paper tutor feedback also helped Yaquelin polish her Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program application essay, she said.
“Having that extra set of eyes whenever I need it is so helpful,” Yaquelin said. “When I've talked to a few teachers about this, they say that they wish they could give as much feedback as Paper does, but they just don't have enough hours in the day with how many students they have.”
Paper supports more than 200 courses, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, College and Career Readiness, as well as test preparation for ACT and SAT. Students can get help with all curricula, instructional strategies, and learning platforms that benefit JCPS students, regardless of their learning style and needs, including languages.
FEV Tutor also provides just-in-time tutoring and instructional support to students based on needs identified by the student or classroom teacher. Online tutoring sessions are available to students in grades three through 12 and focus on the core subjects of math, English, science, and social studies. Tutors are available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, and students can schedule lessons or opt for 24/7 tutoring with on-demand sessions. The service can also be accessed on weekends.
Ashley Howlett, an eighth grade English teacher at Ramsey Middle School, has used Paper with her students and said the online tool helps users become better advocates for their own learning.
Howlett requires students to submit a question to the Paper tutor to help guide initial feedback. For instance, a student could ask for help citing textual evidence, ask a question about their essay structure, or ask for clarity on a particular grammar rule.
The process helps students hone a more critical eye toward their own work and be more resourceful in accessing resources that can help them succeed, especially when they might need or want more feedback than a teacher with 120 students can offer.
“Usually, I just have to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the whole essay,” Howlett said. “But if the student knows there is a specific thing they want to work on, they can ask for that targeted feedback from a Paper tutor and have it within a couple of hours generally.”
When evaluating essays, Paper tutors go beyond grammar, spelling, and punctuation and can really help students dig into the content and structure of their assignments as well. Students often receive a full page of detailed commentary on strengths and areas for growth, Howlett said.
The more students use the resource, the more benefits they’ll derive, Howlett said.
“While a Paper tutor could never replace the teacher in the classroom, it helps provide one-on-one assistance in a way we could never do before in a traditional classroom. That kind of help is priceless,” Howlett said. “If they use it enough, it can help students gain more autonomy over their writing process, as well as receive more timely and thorough feedback than from one single teacher who is trying to grade 120 essays.”
JCPS educators who want more information about integrating Paper or FEV Tutor into their classrooms can contact the Curriculum Design & Learning Innovation Department for support.