Planning

8 Considerations for Designing High-Impact Tutoring

With the return to in-person learning in sight, K-12 leaders are urgently setting priorities for the coming school year. Each spring, educators are eager to find that “just right” approach to their biggest challenges. As a former middle and high school principal, I know that’s especially true after a tough year—and no year has been tougher than this one.

For many leaders, accelerating student learning is top-of-mind, and one method that has garnered a lot of recent attention is high-impact tutoring. The National Student Support Accelerator, founded this year at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University to promote and support high-impact tutoring, defines it as one-to-one or small-group support that supplements classroom learning and complements existing curriculum by focusing on specific goals in response to individual students’ needs. This kind of tutoring is also known as “high-intensity tutoring” or “high-dosage tutoring.”

Session Structure

Read more about Session Structure

In this National Student Support Accelerator Video, we’ll walk you through an example tutoring session structure that your program can work off of to develop the session plan that will work the best for you. While every program may structure its tutoring sessions differently, certain components of any structure can be helpful to keep in mind.

Family Engagement

Read more about Family Engagement

In this National Student Support Accelerator Webinar, we will be discussing the ways in which your program can foster positive and constructive engagement with students’ families. By communicating effectively with families, you can increase their trust in your program – and this communication can happen through a variety of different channels.

Data Use: Evaluation and Improvement

Read more about Data Use: Evaluation and Improvement

In this National Student Support Accelerator webinar, we will be discussing how to evaluate data to improve your program as a whole. By developing standard routines for data review and having a clear understanding of what you would like to accomplish from reviewing your data, your program can consistently progress towards its goals and take note of what changes it should be making.

Gates Foundation grants Annenberg Institute $999,260

The Annenberg Institute received a $999,260 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last month to fund the National Student Support Accelerator. The NSSA research aims to strengthen and grow high-impact tutoring programs and opportunities for K-12 students nationwide. This funding will support the project for two years.

Choosing and Using Blended Learning Software

Read more about Choosing and Using Blended Learning Software

In this National Student Support Accelerator webinar, we will be discussing how your program can choose and fully utilize a blended learning software for tutoring.

Choosing and Using Virtual Tutoring Platforms

Read more about Choosing and Using Virtual Tutoring Platforms

In this National Student Support Accelerator webinar, we will be discussing how to choose and utilize a virtual tutoring platform for your program, if that is an option that your program would like to consider. As virtual learning has become even more prevalent, this mode of instruction can pose significant benefits to your program.

Aligning Tutoring Curriculum to School Curriculum

Read more about Aligning Tutoring Curriculum to School Curriculum

In this National Student Support Accelerator webinar, we will be discussing the ways in which your program’s tutoring curriculum can and should align with students' in-school curriculum. This alignment can be crucial to ensuring that students’ tutoring instruction prepares them for their in-classroom work, and that this instruction allows them to improve the skills they will use during their normal instruction times.

Session Content

Read more about Session Content

In this National Student Support Accelerator webinar, we’ll be discussing various components of your program’s session content to consider. While programs’ overall focuses can vary across all academic subjects and general learning areas, there are some logistics that every program should take into account when setting up their content and how it will be delivered to students.

Addressing unfinished learning with targeted help and high-dosage tutoring

The new National Student Support Accelerator, housed at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, launched to accelerate the growth of high-impact tutoring opportunities for K–12 students in need. The accelerator coordinates and synthesizes tutoring research and uses that research to develop publicly available tools and technical assistance to support districts and schools to develop high-impact tutoring programs for students.