5.2 Creating Tutor Consistency and Building Student-Tutor Relationships

A strong relationship between a student and their tutor has the potential to increase student motivation and school connectedness. Prioritizing consistent student-tutor pairings throughout the program is an important investment. Managing consistent student-tutor relationships provides the opportunity for strong relationship building and greater instructional consistency. Section 5.2 addresses staffing structures, student-tutor pairing protocols, relationship-building approaches, and strategies for culturally relevant and asset-based interactions.

	Before You Begin
	Finalize student groupings using recent progress data and academic goals. Identify staffing capacity and scheduling logistics to support consistent student-tutor pairings and schedule. Gather baseline information (e.g., student interests, strengths) to guide strong relational practices. Identify opportunities to prioritize individualized instruction through data-informed practices.

Staffing and Student Grouping Structure
Key Recommendations	Corresponding Resources
Match students with consistent tutors whose instructional styles and strengths suit their learning styles and needs.	Reading: Strategies for Matching Tutors with Students Reading: Five Pillars of Strong, Professional Student-Tutor Relationships
Implement centralized methods to log and communicate student data across the program and with key stakeholders.	Example: Evaluating Student-Tutor Relationships Example: Snap Survey: What do you and your pupils have in common? (elementary) Example: Snap Survey: What do you and your pupils have in common? (middle/high school)
Regularly collect feedback from students, tutors, teachers, and families to assess the ongoing effectiveness of the match.
Consider adjusting matches early and identify coaching opportunities to strengthen the student-tutor relationship.

Student-Tutor Relationship Building
Key Recommendations	Corresponding Resources
Allocate time for tutors to build trust with their students (e.g., at the beginning of a session).	Example: Tutoring Session Structure
Provide tutors with resources and ideas to actively learn about students’ interests and identities. Encourage tutors to recognize and honor their students’ life experiences.	Reading: Relationship Building Question Bank Example: “Who Am I?” Activity Website: Generating Trust Reading: Common Ground: helping tutors and pupils find similarities boosts session attendance Reading: Mentoring Mindset Self-Inventory Reading: Mentoring Mindset Training-Facilitator’s Guide Toolkit: Search Institute: Resources Hub
Reinforce a growth mindset when students struggle or make mistakes.	Guide: Relationship Centered Classrooms Checklist: Cultivating a Growth Mindset Website: Saga Coach-Growth Mindset Website: Reacting to Errors

Culturally Responsive Tutoring and Inclusive Content Design

Key Recommendations

Corresponding Resources

Incorporate examples, models, and practice tasks that reflect students’ cultures, identities, and lived experiences to deepen engagement and ensure academic content feels relevant and inclusive.

Checklist: Culturally Relevant and Inclusive Tutoring Sessions

Website: Understood.org-Everyone deserves to be understood

Reading: Understood.org-What is culturally responsive teaching?

Website: Building Cultural Competence

	Planning for the Long Term
	Track student-tutor groupings over time to maintain consistency and manage changes intentionally. Create a feedback loop that gathers insights from students, tutors, and families to support relational development.

Tutoring Quality Standards and Self-Assessment Indicators
Take the free, 15-minute, and research-based Tutoring Organization Self-Assessment. This subsection addresses these tutoring quality standards and Self-Assessment indicators.
Instruction Tutor Consistency	The program provides students with consistent tutoring from the same tutor and any grouping adjustments occur sparingly and strategically. Students receive consistent tutoring from the same tutor; any adjustments to groupings occur sparingly and strategically.
3b.1 \| Staffing structure that ideally results in consistent tutoring experience from the same tutor in each session; students work with no more than 2 different tutors 3b.2 \| Process to ensure changes to student-tutor pairing and student groupings are made in consultation with school partners and based on the needs of students and formative assessment data
Instruction Student-Tutor Relationship	The program has an intentional strategy and supporting systems to build strong, positive relationships between students and tutors.
3c.1 \| Training and coaching for tutors on strategies to build positive student-tutor relationships during in-person or virtual sessions that are grounded in equity 3c.2 \| Training and coaching for tutors on asset-based approaches to interacting with students (e.g., tutors reinforce a growth mindset when students struggle) 3c.3 \| System for monitoring and responding to ongoing student-tutor relationship dynamics

Toolkit for Tutoring Programs

5.2 Creating Tutor Consistency and Building Student-Tutor Relationships