Sustained tutoring designed to help kids catch up is intensive, structured, and highly relational, typically consisting of students working in 30-minute sessions three or more times a week with a trained educator.
Now, a new initiative is training tutors for the rigor and intensity needed to make it effective.
This kind of tutoring, considered the most intensive model, spread rapidly during pandemic-recovery efforts. Half of all high-poverty schools and 46 percent of public schools offer high-impact or high dosage tutoring as of May, up from 39 percent of all public schools and 47 percent of high-poverty schools in October 2023, according to the federal Schools Pulse Panel survey data, an ongoing collection from the U.S. Department of Education’s statistics wing.
A majority of leaders in schools using the model found it “very or extremely effective” in improving student achievement. But principals also reported that rising student need for this most intensive tutoring outstripped their capacity to offer it, citing a lack of qualified tutors as the most common barrier for schools.
A partnership between Arizona State University and the Annenberg Learner Program aims to fill that skills gap.
Nati Rodriguez, the director of the Annenberg Learner program, said about 2,500 tutors have been recruited to complete a new microcredential—meaning a self-paced professional development module—on high-impact and virtual tutoring. Those taking the credential range from college students and community members just starting tutoring, to existing tutors with some general training but not in high-intensity models.
“Across the field, there is a big push and a big need to keep tutoring as a part of the way that we’re supporting young people and figuring out how to make that financially sustainable,” said Korbi Adams, a senior program manager for ASU’s Next Education Workforce, which designed the credentialling program. “Training and getting people ready to be effective tutors can be a big capacity lift for schools and nonprofit organizations.”
The National Partnership for Student Success, a federal initiative to close student learning gaps through tutoring, exceeded its recruitment goal within a single year. It has recruited 320,000 new tutors, mentors, and academic coaches since 2022, according to a RAND Corp. evaluation. But relatively few new recruits come trained for the model.
Several states expanding high-impact tutoring—including Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, and Michigan—call for tutors to be trained, so the burden doesn’t fall on schools.
“It’s much more than just the dosage that makes the difference in this type of tutoring,” said Kathy Bendheim, the director of strategic advising for the National Student Support Accelerator, which studies tutoring models. “You do it with a consistent tutor, and it’s not homework help—it’s intentional instruction based on data about where that student is on their academic journey and what their specific instructional needs are.”
Nikita Dutt, a part-time virtual instructor for Step-Up Tutoring in Los Angeles, was among the first 25 tutors to complete the new microcredential. Over eight months, Dutt worked through a dozen online “nanocourses” on the fundamentals of high-impact tutoring and another dozen focused on using the model in elementary math. Then, to earn the microcredential, Dutt worked with a teacher to demonstrate the principles in her own virtual-tutoring practice, by crafting planning materials and recording her sessions for evaluation and feedback.
Dutt tutors elementary students virtually in math, both during and after school, in California and Texas.
Before entering the program, “I’d go about my day with tutoring, just checking in with my students and going over the lessons,” Dutt said. “High-impact tutoring has much more structure to it [than standard tutoring], more resources and more intentional actions.
“I need to really plan for the goals and outcomes of each session, from planning activities or games to incorporate into a lesson or really focus on relationship-building ... which was something I was really lacking,” she continued.
While Dutt said virtual tutoring allows for more flexibility, she found it much harder to connect with students, when televisions blared and siblings played in the background.
Relationship-building is important for all educators, but Bendheim said it requires unique skills for high-impact tutoring, particularly online.
“Small-group work is very different than classroom management,” Bendheim said. “Tutors really need to understand how to engage and connect ... having strong instructional strategies, understanding how to use data on the student to design your tutoring session and be able to adapt as the student learns throughout the session.”
