This section outlines the essential components of creating a sustainable high-impact tutoring program and focuses on program leadership, funding and budgeting, and stakeholder engagement. These elements ensure the program is well managed, financially stable, and supported by the community.
The content is organized into three components:
- 3.1 Leadership and Collaboration: This section equips you with recommendations and resources regarding leadership and collaboration, coupled with project-level leadership to assemble a dynamic team of champions.
- 3.2 Funding and Budgeting: This section offers guidance in program costs, funding sources, and innovative long-term strategies to finance this crucial driver of student success.
- 3.3 Engaging Stakeholders: This section provides the essential tools to cultivate ongoing support with school boards and labor unions, educators, community and local government partnerships, and family and caregivers.
Research Insights
Several research studies provide the following guidance to create effective tutoring programs:
3.1 Leadership and Collaboration
- Tutoring implementation is most successful when there is leadership buy in, and particularly principal support.
- Paid administrative staff consistently coordinating time, space, and people played an essential role in the launch, ongoing implementation, and sustainability of tutoring programs.
- A review of tutoring programs finds that a centralized leadership structure helps maintain quality and consistency across schools while ensuring effective use of time and resources.
- Tutoring programs tend to be more successful when they have dedicated program managers who oversee implementation, coordinate scheduling, and ensure alignment with district priorities.
3.2 Funding and Budgeting
- Research supports sustained investments in tutoring programs, particularly in tutor training, instructional materials, and structured implementation, to maximize student achievement.
- High-impact tutoring programs are cost-effective in improving student learning outcomes even though they often require substantial resources. Successful programs often cost over $1,000 per student but demonstrate large effect sizes in academic achievement, making them a valuable investment for districts. Some models have reduced per-student costs to $375–$450 by embedding tutors into existing school structures.
3.3 Engaging Stakeholders
- Collaboration between district leadership and school leaders and investing in dedicated staff can align tutoring with district goals and improve program implementation.
- A review of research on tutoring finds that tutoring implementation is most successful when school leaders are committed to the program because they are well positioned to smoothly integrate tutoring within the broader instructional strategy. Programs with principal and teacher support see higher student engagement and more substantial outcomes.
- Engaging families and caregivers through regular communication and updates about student progress enhances student learning and increases the impact of tutoring programs.
Read the Full Research
Cortes, K. E., Kortecamp, K., Loeb, S., & Robinson, C. D. (2025). A scalable approach to high-impact tutoring for young readers. Learning and Instruction, 95, 102021.
FutureEd. (2024). Learning curve: Lessons from the tutoring revolution in public education. FutureEd at Georgetown University. https://www.future-ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Learning-Curve-Lessons-from-the-Tutoring-Revolution-in-Public-Education.pdf
Nickow, A., Oreopoulos, P., & Quan, V. (2020). The impressive effects of tutoring on PreK-12 learning: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the experimental evidence (NBER Working Paper No. 27476). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w27476
University of Chicago Education Lab. (2023). Not too late: Evidence-based strategies to support students who are behind in school. https://educationlab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/10/UChicago-Education-Lab-Not-Too-Late-Paper_03.23.pdf
White, S., Groom-Thomas, L., & Loeb, S. (2023). A systematic review of research on tutoring implementation: Considerations when undertaking complex instructional supports for students (EdWorkingPaper No. 22-652). Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://doi.org/10.26300/wztf-wj14 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2024.102021
Tutoring Quality Standards
High-quality tutoring programs align with key standards that support effective implementation and student success. Learn more about the research and application of the tutoring quality standards relevant to this section: