Implementation

NSSA 2023 Conference

Join this invitation-only gathering of researchers, district, state, and higher education leaders, tutoring providers, and funders to:

  • Learn about implications of recent research findings and innovative and sustainable practices in tutoring;
  • Explore successful state and district strategies for scaling and sustainability; and
  • Make connections with education leaders in the field.

In the past five years, the Texas district’s investments in staffing and high dosage tutoring are paying off.

That’s why the district piloted a virtual tutoring program in the 2020-21 school year. Middle school students were the first to participate. In spring 2021, the live virtual tutoring program expanded to serve 6,000 students in K-12, he said.

That same spring, Ector County ISD designated $10 million of its $93 million in federal pandemic relief funds to tutoring over the next three years, according to a report by university-based research nonprofits FutureEd and the National Student Support Accelerator.


At a White House event today, Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Education (Department), AmeriCorps, and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University, will announce that the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS) has exceeded President Biden’s call to recruit an additional 250,000 adults into high-impact student roles by summer 2025 to support academic success for all students. These roles range from tutors, mentors, student success coaches, postsecondary transition coaches, and wraparound/integrated student support coordinators. As of the end of the 2023-2024 school year, an additional 320,000 adults have stepped into these roles in schools, exceeding the President’s goal and doing so a year early. 


Tutored by Teachers ("TbT"), a leading provider of personalized virtual instruction, has been awarded the prestigious Tutoring Program Design Badge from the National Student Support Accelerator ("NSSA"). This recognition highlights TbT's commitment to maintaining rigorous standards in tutor selection, program efficacy, and school partnerships. It also supports the company's ongoing expansion as TbT introduces new instructional supports designed to meet the evolving needs of diverse student populations.


You can’t argue with dataResearch shows that high-dosage tutoring is one of the most effective ways to help students make academic progress. Yet few students actually receive itA recent study from Stanford University demonstrated the many positive effects of tutoring, including increased reading and math scores, attendance and a feeling of belonging. Teach For America’s (TFA) tutoring program, the Ignite Fellowship, finds and develops tutors who connect virtually with students during the school day. Fellows, who are paid for their work, are supported by a school-based veteran educator to customize instruction. Seventy-one percent of the 3,500 students across the country being tutored by Ignite fellows meet their semester-long reading and math goals.


“This is most likely to happen if parents both want this and believe that they can get this – and deserve to get this – at school,” says Susanna Loeb, a professor of education at Stanford University in California. 

Amid the flurry of activity in recent years, researchers and policy advocates are increasingly pointing to a specific kind of tutoring as the most effective. Known as “high-impact” or “high-dosage,” it generally refers to tutoring that happens at least three times a week for 30-minute sessions with groups of four or fewer students. And if it occurs during the regular school day? Even better.


The high-impact tutoring provider wins large district and state partnerships to address the literacy and numeracy crisis among K-8 students

Building on its success within New York City Public Schools, the largest school district in the country, Braintrust Tutors is now well-positioned to extend support to tens of thousands of high-risk students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Boston Public Schools, Detroit Public Schools Community District, and across the state of Tennessee.


High-impact tutoring is one of the most promising approaches for increasing student engagement and learning. Paraprofessionals already in schools can be excellent tutors during the school day if well supported with instructional materials and dedicated time for tutoring. This approach effectively addresses student academic gaps early, particularly in lower elementary classrooms. 

The District of Columbia (DC) Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) launched a three-year, $33 million investment in scaling and supporting high-impact tutoring (HIT) across DC, with a particular focus on students classified as “at-risk” or having experienced disrupted instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. This investment is a core part of the city’s strategy to address interrupted schooling, given the strong body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of HIT as an intervention that can produce dramatic gains in student learning.

High-Impact Tutoring: Family & Caregiver Toolkit for School Districts
New Mexico education Secretary Arsenio Romero discussed tutoring with Stanford University researcher Susanna Loeb at a May conference.

In the admirable rush to support students in the wake of pandemic-era learning loss, schools quickly implemented tutoring initiatives—with varying degrees of success.

Luckily, studies show that students who participate in high-impact tutoring can experience more than 40% and 200% of growth in reading and math proficiency, respectively. Meanwhile, K-12 leaders say this form of tutoring is increasing teacher retention and recruitment in their districts.

In this webinar, education leaders will hear first-hand accounts of successful high-impact tutoring models from a district’s chief academic officer. Also, field research experts from institutions, including Stanford University, and professionals who collaborate directly with district decision-makers will present case studies and stats on how to sustain high-impact tutoring to make a lasting effect on student learning, school culture, and educator job satisfaction.


Research consistently shows that tutoring helps students learn, with numerous studies confirming its strong benefits. Driven by this evidence, policymakers and educational leaders nationwide are investing in tutoring initiatives. However “tutoring” can mean various types of educational support, and tutoring programs can differ significantly in their characteristics and effectiveness.


What led to the rapid spread and adoption of tutoring as a solution? What will it take to bring tutoring to the scale? And what can the science of advocacy teach us about how other policy ideas might follow a similar path? In this AdvocacyLabs webinar, FutureEd Policy Director Liz Cohen will moderate a discussion with panelists including Stanford University Professor Susanna Loeb, JerseyCAN Executive Director Paula White, and 50CAN CEO Marc Porter Magee.


Less than a third of Colorado eighth-graders score proficiently in math. So, Colorado has invested heavily in high-impact tutoring programs — $20 million allocated in federal and state dollars since the pandemic. Colorado was also one of five states to get a $1 million grant from Accelerate, a nonprofit that aims to make 


Cignition, a K-12 virtual tutoring provider, today announced the formation of a new advisory board. Comprised of eight experts from school districts and universities across the country, the strategic focus of the Cignition MTSS Advisory Board will be to provide insight into the role of high-impact tutoring (HIT) in the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework and how that integration might significantly boost academic progress.