Whether you are designing a new program or seeking to improve an existing one, deeply understanding your program’s value proposition, logic model, and the landscape in which your program operates will help to focus your efforts. These analyses will provide the foundation and context needed to design a cohesive, high-impact tutoring program.
Throughout this Playbook you will find reference to Tutoring Quality Standards. An Advisory Group developed these standards based on what research and practice shows creates effective tutoring programs and updates them regularly to reflect new learnings.
What is high-impact tutoring?
High-impact tutoring is tutoring that has directly demonstrated significant gains in student learning through state-of-the-art research studies or tutoring that has characteristics proven to accelerate student learning. High-impact tutoring responds to students' individual needs and complements their classroom curriculum.
High-impact tutoring programs share certain key model elements:
This Playbook has four sections and a tool appendix:
Section 1: Program Design: guidance for making decisions about your program’s model and determining its focus
Section 2: Program Implementation: guidance for putting your program’s model into practice effectively with sections on Tutors, Data Use, Instruction, and Learning Integration with Equity, Safety and Cohesionare woven throughout
Section 3: Challenges and Recommendations: description of typical challenges and solutions to implementation
Start with Program Design:
What is the purpose of the OST Playbook?
This Playbook aims to help OST providers design and implement high-impact tutoring programs for K-12 students. This Playbook is designed to support both launching a new high-impact tutoring program and improving an established one.
Who is the intended audience for the OST Playbook?
OST providers should consider offering high-impact tutoring because it is highly effective, research-backed, and can be incorporated well into an OST program when it aligns with the program’s mission, capacity, and community need.
Out-of-school time (OST) tutoring programs are those programs that occur before school, after school, or during non-school days, such as during the summer.