By Susanna Loeb and Erin McMahon | Principal Magazine - May/June 2025
In recent years, “high-impact” tutoring has emerged as a central strategy in the principal’s toolbox for addressing students’ academic needs. As elementary and middle school principals, you might have heard about this approach from district leaders, media, or even students’ families.
But what exactly makes this intervention so powerful? And why should it be integrated into your school’s efforts to support the whole child and close learning gaps?
Core Concepts: Impactful Tutoring
- High-impact tutoring occurs frequently, consistently, and one-on-one or in small groups. It aligns closely to the curriculum and uses data to assess student needs and inform personalization.
- Massachusetts schools are using high-impact tutoring to narrow achievement gaps in math, following a seven-week cycle to deliver in-school supports to more than 3,500 students.
- Funding and scheduling are hurdles that administrators often face in implementing high-impact, in-school tutoring programs, which are proven to deliver better results.
- To sustain a high-impact tutoring program, leaders must seek funding wherever available, align tutoring to the current schedule and curriculum, and get creative with staffing.
Understanding High-Impact Tutoring
High-impact tutoring takes many forms. It typically focuses on math or reading. It can be provided by educators already in the building, such as paraprofessionals or teaching assistants, or by community volunteers. It can be one-on-one or in small groups, and it can be performed in bursts as short as five minutes or in 45-minute sessions. It can even be virtual or in person.
Across contexts, however, the evidence is clear that it has small- and large-scale benefits. High-impact tutoring is a well-researched and rigorously defined intervention that:
- Occurs at least three times a week;
- Involves one-on-one or small-group instruction;
- Pairs students with trained, consistent tutors;
- Aligns with the curriculum; and
- Uses data to inform personalization and student needs.
When implemented appropriately, high-impact tutoring approaches have repeatedly proven to be the most effective school-based strategy for accelerating learning in reading and math alike. The results are compelling: Studies show that tutoring can increase student achievement by the equivalent of three to 15 months of learning.
One Principal’s Experience
In Needham, Massachusetts, Karen Rondón-Bourn, principal of Eliot Elementary School, is rewriting the narrative about how some students can achieve. Located in the city’s most diverse neighborhood, Eliot Elementary is the only Title I school in Needham and serves substantial numbers of students of color and multilingual learners.
Rondón-Bourn’s leadership is grounded in the belief that every child, regardless of background, has the potential to succeed. That belief has propelled her to seek solutions for her students’ most pressing academic challenges.
Needham’s K–5 district math coordinator approached Rondón-Bourn in 2023 about participating in a Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) initiative to support fourth graders struggling in math. Rondón-Bourn was up for the challenge.
Over the previous seven years, she had restructured Eliot Elementary’s special education program, shifting its focus from teaching assistants working with students to universal design for learning and specialized instruction. The school had also introduced an intervention block, the “Eagle Block,” to target foundational skills.
Regrouping students every seven weeks for assessment and reevaluation, the data-driven approach led to a reduction in achievement gaps among marginalized students, including students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and multilingual learners. “Once that turning point happened, we started to see some shifts in the way people think about kids,” Rondón-Bourn said.
DESE invested heavily in high- impact tutoring during the 2023–2024 school year, dedicating about $2 million to fourth and eighth grade tutoring and putting an additional $8 million into early literacy tutoring. The program followed best practices for high-impact tutoring: regular sessions at least three times per week, a consistent tutor, and sessions held during the school day in small groups—ideally 1:1 but no more than four students per group. More than 3,500 students received math tutoring statewide.
Key Elements of Success
Rondón-Bourn was soon ready to pilot virtual high-impact tutoring for fourth grade students struggling with math. To do this, she optimized the use of three key elements to implement it effectively:
- Multitiered Systems of Support (MTSS). Rondón-Bourn embedded high-impact virtual tutoring into the school’s MTSS, already part of the fabric of her school. “Although the results varied, we could adjust our methods based on what the data tells us,” she says. Rondón-Bourn followed the 10-week time frame recommended for high- impact tutoring and installed regular pre- and post assessments to monitor student progress.
- Data-informed student groups. Rondón-Bourn’s team used data to select the students who would participate in interventions. “The goal was to identify those students who are Tier II and Tier III, particularly those who need that little extra push to succeed,” she explains. The team selected a group of four students who were experiencing similar challenges with math content. “This is really good for kids who just need that little extra support, but they don’t necessarily need the instruction through special education” or an individualized education plan, she says.
- Scheduling and facilities. Rondón-Bourn noted that scheduling and space constraints made it difficult to integrate small-group learning into a packed school day. To address this, she held the pilot program in her office during the Eagle Block and supervised virtual tutoring sessions herself. She monitored the sessions to confirm that the tutoring supported what students were learning in the classroom to ensure continuity and reinforce the Tier 1 curriculum.
Specialized Instruction
Not only did Rondón-Bourn witness academic improvement among the students, but she also discovered the impact of the tutor-student relationship. Virtual tutoring offered a perfect solution for one student who normally falls between tiers of support. “She really thrives with 1:1 attention,” Rondón-Bourn says. “She took it very, very seriously: She was always here on time. She always had her materials. I didn’t have to redirect her when she was in the group.”
Rondón-Bourn believes that the demand for adaptive learning strategies will continue to increase. She says that virtual tutoring could provide specialized instruction during staffing shortages in certain situations—for example, when a school-based math coach is on parental leave and a student needs additional support. “Who wants to work a four-week job?” she asks.
The journey is not without its challenges. But each small victory helps Eliot Elementary close achievement gaps and foster a generation of confident, connected learners. “What’s good for kids is the conception,” Rondón-Bourn says. “Strong alignment between programs and curriculum is key to successful interventions.”
Making Tutoring Work
Funding and scheduling are often the most salient hurdles administrators face in their journey to implement a high- impact tutoring initiative. But evidence consistently shows that tutoring conducted during the school day yields far better results than afterschool or summer programs. Here’s how you can make it work:
Seek out funding opportunities. Take advantage of state and/or district resources, federal funds, and community partnerships to sustain your initiative. Federal programs such as Title I, Part A, allow districts to allocate resources to closing achievement gaps with tutoring programs. Title II funds can support professional development for teacher-tutors, and Title IV can help schools provide enrichment opportunities such as tutoring as part of their broader academic support strategy.
Principals can leverage programs such as AmeriCorps state and national grants or AmeriCorps VISTA to bring trained tutors into schools at reduced costs. You might also consider federal work-study funds to employ college students as tutors or apply for philanthropic grants designed to fund literacy and academic interventions. You might need to incorporate several sources of funding to create sustainable tutoring programs that address the needs of all students.
Align tutoring to your school’s schedule and curriculum. The goal is to develop a schedule that integrates tutoring sessions into the school day without compromising core instructional time. For example, tutoring can replace noninstructional periods or be integrated into enrichment blocks. For early literacy, short, frequent sessions—short bursts—are a viable and effective option for young learners.
Regardless, the content taught in high-impact tutoring sessions must align to the school’s curriculum. “It’s much more impactful if the content they’re doing with the tutor matches what they’re doing in school,” Rondón-Bourn says.
Staff creatively. Many successful programs train community volunteers, paraprofessionals, and college students in teacher preparation programs or use teachers already working in the building. Programs such as Minnesota Reading Corps have demonstrated success using trained paraprofessionals and AmeriCorps tutors. With few applicants for open positions, Rondón-Bourn sees a potential for virtual tutors to close expertise gaps in her school and sees tutors as a means to close expertise gaps when teachers are absent.
By embracing high-impact tutoring as part of their school’s strategy, principals can significantly impact test scores as well as the overall development of confident, capable learners. With the right resources, partners, and a proactive mindset, schools can leverage these tutoring models to better serve all students.