As schools, districts, and states work to address the student needs following the pandemic, many turned to high-impact tutoring, a research-based approach to providing individualized instruction to students. In fact, thirty-seven percent of public schools reported providing “high-dosage” tutoring on a federal school pulse panel survey in December 2022. In addition, many states have implemented or are exploring policies to increase access to high-impact tutoring. This brief explores the tutoring policy landscape at the state level as of November 2023.
Higher Education Institution
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm, high-dose tutoring is the most effective—though often the most expensive.
The National Student Support Accelerator, a Stanford University center that studies effective tutoring, finds that effective high-dose tutoring programs require:
- Tutoring integrated into the school day to increase tutor-teacher coordination and avoid transportation or time problems for students.
- Targeting students based on academic need rather than requiring parents to opt into services.
- Budgeting services for at least three to five days a week for extended periods of time.
- Differentiated tutoring based on particular student needs and skills.
- Data-gathering and progress-monitoring, particularly when schools work with outside tutoring providers.
With research showing that far fewer students took advantage of online tutoring than districts expected, the outcomes-based model is one way to ensure districts use public funds wisely. “In education, we can pay for things a long time before we realize no children are participating in it,” Miller said.
Districts across the nation use Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to target appropriate supports for each student. High-impact tutoring is the most effective research-backed academic support – consistently demonstrating from six months to over two years of learning gains for students across grade levels and content areas in a single year of tutoring.
Districts that have chosen to integrate high-impact tutoring with MTSS are finding that embedding this highly effective support into the fabric of their schools improves student outcomes, reduces implementation challenges, improves instructional coherence, and streamlines operations.
The authors partnered with school districts, tutoring providers, and quarterback organizations that support implementation of high-impact tutoring across districts in the United States to learn from their efforts in implementing tutoring. This cross-district implementation study shares a snapshot of lessons learned about common barriers to implementing highly-effective programs and the ways that districts have overcome these barriers with success. Interviewees included administrators, teachers, tutors, and other program staff from nine school districts and one charter management organization, seven tutoring providers, and six quarterback organizations that support implementation across districts. One finding is that funding and belief in the potential of tutoring are two key facilitators for the implementation of high-impact tutoring. Moreover, some of the challenges identified are related to tutor recruitment and training, data use, the scheduling of tutoring during the school day, student attendance and school-level buy-in.
Many districts sought to provide students with high-impact tutoring in response to pandemic-induced learning needs. Some started earlier than others, and we aimed to learn from the experiences of the early adopters to help inform a smoother implementation among those beginning the process later. During the 2021-22 school year, we partnered with school districts, tutoring providers, and quarterback organizations that support implementation across districts to learn from their efforts in implementing tutoring.
We need your help to provide an open-access Tutor Training Resource Library and develop new tutor training materials!
Would you be interested in making your tutor training publicly accessible through NSSA’s website?
If so, please complete this Tutor Training Resource Library Interest Form. Sharing your training materials is a great way to build awareness of your tutoring program and contribute to the field. You can also indicate interest in setting up a call to discuss this project further through this form.
Adapt this document to advocate for your HEI’s support of a high-impact tutoring partnership with a local K-12 district.
What is High-Impact Tutoring and how do higher education institutions partner with school districts?
The purpose of this guidance is to provide HEIs with ideas for how to recruit university students to serve as tutors. These ideas are curated from current practices shared by HEI tutoring programs in local K-12 districts. Depending on the population of students you intend to recruit, some of these ideas may be more relevant to your context than others.
Recommended Division of Functions Across HEI Departments
Aligned to TQIS Quality Standards
The purpose of this guidance is to provide HEI partners with ideas for how to engage K-12 students more broadly with the HEI community. This list is curated from practices shared by current HEI tutoring programs in local K-12 districts. Depending on the design of your program and your HEI campus, some of these ideas may be more relevant to your context than others.
Once the partnership between the HEI and K-12 schools is established, regular meetings between the HEI and K-12 schools ensure that the partnership remains healthy and improves over time.
The purpose of this guidance is to provide HEIs seeking opportunities to partner with a school district with information about how to identify districts interested in and/or already offering tutoring services.
Use these ten multiple-choice questions to design your tutoring program’s Model Dimensions. Model Dimensions are the specific design choices a new tutoring program makes at the outset. Each choice you make should have a clear rationale supported by your Landscape Analysis and be made in consultation with your school district partner and internal task force/team.
This document outlines costs and funding sources needed to develop and/or grow a tutoring partnership between your HEI and a local K-12 school district. The amount and type of funding needed will be based on the model of your tutoring program. Use this cost calculator and HEI-specific budgeting template to understand your projected costs.