Program Quality

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.


High-impact tutoring has the strongest evidence base of any approach for improving student learning, and contributes to increased engagement and attendance. As far as proven education solutions go, it’s a pretty darn good one, and has rightfully been a bipartisan priority since the pandemic. 

But federal pandemic relief money that helped fuel the expansion of such programs dried up in September, and recent research has sparked debates about the high-impact tutoring’s effectiveness when implemented at scale. This includes an evaluation of Metro Nashville Public Schools’ tutoring program that reported small gains for students and a meta-analysis of large high-impact tutoring programs that showed challenges in maintaining evidence-based practices


An AI-powered tutoring assistant increased human tutors’ capacity to help students through math problems and improved students’ performance in math, according to a Stanford University study.

The digital tool, Tutor CoPilot, was created by Stanford researchers to guide tutors, especially novices, in their interactions with students.

The study is the first randomized controlled trial to examine a human-AI partnership in live tutoring, according to the researchers. The study examines whether the tool is effective for improving tutors’ skills and students’ math learning.


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.


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.


What do teachers have to say about high-impact tutoring? Teacher buy-in is of vast importance when implementing high-impact tutoring into the school day. Who would know the benefits of High-Impact Tutoring better than educators? Hear from them directly about what makes effective tutors, the importance of building strong relationships, and why representation matters.

NSSA's Educator Tutoring Advisory Group (Maurice Telesford, Estefania Rios, Toni Hicks, and Katie Allen) are saying about High-Impact Tutoring


Notably, research by Susanna Loeb (Stanford University) revealed that tutoring methods and strategies can vary dramatically both in their design features and student outcomes. Loeb’s team of researchers discovered that in particular “high impact” tutoring strategies have demonstrated statistically significant effects on student learning in math and reading. High impact tutoring contains the following features:

  • One-on-one tutoring (or with very small groups)
  • Tutoring content is aligned with in-class instruction
  • Students receive tutoring at least three times per week from the same tutor
  • Tutors are professionally trained 

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.

Loeb & Safran: From Title I and Americorps to apprenticeships and renegotiated contracts with vendors, ways to find replacement funds and economize. strong>Multi-Tiered Systems of Support: Districts across the nation use Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to target appropriate interventions for students with learning, social, emotional, or behavioral difficulties. Many districts could improve these offerings by using a high-impact tutoring approach, making sure their interventions build relationships between students and educators that motivate, engage and target students’ growth areas using data and high-quality instructional materials. Schools can integrate high-impact tutoring with the funds already being used for MTSS by reallocating resources to more effective approaches.


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.