6.5 Boosting Attendance and Retention

Maintaining interest and attendance in a high-impact tutoring program requires deliberate action. Regular attendance builds strong student-tutor relationships that lead to social-emotional gains, increased motivation, and academic success. Attendance is easiest to secure when students are tutored within the classroom environment, while other models may need to utilize more of these recommendations. Section 6.5 explores systems for successful enrollment, initial and ongoing enrollment strategies, approaches for maintaining attendance, and caregiver partnerships to support participation.

	Before You Begin
	Review the data-driven goals set with your district for alignment in enrollment. Review selected students with your district to verify the target audience.

Groundwork for Successful Attendance
Key Recommendations	Corresponding Resources
Designate a champion who will be responsible for ensuring student attendance and promoting the value of high-impact tutoring among the staff, students, and families.	One-Pager: High-Impact Tutoring: The Basics, Benefits, and Research
Establish efficient recruitment, enrollment, attendance tracking, data analysis, and communication logistical systems.	Example: Early Findings Show Evidence that High-Impact Tutoring Increases Student Attendance in D.C. Schools Research One-Pager: The Effect of High-Impact Tutoring on School Attendance
Foster attendance through intrinsic motivation (e.g., building confidence and skills) and extrinsic incentives (e.g., gamification, rewards).	Checklist: Incentivizing Tutoring Attendance
Collaborate with school leaders early and often to implement proactive strategies for challenges, such as schedule adjustments (e.g., scheduling tutoring sessions after lunch for a frequently late student).	Reflection Guide: Addressing Enrollment and Attendance Challenges

Two-Way Communication Around Attendance
Key Recommendations	Corresponding Resources
Connect your champion to caregivers, school staff, and students to improve two-way communication around the tutored students.	Toolkit: Fostering Collaboration with Educators Toolkit: Family & Caregiver Toolkit for School Districts
Develop a detailed communication plan with protocols and cadence for celebrating successes, regular progress updates, and tutoring session reminders to build awareness and sustain enthusiasm. Utilize various modes, strategies, and languages.	Template: Communication Plan for Stakeholder Engagement around a High-Impact Tutoring Program (Word Document Available) Template: Sample Parent/Guardian Text Message Reminders for Tutoring Sessions (PDF Available)
Clearly define responsibilities among tutoring leaders and school staff for student recruitment and program oversight.	Reading: Key Responsibilities for Boosting Attendance
Encourage tutors to leverage strong relationships with students, teachers, and families to promote attendance.	Toolkit Section: 5.2 Creating Tutor Consistency and Building Student-Tutor Relationships Reading: Understanding and Supporting Your Child’s Academic Growth

Attendance Data Tracking and Analysis
Key Recommendations	Corresponding Resources
Create a strong data collection system that takes a systematic, layered approach to collecting data about tutors and students at both session-level and individual level (e.g., overall attendance, late arrivals, early departures, engagement levels).
Conduct data analysis on student and tutor attendance to identify trends and patterns, particularly across disaggregated student populations.
Analyze stakeholder feedback to identify and address root causes of low attendance.	Reflection Guide: Boosting Student Enrollment and Attendance Root-Cause Analysis (Word Document Available)

	Planning for the Long Term
	Standardize enrollment and attendance systems across schools to ensure consistent student outreach, tracking, and retention year over year. Establish annual engagement campaigns that involve students, families, and educators. Partner with community organizations to reinforce program visibility and provide logistical support for families, such as transportation and language services.

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.
Learning Integration Student Enrollment and Retention	The program has a defined approach to enroll and retain students; particular attention is paid to reducing barriers to participation.
4f.1 \| A clearly defined approach for enrolling students into the program. (This approach will differ depending on whether or not participation is required for all students in the school/district, required for a subset of students in the school/district, or if participation is optional for all students or a subset of students in the school/district or if enrollment is open to any student irrespective of the school/district they attend.) 4f.2 \| A clearly defined retention strategy for ensuring students attend tutoring sessions 4f.3 \| A suite of supports/interventions to reduce barriers to participation, including but not limited to: family communication strategy, transportation assistance, and convenient location/hours of operation

Toolkit for Tutoring Programs