As opportunities arise for districts to participate in OBC accelerators across the country, OnYourMark stands ready with a model made to deliver measurable results.
Outcomes Based Contracts are not a new concept in education, but they are gaining momentum in Arkansas, California, and in other states across the country. As they explore OBC’s, district and school leaders are being asked a question they may not have had to answer before: does your literacy provider actually deliver on promised results?
For many providers, that question is uncomfortable. For OnYourMark Education, it's the whole point.
We have spent years building a virtual literacy tutoring program that doesn't just align with the Science of Reading, it is grounded in it — validated by independent researchers, and structured specifically to produce the measurable reading gains that Outcomes Based Contracts require.
This article explains what that means in practice, why it matters for districts right now, and how we approach the OBC conversation as a genuine partner rather than a vendor trying to check a box.
What Is Outcomes Based Contracting, and Why Does It Matter?
An Outcomes Based Contract shifts accountability from inputs — how many sessions were delivered, how many students were served — to outputs: did students actually learn to read? In a traditional contract, a district pays for services regardless of student progress. In an OBC, payment is tied, at least in part, to whether agreed-upon learning benchmarks are met.
This structure is a meaningful policy lever. It aligns incentives between providers and districts, reduces financial risk for schools, and creates a framework for shared accountability. Forward Arkansas has recognized this, and is funding OBC-structured literacy programming to drive that accountability into the way schools select and work with tutoring providers.
The catch: OBCs only work if the provider can actually measure outcomes clearly, report them honestly, and structure their program to achieve them. That requires a specific kind of program — one built on evidence, assessed with validated tools, and delivered with enough consistency to produce meaningful gains in a defined window.
OBCs only work if the provider can actually measure outcomes, and structure their program to achieve them. |
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How OnYourMark Education Is Built for OBC
Science of Reading Curriculum, Structured for Daily Progress
Every OnYourMark session is grounded in the Science of Reading, the body of cognitive and educational research that identifies how the brain learns to decode and comprehend text. Our curriculum delivers explicit, systematic phonics instruction alongside phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension development, in a sequence designed to build foundational skills in the order students need them.
Tutoring sessions typically run four times per week, 20 minutes per session, in a high-dosage model shown to produce meaningful gains without overwhelming students or teachers. This isn't supplemental enrichment, it's targeted, structured intervention delivered with the frequency and consistency that literacy development requires.
The OnYourMark program is designed to layer over a district's existing core literacy instruction rather than compete with it. Whether a school uses a specific basal series, a state-adopted curriculum, or a blended approach, OnYourMark sessions complement and reinforce what students are already learning in the classroom. No reteaching, no conflicts, no confusion for students navigating two different instructional languages.
Independently Validated, and First in Our Category
OnYourMark Education was the first virtual literacy tutoring program to be reviewed by the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University following a randomized controlled trial. That distinction matters not as a marketing credential but as a signal: our model has been examined by independent researchers who specialize in high-dosage tutoring efficacy, and it held up.
For district leaders building OBC agreements, that validation is directly relevant. When a contract asks you to define what "outcomes" look like and to predict whether a program can achieve them, it helps to know that researchers outside of the company have already studied the question.
DIBELS Assessment: Measurement That Holds Up
Assessment is the infrastructure of any Outcomes Based Contract. Without a shared, reliable way to measure whether students are making progress, an OBC is just a contract with optimistic language.
OnYourMark frequently uses DIBELS, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, for both initial placement and ongoing benchmark measurement. DIBELS is widely used across schools and districts in Arkansas and other states, is aligned to the Science of Reading, and produces the kind of granular, actionable data that OBC reporting structures require. Benchmark scores, growth trajectories, and tier placements all flow from DIBELS, giving districts clear documentation of where students started, where they are, and where they're headed.
When an OBC milestone comes due, the measurement isn't ambiguous, it's DIBELS data, consistently collected and clearly reported.
OBC Experience Across the Country
OnYourMark has experience writing Outcomes Based Contracts with districts across the United States. We know how to structure agreements that are fair to both sides: specific enough to hold us accountable, and flexible enough to account for the realities of school-year implementation. We understand what makes an OBC milestone meaningful versus what makes it arbitrary, and we bring that knowledge to the table as districts begin navigating this funding model for the first time.
We've seen what happens when OBC language is vague, when outcomes are defined without regard for baseline data, or when timelines don't account for student enrollment variability. We've learned from those experiences, and we structure our agreements to avoid them.
Beyond contract structure, we're also seeing OBC frameworks change program dynamics in real time. When shared goals align both a district's team and ours around the same outcomes, the program runs differently — with more urgency, stronger communication, and ownership on both sides. In Arkansas specifically, we're seeing student attendance within OBC-guided programs climb by as much as four percentage points within the first month or two of measurement. This is what should happen when everyone involved understands that attendance isn't just a logistics metric, it's directly tied to whether students hit their benchmarks.
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Our program is most valuable to districts that want accountability — not just activity.
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Designing OBC’s is a Collaboration — Let’s Talk
We know that Outcomes Based Contracts are new territory for many administrators, and we don't think that's a reason to avoid them, it's a reason to walk in with the right partner. Whether you're structuring an OBC for the first time, evaluating providers against OBC criteria, or trying to understand how your existing funding can support a contract like this, we welcome the conversation.
OnYourMark Education doesn't just want to provide tutoring services to your district. We want to be the integrated partner that helps you build a contract structure that works, delivers sessions that move students, and documents outcomes that your community can be proud of.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is an Outcomes Based Contract in the context of literacy tutoring?
A: An Outcomes Based Contract (OBC) is an agreement between a school or district and a service provider in which some or all payment is contingent on students meeting defined learning benchmarks. Rather than paying for sessions delivered, districts pay based on measurable student progress, such as moving from below benchmark to benchmark on a reading assessment. OBCs shift risk toward the provider and create shared accountability for student outcomes.
Q: What does OnYourMark's tutoring model actually look like for students?
A: OnYourMark virtual literacy tutoring is typically scheduled four days per week, 20 minutes per day. Sessions are built on a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that provides explicit, structured instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Experienced literacy tutors follow a lesson structure designed to reinforce, not replace, the classroom instruction students are already receiving. The model is intended for K–6 students who are reading below grade level or are at risk of falling behind.
Q: What assessment tool does OnYourMark use, and why does it matter for an OBC?
A: OnYourMark uses DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) for student placement, progress monitoring, and benchmark measurement. DIBELS is a validated, widely-used assessment tool that produces quantitative data on the specific literacy skills that predict reading success. For OBC purposes, DIBELS scores provide clear, objective documentation of where a student began and where they are at each contract milestone, making outcome measurement straightforward and defensible.
Q: How does OnYourMark's curriculum work alongside what a district already uses?
A: OnYourMark's curriculum is explicitly designed to complement, not replace, a district's core reading program. Our structured lessons align with the Science of Reading framework, which means they reinforce the phonics and decoding skills students are learning in their regular classroom instruction. We work with district and school leaders during onboarding to understand the existing curriculum and ensure our sessions layer over it cleanly, so students aren't receiving conflicting instructional approaches.
Q: What makes OnYourMark's program independently validated?
A: OnYourMark Education was the first virtual literacy tutoring program to be reviewed by the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University following a randomized controlled trial. The NSSA is a leading research center focused on tutoring efficacy, and their review process involves rigorous examination of program design, delivery, and outcome data. Being reviewed by Stanford's NSSA following an RCT means our program has been evaluated against research standards that most providers have not met.
Q: Has OnYourMark written OBCs before? What does that experience look like?
A: Yes. OnYourMark has experience structuring Outcomes Based Contracts with districts across the US. That experience includes defining outcome metrics, establishing baseline assessment protocols, setting milestone timelines that are ambitious but realistic, and building in reporting structures that give districts visibility throughout the contract term. We've refined our approach over multiple OBC agreements and bring that practical knowledge to every new district conversation.
Q: What happens if students don't meet the benchmarks outlined in the OBC?
A: That depends on how the specific contract is structured, and those terms are something we work through collaboratively with each district. In general, OnYourMark's approach to OBC agreements is to define outcomes that are grounded in DIBELS baseline data, set realistic growth targets based on our program's documented efficacy, and build in clear reporting at each milestone so there are no surprises. Our goal is a contract structure that holds us accountable for real results while accounting fairly for the variables that affect student progress including attendance, enrollment timing, and baseline severity.
Q: How do we start a conversation about an OBC with OnYourMark?
A: Reach out directly to our team and let us know you're interested in exploring an Outcomes Based Contract. We'll start by learning about your district's current literacy data, funding situation, and goals for the coming school year. From there, we can walk you through how our model works, what an OBC agreement typically looks like, and how we'd propose structuring outcomes measurement for your specific student population.
About OnYourMark Education
OnYourMark Education is a Science of Reading-based virtual literacy tutoring provider serving K–6 students across the United States. Our program delivers high-dosage, structured literacy instruction through trained virtual tutors, using DIBELS for assessment and a curriculum designed to integrate with any classroom instruction. We were the first virtual literacy tutoring program to conduct a randomized controlled trial with Stanford's National Student Support Accelerator to analyze the effectiveness of virtual literacy tutoring.
Contact our team to learn more.
