Presenter: Susanna Loeb, Professor of Education, Founder & Executive Director, National Student Support Accelerator, Stanford University
Pandemic-induced reductions in learning and school engagement, combined with substantial federal funding, led U.S. schools and school districts to develop a range of new programs for students, many of which were tutoring programs. Policy makers, in response, aimed to create conditions that would enable educators to design and implement these programs successfully. In this dynamic environment, a broad range of stakeholders needed to make decisions impacting students’ educational experiences. They looked for guidance from other states, districts and schools with prior tutoring experiences. While the research evidence on tutoring summarizing and analyzing these experiences was unusually strong, it almost exclusively focused on in-person tutoring with pre-pandemic technologies and instructional contexts. It also only lightly touched on the key issues of design and implementation. This fast-turnaround research project has aimed over the past four years to provide the range of decision makers with insights into effectiveness and implementation of tutoring programs to help them make real-time decisions, accelerate learning, and address the substantial inequities in access to quality educational experiences between demographic groups. In partnership with districts across the country, the project has produced insights about tutoring, while also highlighting both the advantages and disadvantages of conducting research during transition times to inform decisions across contexts. The project provides a model for considering the connections among decision makers and policy influencers looking to invest in and promote promising solutions, education leaders who are willing to try new things, refine, and learn, and researchers working quickly and in partnership to evaluate and provide insights.