Section 1: Introduction to the Toolkit for Tutoring Programs

This Toolkit for Tutoring Programs is designed for organizations seeking to implement high-impact tutoring programs. While tutoring program leaders are the intended primary audience, state educational officials and school administrators will benefit from leveraging the many resources in the Toolkit.

The Toolkit draws from research and from the deep knowledge of districts, tutoring providers, and other experts across the country and is one of several interrelated research-backed tools the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) provides to make it easier for states, districts, schools, and nonprofits to develop and implement quality, high-impact tutoring programs.

What is High-Impact Tutoring?

High-impact tutoring is personalized, high-quality instruction in one-on-one or small group settings that creates positive relationships between tutors and students that are motivating and engaging. Importantly, not all tutoring follows the characteristics we outline for high-impact tutoring, and can therefore vary in effectiveness. Numerous studies confirm strong benefits for student academics and overall well-being when high-impact tutoring is implemented with fidelity.

A High-Impact Tutoring Program will have:

Relationship-based instruction
Sessions that meet regularly 3+ times/week for 10+ weeks
Consistent, well-trained tutors
Small group tutoring sessions of 4:1 (preferably 1:1)
Content that aligns with high-quality curriculum
Scheduling that is integrated into the school day with an opt-out model

Why Adopt High-Impact Tutoring?

Some Key Reasons to Adopt High-Impact Tutoring:

Accelerate learning by 3-15 months
Provide personalized, individualized instruction
Boost attendance rates
Boost graduation rates
Career development and teacher pipeline

How to Use This Toolkit

The Toolkit has a distinct structure for each section that organizes content around a program’s specific needs:

Section Introduction: The landing page is an overview of the section and base knowledge including research insights that inform recommendations

Subsection Pages: These pages define and provide context for each domain of key recommendations presented. Following these definitions, you will see:

Key Recommendations that include specific steps to move your tutoring program toward effective, research-based practices.
Corresponding Resources providing additional readings, resources, templates, and tools to dive deeper into the recommendations. Editable items are available as Google doc templates and Word document downloads.
- Checklist: A list of executable tasks
- Example: Examples used in other contexts to serve as models
- One-Pager: A one-page, high-level summary of a topic
- Reading: More detailed information regarding a topic
- Research One-Pager: A one-page high-level summary of a research study
- Reflection Guide: A series of questions to assist decision-making
- Template: A tool to edit and customize to suit a program’s needs
- Toolkit: A collection of tools, templates, reading, and resources
- Video: Videos supporting recommendations
- Website: Website resources outside of NSSA

Annual Revisions and Scalability: This section concludes the Toolkit and will contain annual updates of the most current research, new findings, and implications for tutoring providers that will be integrated into the Toolkit in the next revision.

A Note About the Standards

At the end of each subsection, you will find reference to Tutoring Quality Standards and Self-Assessment Indicators. The Toolkit sections are organized around these standards to give providers a clear way to assess organization practices and policies. 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. The Self-Assessment Indicators are more in-depth, quality markers developed for each standard. All of our recommendations support a commitment to these seven research-backed standards.

The Seven Quality Standards of High-Impact Tutoring

he Seven Quality Standards of High-Impact Tutoring

Where Do I Start?

Tutoring Organization Self-Assessment: The Tutoring Organization Self-Assessment provides tutoring providers with a rapid, free, and research-based assessment of their program's quality by comparing their tutoring program's characteristics and activities to the Tutoring Quality Standards. From here, you can identify places you would like to strengthen then search the Toolkit for Tutoring Programs for supporting recommendations and resources for each standard indicator.