Tutoring emerges as key catch-up strategy

On Board Online • February 20, 2023

By Paul Heiser
Senior Research Analyst

About half of public school students in the U.S. were behind grade level at the beginning of both the current school year and the previous school year. That's significantly more than the 36% who were behind grade level prior to COVID-19, according to newly-released figures from the U.S. Dept. of Education.

The data come from the latest in a series of monthly "School Pulse Panel" surveys of a national sample of elementary, middle, high and combined-grade public schools conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Another measure of "learning loss" or "unfinished learning" due to COVID-19 came from the National Assessment of Educational Progress released last fall. National NAEP figures showed the first-ever statistically significant drop in math scores for 9-year-olds and the largest drop in reading achievement since the 1980s.

In New York, average fourth-grade math scores fell by 10 points from 2019 and eighth-grade math scores decreased by five points. Reading scores declined or were stagnant, dropping by six points from 2019 among fourth-graders and showing no change for eighth-graders.

One intervention that appears to be gaining traction in helping students catch up is tutoring. Once the domain primarily of wealthy students, tutoring has become increasingly more common in public schools. According to an NCES survey, 37% of public schools nationally report providing "high-dosage tutoring," defined as "tutoring that takes place for at least 30 minutes per session, one-on-one or in small group instruction, offered three or more times per week, is provided by educators or well-trained tutors, [and] aligns with an evidence-based core curriculum or program."

The survey also found that 59% of public schools provide "standard tutoring," which NCES defines as "a less intensive method of tutoring that may take place in one-on-one, small group, or large group settings, is offered less than three times per week, and is provided by educators who may or may not have received specific training in tutoring practices."

Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to require tutoring in some schools. Her 2023-24 Executive Budget would require school districts whose foundation aid increase is at least $100,000 greater than a 3% increase to set aside a portion of that aid during the 2023-24 school year for tutoring for students in grades 3-8 English and math who are at risk of falling below state standards.

In a briefing book, the governor specified the tutoring should be "high-impact." While she didn't define the term, one group of experts affiliated with the Annenberg Institute at Brown University defines it as "a form of teaching, one-on-one or in a small group, towards a specific goal."

Tutoring in K-12 education is championed by the National Student Support Accelerator, a program of the Annenberg Institute. "Our vision is that every K-12 student in need will have access to an effective tutor that champions and ensures their learning and success," according to studentsupportaccelerator.com.

The Accelerator acknowledges that non-tutoring interventions can be used to help students catch up, such as:

• Pull-out services (when students receive personalized help instead of attending a class).
• Co-teaching (small group instruction by a second teacher in a classroom).
• Learning pods (students gathering together in a small group - with adult supervision - to learn and socialize).

But tutoring is getting the lion's share of attention because of the amount of research that supports its use. A 2017 report published by the American Educational Research Association analyzed more than 100 studies to identify the most effective academic interventions for low-income elementary and middle school students. Of all the interventions examined, tutoring was both the most common and the most effective.

A review of nearly 200 studies by Harvard University's Roland Fryer, Jr. found that high-dosage tutoring (defined in this case as tutoring that was delivered more than three days per week or at a rate of at least 50 hours over 36 weeks) was one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated large, positive effects on both math and reading.

A review and meta-analysis of 96 randomized evaluations by the Poverty Action Lab at MIT found that gains made from tutoring interventions translated to a student advancing from the 50th percentile to nearly the 66th percentile.

Other research has documented failed tutoring programs, however. For instance, researchers led by Matthew Kraft at Brown University found only modest effects from an online tutoring program administered to Chicago middle school students in the spring of 2021. They theorized that impacts were small because students received only about three hours of tutoring over the 12 weeks of the program.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (which preceded the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015), children attending "failing" schools were eligible for tutoring outside of school at their school districts' expense. Only about 23% of eligible students participated, however, and for those students, the average effect was close to zero, according to Susanna Loeb, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education and the executive director of the National Student Support Accelerator.

"Not all tutoring is effective," Loeb said in a Q and A published on the website of the independent news organization The Conversation. She said research shows that for tutoring to be effective - or "high-impact," it needs to be personalized, offered as part of the regular school day, and given consistently at frequent intervals.

Seven characteristics of effective tutoring

In 2021, Stanford's Loeb published a research report with her colleague Carly Robinson that analyzed the body of existing academic research on tutoring and concluded effective tutoring depended on seven characteristics:

1. A "high dosage" format. Tutoring is most effective when students have three or more sessions per week for at least 30 minutes per session. This is usually referred to as "high-dosage" tutoring. It is most popular at the elementary school level (with 45% of schools indicating they used that strategy) and less so at the middle school/combined-grade (27%) and high school (26%) levels, according to the NCES survey data.

2. A focus on cultivating tutor-student relationships. Effective tutoring relies greatly on the development of a relationship between the tutor and the student. Thus, having the same tutor every session rather than a hodgepodge of different ones is crucial.

3. Use of formative assessments to monitor student learning. Student assessment data allow tutors to understand where students need the most help and where to focus their instructional time.

4. Alignment with the school curriculum. Effective tutoring must be synched with what students are being taught in class.

5. Formalized training and support for tutors. Tutoring was most effective when tutors had extensive pre-service training. This increases the likelihood that tutors stick to the methodologies of proven tutoring instruction that have been shown to work, such as precise praise, effective checks for understanding, and the right amount of wait time after asking questions.

6. A personalized approach. Tutoring was most effective when it was done either on a one-on-one basis between the tutor and student or in small groups with no more than three students.

7. Conducted as part of the school day. Tutoring was most effective when it was built into the regular school day, such as during homeroom, regular study halls or as an elective.

Findings by researchers at MIT echo those recommendations. They found that tutoring programs led by teacher or paraprofessional tutors were generally more effective than programs that used nonprofessional (volunteer) or parent tutors; the effects of tutoring programs tend to be strongest among students in earlier grades; and reading tutoring tends to be relatively more effective for students in preschool through first grade, while math tutoring tends to be more effective for students in second through fifth grade.

Is remote tutoring a viable option?

There are a number of obstacles to providing effective high-dosage tutoring. According to the NCES survey, 49% of public schools providing high-dosage tutoring lacked the funding to hire staff to support this type of tutoring. Forty-four percent of schools said "time limitations" were a limiting factor, and 40% said they had difficulty finding qualified staff. Twelve percent reported they had no significant challenges in providing this type of tutoring.

Scheduling is also a key challenge to implementing tutoring programs. According to Loeb, that challenge varies by grade level.

"We've really seen a difference between early elementary and middle and high school," she said in a webinar on tutoring sponsored by Education Week. "The challenges in implementing in high school are greater, generally. The scheduling is more complex. It really helps if schools have already embraced a schedule that includes an intervention period." Districts with such periods find it easier to fit tutoring into their school days, Loeb said.

Outsourcing could be an option, as companies including Paper and tutor.com offer 24/7 access to tutors. But school districts in Columbus, Ohio, and Santa Ana, California, recently declined to renew contracts with Paper because too few students took advantage of the service, according to Chalkbeat.

Another criticism of these opt-in, online formats is that they don't seem to attract students who are in the greatest need of improvement. The Annenberg Institute has published a paper on the phenomenon called The inequity of opt-in educational resources and an intervention to increase equitable access. (Read the paper at bit.ly/3YCHlMk .)

But Scott Muri, the superintendent of the Ector County school districts in Odessa, Texas, said his district has had great success with online tutoring.

"We wanted to provide high-quality, high-dosage tutoring but knew we didn't have the adults in our community that would be capable of providing that type of support," he said in the Education Week webinar. "So, we went to the virtual world."

Muri's district started with a group of about 40 middle school students in a virtual tutoring pilot. After math scores rose, the district scaled the program to the point where it has 6,000 students in the program.

Vendor pay is based on student growth.

"Outcomes-based contract is exceptionally helpful," said Muri. "It ensures that we all have skin in the game. We will only be successful if everyone - the campus-based folks, our central office and the companies themselves are engaged in a collaborative situation that ultimately results in good outcomes for kids."

"The benefits of well-designed tutoring programs appear quite clear based on the research," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider. "This intervention has the potential to bring many kids who had fewer learning opportunities as a result of the pandemic back up to speed. However, districts should have the flexibility to decide whether that intervention is best for them rather than have a portion of their state aid diverted to that purpose."

A free toolkit on tutoring is available from the National Student Support Accelerator at bit.ly/3XaXho9 .