Agenda Item
g. Purchase of Amira Tutor, Supplemental High-Dosage Tutoring (Not to exceed $600,000)
Summary: Presented by: Ms. Stacy E. Stepney, Chief Academic Officer, Division of Curriculum and Instruction
Request: It is requested that the Board of Education approve the purchase of Amira Tutor, a high-dosage, research-based tutoring program to support foundational reading skills, fluency, and reading comprehension development in kindergarten through third grade, in an amount not to exceed $600,000.
Why: The DeKalb County School District (DCSD) administers the Northwest Evaluation Association Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) three times per year. The 2025 spring MAP Fluency data results in the areas of phonics and word recognition are as follows:
Phonics and Word Recognition
Grade
Below Expectation
Approaching Expectation
Meets Expectation
Exceeds Expectation
Kindergarten
27%
16%
25%
32%
First
52%
46%
2%
0%
Second
96%
0%
4%
0%
Third
95%
0%
5%
0%
Amira ISIP is the Georgia Department of Education’s approved reading and dyslexia screener provided to local school districts at no cost. The District is seeking to adopt and purchase Amira Tutor, a supplemental tutoring program that algins directly to the Amira Assess. Amira Tutor will provide high-dosage, evidence-based, AI-guided, 1:1 tutoring to support teaching and learning. Real-time micro interventions are individualized and use research-based techniques and explicit decoding strategies to enhance foundational reading skills.
Pursuant to Board Policy DJE (III.D.3.g.2), the purchase of Amira Tutor does not require a competitive bid because it meets the policy definition of supplemental resources needed for instruction. In addition, Amira Tutor was evaluated and selected by qualified professional personnel based on sound pedagogical judgment and in the school district’s best interest.
Details: Amira ISIP provides a comprehensive and culturally responsive assessment system that evaluates key early literacy components such as phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension-many of which can be completed in 15-20 minutes. The voice-enabled technology listens as students read aloud, detects errors with high reliability and validity, and generates actionable data reports that support differentiated instruction and early identification of reading difficulties, including dyslexia risk.
Amira acts in three essential roles: a dyslexia screener and diagnostic tool, a skilled instructional assistant, and a personalized reading coach. These roles are particularly valuable for early learners who benefit from responsive, individualized practice grounded in the science of reading.
For educators, Amira Tutor enhances classroom efficiency by allowing small group, whole group, or individual support by delivering immediate feedback through an AI-powered 1:1 tutor. For students, Amira Tutor fosters independence and engagement through interactive read-aloud experiences and real-time positive reinforcement. This tool is especially effective for supporting diverse learners thanks to its universal design features and multilingual sensitivity.
Overall, Amira Tutor empowers K-3 teachers with the data and tools needed to deliver responsive instruction, monitor progress, and close early literacy gaps, making it an asset in building foundational reading proficiency across all student groups. The selection of the Amira Tutor followed a two-round review process:
Round 1 (March 17, 2025): The five GADOE approved vendors presented their universal reading and dyslexia screener in person. A total of 15 participants attended, including central office coordinators, directors, assistant superintendents, and chiefs. Participants provided structured feedback and posed questions regarding instructional design, alignment with science of reading, and support for differentiated instruction of each resource.
Round 2 (April 3, 2025): Vendors addressed specific questions that arose in Round 1.
Financial impact: The total contract amount will not exceed $600,000.
120.2100.553200.26021.7210.1613.8010.035.2025
GEER II Dyslexia
Communication-Web Subscription
100-1000-553200-00011-7580-9990-8010-035-000
Communication-Web Subscription
100-2220-530000-00011-7580-9990-8010-035-0000
Purchased Professional/Technical Services
Contact: Ms. Stacy E. Stepney, Chief Academic Officer, Division of Curriculum & Instruction, 678-676-0731
Dr. Sean R. Tartt, Deputy Chief Academic Officer, Division of Curriculum & Instruction, 678-676-0731
Dr. Penny Mosley, Assistant Superintendent K-5 Curriculum & Instruction, Division of Curriculum & Instruction, 678-676-0137
Dr. Lynn Angus Ramos, Director, Literacy, Division of Curriculum & Instruction, 678-676-0136
Mrs. Lummie Baker, Director, Educational Media and Instructional Materials, Division of Curriculum & Instruction, 678-676-2421
Effective: July 15, 2025- June 30, 2026
Status: Approved by Office of Legal Affairs
Amira Assess
DeKalb County School District
Admin Training
Every Child Deserves The Chance To Become A Reader
What do we already know about
Amira? - or -
Pre-Session Reflection
https://www.menti.com/alk
9cg3dt4dv
Today’s Session
Understand the Purpose and Power of Feel Confident and Equipped to Launch
Amira Assessment & Tutoring Amira with Teachers
Understand how the Amira ISIP Assessment Administrators will leave with practical
and Amira’s AI-powered tutoring work knowledge and resources to launch Amira
together to support early literacy ISIP Assessment & Tutoring with Teachers
development.
What Is Amira?
Watch & Reflect
What stands out to you about
the student experience?
Share
What stood out to you about
the student experience?
THE INTELLIGENT
READING ASSISTANT
Flexible Instructional Personal AI
Assessment Assistant Coach
Amira Works
On average, students experience
70% acceleration at dosage. That
is an increase of 22 percentile
points.
Dosage = 30 min a week or more
WHY IT WORKS
+ =
How Do We Get There?
Assess Tutor
Individualized Practice
K-8 Universal Screener Across the Reading Rope
98% Accuracy Dyslexia Listens to students read
Screener and think out loud
Highest Rated NCII Micro-Interventions Just
Progress Monitor in Time
Criterion and norm Aligned to Core Scope and
referenced reports Sequence
Amira Assess
Production + Adaptation
Vocabulary
Oral Reading Fluency
Expressive and Receptive Vocabulary
Comprehension Phonological Awareness
Reading Comprehension, Listening Segmentation, Blending, Deletion,
Comprehension with Retell Substitution
Risk and Executive Function
Rapid Automatized Naming, Phonological
Spelling/Encoding
Awareness & Manipulation, Visual Attention,
Phonological Working Memory
Alphabetic Knowledge
Decoding
Letter Name and Letter Sound
Pseudo-Word Fluency
Identification/Fluency
X = task is fully supported
Assessment Task Configuration O = task can be added
A = subject to adaptivity
Approx
Task K 1 2 3
Time
Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 1 min
Letter Naming ✔ A X X 1 min
Letter Sounds ✔ A X X 1 min
75 sec - 2
Phonological Working Memory ✔ A X X min
Phonological Deletion/Elision ✔ ✔ O X 1 min
Phoneme Segmentation O O O X 1 min
Phoneme Substitution O O O O 1 min
Blending ✔ ✔ A X 75 sec
Listening Comprehension (Retell) ✔ A X X 3-5 min
Word Decoding A ✔ ✔ A 30-90 sec
Nonsense Word Fluency A ✔ ✔ A 90 sec
Spelling O A ✔ ✔ 2 min
90 sec - 4
Oral Reading Fluency A A ✔ ✔ min
Reading Comprehension A A ✔ ✔ 3-5 min
1 min - 1 min
Receptive Vocabulary O O O O 17 sec
Medium Times for Default ✔ 16 min 18 min 17 min 12 min
ASSESS
ACCURACY GROUNDED IN
LISTENING
ASSESS
EXAMPLE TASKS
Oral Language: Listening Comp. / Retell
Pseudo Word Fluency
1st Grade
2nd Grade
ASSESS
EXAMPLE TASKS
3rd Grade
ORF/Comprehension
3 Approaches to Assessment
Benchmark Monthly Progress On-Demand
Monitoring Assessments
3x per Year
(ODAs)
Which methods will your district choose?
Benchmark/Screener
3x per Year
Monthly Progress
Monitoring
On-Demand Assessments
(ODAs)
How do we support Administrators?
How do I configure the Assessment for my District?
Assessment Data
Teacher View
Criterion-Referenced & Norm-Referenced
Reading Risk Norms-Based
Index Classifications
Continuously
Standards
Estimated
Mastery
Mastery
(MAST)
(ARM)
How do teachers track Assessment Completion?
Important Insight Pushed
To Teacher’s Attention
How do teachers track Assessment Completion?
Where Do Teachers Access Data?
How do I monitor growth? Student Summary Report
Where should I focus my instructional time? Standards Mastery
Which of my students show signs of risk? Dyslexia Risk
Which of my students needs intervention? Class Progress
Where is help required based on the Simple View of Reading?
How Can I Communicate Results to Parents?
Which reports do you think
will be most helpful for your
teachers?
Assessment Data
Administrator View
Who has been assessed?
Who is at risk?
How do I monitor reading proficiency on standards?
Standards Mastery Report
How will you monitor your
program?
Amira Tutor
4 Capabilities Enable Amira to Deliver Growth
How It Works
Students Students read Amira delivers Amira lets Teachers &
choose a story out loud as individualized students know parents get
on their Amira “listens” tutoring based how they did detailed reports
instructional and assesses in the Science and celebrates and tailored
level their reading of Reading growth resources
Tutoring via Perfectly Timed Micro-Interventions
Amira delivers the most
relevant micro-intervention Speak a
to the student Rhyming
Student misreads Word
a word Show Sound
Lip out a
Syncing Word
Generate Provide Elkonin
“cloze” Encourage- Boxes
Questions ment
Show Display
Sound Box Explanatory
Image
Amira intelligently analyzes Give Word
the misread word and Definition
student’s needs
Amira in Action: Micro-Interventions
Amira in Action: Comprehension
Tracking District Usage
How do teachers track Assessment Completion?
Important Insight Pushed
To Teacher’s Attention
Implementation Best Practices
Set A Goal for Usage
Read 30 minutes per week
with Amira.
Help Teachers Build A Routine
Small Group Whole Class Individual
Pro Tip: Have students face Pro Tip: Space students out Pro Tip: Use the Tracking
away from each other to to help Amira hear. Report to keep tabs on who
reduce microphone completed the Assessment.
interference.
Teacher Resource Hub
Teacher Resources Student Resources Reading
Competitions
● What questions do you still have?
● What challenges do you anticipate?
● How can we best support you in
launching Amira in your district?
Questions?
Tech Tips
Resources
Getting Started Guide Teacher Resource Hub Become An Amira
Champion
Amira Academy