Programs & Services

Helps Education Fund offers several evidence-based programs and services that are designed to support educators, improve student learning, and address educational inequities. For example, our programs and services improve children's reading and math skills, adult literacy, support family literacy practices in the home, bridge meaningful connections between parents and schools, integrate highly-trained volunteers into school improvement models, and connect K-12 schools and universities to collaboratively address critical needs in education.

Helps Education Fund currently offers 11 different programs and 6 primary services. Our programs and services are being used by educators, families, and community organizations throughout the United States and in several countries around the world.

To adapt to remote-learning contexts that became widespread during the COVID pandemic, nearly all of our programs can now be successfully used with students in-person or in a virtual (remote learning) context.

Select the Programs and Services Most Useful for You

Oftentimes our programs can be used by several different types of educators to benefit students in a variety of settings. Just as one example, our Parents and Schools Together to Enhance Learning (PASTEL) program can be used by parents, caregivers, classroom teachers, reading specialists, childcare providers, staff or volunteers in after-school programs, as well as others.

To assist educators with identifying programs most applicable for their needs, we list all applicable programs according to the potential user. Click the respective boxes below for dropdown lists of different programs that you can use to support the students you work with. Click the name of each program for more detailed information.

If you want to go directly to our list of services, click here

Current Programs:

Current Services:

  • Training Workshops

    To support educators as well as parents and caregivers with effectively using the programs we offer, Helps Education Fund routinely provides training workshops that are grounded in best practices. Although our workshops are structured to be effective and time-efficient, they can also be adapted to meet the specific needs of educators, schools, school districts, etc.

  • Coaching and Building Strong Implementation Fidelity

    To enhance educators’ capacity to implement evidence-based instructional programs, we offer coaching options to ensure strong implementation fidelity. We also train educators to use our research-supported coaching practices and materials to support others with implementation fidelity.

  • Assistance with Program Development

    For educators or organizations that are in the process of developing, refining and/or enhancing their own educational program, we can potentially assist with maximizing its usability and effectiveness.

  • Program Evaluation

    For educators or organizations that have developed their own educational program and need assistance with high-quality evaluation, we have staff members who may be able to support such efforts.

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Training workshops

For more than 15 years, we have provided training for educators in the United States and around the world. Our training workshops are low-cost, integrate research-based practices, and are fully collaborative to ensure educators are receiving the type of training that will meet their needs and goals. For example, workshops can range from half-day sessions to multi-day sessions, depending on the specific needs of a school, school district, or other educational organization.

Although our workshops focus on preparing educators to effectively use programs or services offered by Helps Education Fund, we welcome inquiries for other types of educational training needs.

For additional information about attending or scheduling a training workshop, please contact Dr. Amy Mattingly at amy.mattingly@helpseducationfund.org.

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Coaching and Building Strong Implementation Fidelity

Since 2008, Helps Education Fund has offered a wide range of evidence-based training and support to ensure educators are using our programs effectively.

As most educators know, strategically coaching teachers to use a new program or innovation can be one of the most effective ways to make sure the program is used with fidelity and has the biggest impact on student learning.  Unfortunately, not all coaching practices are equally effective.

We developed our coaching procedures and materials using evidence-based practices, collaboration, and an iterative design process to confirm that the practices are effective and feasible in school settings.

Helps Education Fund can provide coaching services (in person or, sometimes, virtually) and we can help to train the educators at your site to use our research-supported coaching procedures and materials.

For additional information about receiving our coaching support, please contact Dr. Amy Mattingly at amy.mattingly@helpseducationfund.org.

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Assistance with Program Development

Helps Education Fund staff have collaboratively developed multiple educational programs designed to support educators and students. These staff members will leverage this experience to assist you or your organization with developing or enhancing your educational program of interest.  Our areas of expertise include, for example:

  • integrating evidence-based educational practices
  • creating strategies and materials to improve program usability or effectiveness
  • identifying opportunities to incorporate simple but meaningful, formative assessments
  • designing ways to observe and measure implementation quality

For additional information about our support with program development, please contact Dr. Amy Mattingly at amy.mattingly@helpseducationfund.org.

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Program Evaluation

High-quality program evaluation requires significant time, resources, and expertise. Helps Education Fund staff have decades of experience with program evaluation in real-world contexts and can potentially assist other education-based organizations with evaluation needs.  In keeping with our core values, we are particularly interested in partnering with organizations aiming to evaluate programs that have the potential to enhance educational equity.

For additional information or questions about our support with program evaluation, please contact Dr. Amy Mattingly at amy.mattingly@helpseducationfund.org.