High-Impact Tutoring Talking Points

Research, experience, and logic shows that our best bet is to focus on the individual needs of each student — both academic needs and social-emotional needs. Well-structured tutoring, what is commonly known as high-impact tutoring, delivers just this.

High-impact tutoring leads to substantial learning gains for students by supplementing (but not replacing) students’ classroom experiences.

High-impact tutoring responds to individual needs and complements students’ existing curriculum.

A review of almost 200 studies found that high-dosage tutoring (another name used for high-impact tutoring) — delivered more than three days per week or at a rate of at least 50 hours over 36 weeks — is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated large, positive effects on both math and reading.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has allocated over 200 billion new dollars for K-12 education with $28 billion specifically for learning loss. We should consider utilizing these resources to provide our students with high-impact tutoring because it is proven to accelerate learning across grade levels and content areas.

States and districts across the nation are launching high-impact tutoring including Washington DC, districts across Texas and Tennessee, Chicago, San José and many more. For more examples see this State Tutoring Efforts and Legislation Database.

The National Student Support Accelerator, an initiative originally launched at Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform, seeks to equalize access to quality tutoring by providing comprehensive resources for those interested in implementing high-impact tutoring, including:

• High-Impact Tutoring FAQ’s Answers to the most common questions about high-impact tutoring and how to implement it at your school/district.
• Tutoring Database A searchable database of over 200 tutoring programs and technology platforms to help districts and schools identify potential tutoring partners.
• District Playbook A research-based guidebook and accompanying Workbook to help districts assess their needs, design and implement their own program or partner with a provider to launch a High-Impact Tutoring program.
• Tutoring Program Cost Calculator A simple tool that education institutions or tutoring organizations can use to estimate the cost of their tutoring program and to help understand how the costs of their tutoring program will vary based on key design elements such as tutor type, student to tutor ratio and dosage.
• Toolkit for Tutoring Programs A cohesive set of practical, research-based tools for tutoring organizations or districts to design and implement a new tutoring program or improve an existing one.
• Funding Tutoring Programs A summary of funding sources for High-Impact Tutoring programs.
• Tutoring Quality Improvement System A rapid, free, and research-based tool for developing and existing tutoring programs to assess their program’s quality against industry standards and receive targeted recommendations to improve program quality.
• High-Impact Tutoring: State of the Research and Priorities for Future Learning A summary of tutoring research that identifies characteristics of high-impact tutoring.