Tutoring

Overview

Tutoring can be an effective intervention for many students when implemented using evidence-based practices. Although people often think of tutoring as one-on-one help from a private individual outside of a school setting, recent research on effective tutoring programs has focused on school-based programs involving human instruction aimed at supplementing classroom-based education, usually for groups of no more than six students that meet three or more days per week. This definition does not include computer-based supplemental instruction or small-group instruction that replaces grade level instruction.

Best Practices

Evidence-based best practices recently published by the U.S. Department of Education, copied below, include:

Using trained educators as tutors.

Tutoring works best when led by teachers, paraprofessionals, teaching candidates, recently retired teachers, or highly trained tutors who receive a stipend (e.g., AmeriCorps members) and when time for planning and collaboration is provided with the classroom teachers.

Wherever possible, conducting tutoring during the school day.

Tutoring programs that take place during the school day appear to have the largest effects. Afterschool tutoring programs have also been shown to have positive, although smaller, effects.

Providing high dosage tutoring each week.

For example, programs that included frequently (e.g. daily or at least three sessions per week) of at least 30-50 minutes work best. The youngest students (e.g., early childhood through 1st grade) benefit from increased weekly sessions.

Aligning with an evidence-based core curriculum or use an evidence-based program and practices.

Take specific actions to support student learning, including using quizzing, asking deep explanatory questions, spacing learning over time, incorporating worked example solutions with problem-solving exercises, connecting and integrating abstract and concrete representations of concepts, and combining graphical representations — like figures and graphs — with verbal descriptions.

Emphasizing attendance and focused work time during out-of-school tutoring.

Experts have suggested that after school tutoring programs may have shown smaller effects than in-school programs because less tutoring occurs. However, out-of-school time programs can be effective. To promote the best results, ensure these programs provide high-dosage tutoring.

Resources

CDE’s High Dosage Tutoring Strategy Guide, a resource for district and school leaders for implementing improvement strategies
Volume 2 of the ED COVID-19 Handbook, a publication of the U.S. Department of Education
National Student Support Accelerator, a project of Annenberg at Brown University. Their resources include a toolkit for tutoring programs and program focus resources for schools or districts looking to develop or expand their tutoring programs.
Strategies to Solve Unfinished Learning: Targeted Intensive Tutoring, a brief document from Education Trust and MDRC staff that highlights best practices for targeted intensive tutoring in the COVID-19 pandemic.
ProvenTutoring.org, a clearinghouse of research on reading and mathematics tutoring programs established as a project of the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University and continued as a subsidiary of the Success for All Foundation. (NOTE: Some reading programs listed on this site may not be approved under the READ Act.)
A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools, a whitepaper that discusses key elements for a national K-12 tutoring program.