Research Guidance

Implementation Checklist

• Sessions have curricula with high quality materials that maintain rigor.
• Session content complements classroom materials to support student mastery.
• Sessions focus on targeted learning goals informed by grade level standards, assessment data, and family and school input. 
• Sessions have a consistent structure with space for relationship-building, independent practice time, and formative assessment.
• If Delivery Mode is Blended: High-quality research-based software

What is Blended Learning in a Tutoring Program? 

Blended learning is a delivery mode that combines live instruction with digital learning tools for independent practice. High-quality blended learning supplements live tutoring (either virtually or in person) with adaptive software, which modifies the presentation of material in response to student performance to support student learning.

Why should you create data-informed student groups?

If your Student-Tutor Ratio is Small Groups instead of one-on-one, the composition of these groups will influence session effectiveness. If students are grouped haphazardly, without regard for their academic strengths and struggles, then tutors will find it much more challenging to meet the individual needs of every student in a group.

What is Accessibility?

Students all learn in different ways: some of these differences are obvious, while others are more subtle. However, this seemingly simple truth is surprisingly difficult to internalize in practice. Most learning experiences are designed with only one kind of learning in mind, and thus optimized for only one kind of learner.

Why should tutors personalize their tutoring sessions?

The most effective sessions are personalized to meet an individual student’s needs. Student productivity and growth will increase if the tutor can identify the missing or incomplete skills that are holding a student back and focus on those specific skills. Identifying and addressing these skill gaps requires tutors to use both quantitative and qualitative data to shape the content they include and the approach they use during sessions.

What is a Landscape Analysis?

A Landscape Analysis outlines the strengths, resources, and needs of a particular community. It provides a framework for designing a service and ensuring that it is embedded directly in the needs of the community.

Tutoring Curriculum Overview 

While tutoring programs vary greatly in the content that is focused on during sessions, tutors should have a standards-aligned, rigorous, and grade-level appropriate curriculum to use during sessions. Having an established curriculum for tutors to follow ensures that tutors’ planning time is spent optimizing implementation and building deep content knowledge, not creating tutoring session plans.

Overview

Below, you will find two protocols for reviewing student academic data, one for a frequent post-session review and one for any data collected on an interim or infrequent basis. These protocols follow the same What/So What/Now What format as the Standard Data Review Protocol, but they are tailored with tutor-specific questions to guide data analysis.

Why should you establish a standardized process for Data Review? 

Standardizing a Data Review process helps set a clear expectation that the end product of Data Review is not knowledge, but action. Any Data Review Protocol should ensure that raw data is converted into a clear and digestible format before the reflection process so that reviewers can focus their energies on reflecting on the data, rather than synthesizing the data.