NSSA History and Impact

The National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) is a program of the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University. NSSA conducts research on how best to provide intensive, relationship-based, individualized instruction – or high-impact tutoring – to students across contexts and translates research findings into tools and strategic advising practices to meaningfully increase students’ access and accelerate their learning and wellbeing. Our vision is that every K-12 student in need will have access to an effective tutor who champions and ensures their learning and success.

Research shows that high-impact tutoring — tutoring delivered three or more times a week by consistent, trained tutors using quality materials and data to inform instruction — is one of the most effective academic strategies, providing an average of more than four months of additional learning in elementary literacy and almost ten months in high school math. 

This type of relationship-based instruction has long been available to well-resourced students, but low-income students and students of color have rarely had access to the kind of intensive tutoring that could improve their learning trajectories. Moreover, previous efforts to scale up tutoring have not always been successful in maintaining quality or reaching the students who could most benefit. 

Launched in 2021 by a diverse community of education experts and scholars from around the country, NSSA synthesized the large body of research on tutoring to better understand what drives effective tutoring. Together with other leading researchers and practitioners, NSSA distilled this synthesis into a set of high-impact tutoring standards which are the foundation for NSSA’s high-impact tutoring framework and stakeholder-specific tools and engagement opportunities to make designing, implementing, and scaling high-impact tutoring programs as straightforward as possible for school, district and state leaders. Today, NSSA’s free tools and resources help ensure more equitable access to quality tutoring. 

NSSA focuses on:

  • Conducting research to better understand what drives effectiveness and facilitates implementation;
  • Translating research and experience into practical, open access tools and strategic advising for schools, districts, states and others to support high-quality implementation and scaling of high-impact tutoring;
  • Engaging and activating stakeholders to build and sustain demand, funding, and implementation quality.

Case for Action

Urgent Need to Accelerate Student Learning

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress indicated that approximately 60% of 4th grade students were not proficient in math or reading, with significantly lower levels of proficiency for many student groups. The pandemic then erased two decades of gains in average student learning and exacerbated existing inequities across groups. Black and Latino/a students and students from low-income communities have borne a disproportionate cost. Concerning reductions in student engagement and attendance, coupled with increasing rates of mental health challenges among young people, underscore the need to accelerate student learning and wellbeing.

High-Impact Tutoring Provides Opportunity

Research, experience, and simple logic indicate that our best bet is to focus on the individual needs of each student — both academic needs and social-emotional needs. Many teachers have valiantly helped students to transcend their challenges; but, students often need a level of personal attention targeted to their specific needs that cannot be delivered in a traditional classroom setting of one teacher to many students.

High-impact tutoring – delivers this needed personal attention. When students build relationships with tutors in a high-impact tutoring program that complements classroom instruction, they show significant academic and social-emotional growth that benefits them as they move through school and beyond.

Across the nation, we’ve seen a significant push toward high-impact tutoring. The federal government invested $190 billion in K- 12 COVID recovery funding – enabling tutoring to expand throughout the country. States also contribute substantial financial resources for tutoring, with 40 states considering or passing statewide tutoring policy or legislation, of which 26 states specifically call out the need for high-impact tutoring. The May 2024 IES School Pulse Panel finds that 46% of schools across the country offer high-impact tutoring, a magnitude that has steadily increased since the study began in 2022. 

Our Impact

Since its launch in March 2021, NSSA has led the development of high-impact tutoring standards; provided research-backed, open-access tools and strategic advising for tutoring organizations, schools, districts, and states, designed to make designing, implementing, and scaling high-impact tutoring programs as straightforward as possible; and built a learning community of tutoring researchers, practitioners, and policymakers through engagement opportunities and our annual conference.

To date NSSA has:

As a result of NSSA’s and others’ work, states including Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and others are launching and expanding high-impact tutoring; thousands of education leaders understand the research and characteristics of high-impact tutoring; and new research across the country is focusing on learning more about how to make high-impact tutoring more effective, less costly, and easier to implement. NSSA estimates that approximately 5 million more students are receiving the support they need to thrive.

As we continue our work to increase access to high-impact tutoring to students in need, we encourage you to join us by getting involved!