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What is a Logic Model?

A Logic Model is a road map for thinking through how to create a desired change or outcome. Creating such a model requires a top-level articulation of the inputs and actions required for a program to produce results, and an adherence to a consistent internal logic regarding how the design of a program relates to its goals. For any tutoring program, a Logic Model should explain how the model itself, the supports, and the stakeholders will interact to produce the results that you aim to achieve for students.

Critical Questions

• What are the critical qualities for tutors in this program?
• How will the program recruit and select tutors to ensure a diverse cohort?
• How will the program recruit and select tutors to ensure they have the necessary skills?
• What expectations and processes will be set for tutors to ensure effectiveness and safety?
• How will the program train and support tutors?
• How will the training incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Sub Elements

Critical Questions

• How will the program engage stakeholders to ensure tutoring aligns with classroom curricula?
• How will tutors leverage stakeholders to build their understanding of student needs to tailor tutoring? 
• How will tutors build trust with stakeholders? 

Sub Elements

(Click on the links below or visit the pages on the lefthand navigation for more information.)

Critical Questions

• What academic content will tutoring sessions focus on? 
• How should tutoring sessions be structured and facilitated to affirm students’ academic and personal identities, build strong relationships, and ensure students master the content?

Sub Elements

(Click on the links below or visit the pages on the lefthand navigation for more information.)

Critical Question

• What data will the program collect to measure impact?
• How will these data reflect a holistic understanding of students’ experiences?
• What processes will be in place to review and act upon collected data?
• How will these review processes promote equity and reduce bias?

Sub Elements

(Click on the links or visit the pages on the lefthand navigation for more information.)

Program Design Decisions: Model Dimensions and Related Considerations

As you design a tutoring program, you will have numerous decisions to make that influence and impact one another. On the left column of the table below are Model Dimensions of tutoring programs; on the right are corresponding Considerations that allow you to contemplate how interactions among model design decisions may impact your tutoring program.

Program Design

Program Focus

With a clear program focus, value proposition, logic model, cost estimate and initial model dimension decisions, you can begin implementation. The toolkit provides implementation guidance and tools for each of the seven elements of high-impact tutoring. The Tool Appendix gives the full range of tools.

What is a Value Proposition?

A Value Proposition is a concise articulation of the value an organization delivers should someone choose to use their program. It consists of two core components: the Challenge (or unmet need) that the program intends to address and the Approach that states how the program provides value to address that challenge. It distinguishes the program from other seemingly similar programs by highlighting what makes its approach uniquely well-suited to solving a specific problem or particularly efficient at meeting a specific unmet need.

Critical Questions

• Why and for whom is this tutoring program needed?
• How will this tutoring program increase equity?

Implementation Checklist

• Understand the community strengths, resources and needs through a landscape analysis
• Articulate an equity-based value proposition about unmet student needs identified through the landscape analysis
• Develop a logic model defining inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes
• Understand program costs and fun

Whether you are designing a new program or seeking to improve an existing one, deeply understanding your program’s value proposition, logic model and the landscape in which your program operates will help to focus your efforts most beneficially. This analysis and resulting understanding will provide the foundation and context needed to design a cohesive, high-impact tutoring program.

Designing a program is best done iteratively. Here is a suggested process:

The original form of personalized learning — tutoring — is about to take a giant step forward. Pandemic-era learning loss has motivated a group of national education leaders to develop an initiative to make "high-impact tutoring" available to all K-12 students, no matter whether their families can afford tutoring or not. When the National Student Support Accelerator, launched by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, is fully running, it will consist of several components...

Into this breach has stepped the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, which late last week announced the launch of its National School Support Accelerator. Partly a hands-on tutoring initiative and partly a research project, Annenberg is funding a variety of demonstration tutoring sites throughout the United States to study and refine what we know about tutoring. Eventually, it wants to spin off the project into its own organization.

"The trick, I think, is that when you scale something it's not as good as it is initially," said Susanna Loeb, the director of the Annenberg Institute. "How can we be careful so it scales at quality? What kind of resources are available so we know that it's quality, and they're doing it in a way that the research shows is most effective? That's really what this organization is aiming to do." 

We are excited to share our plans for the National Student Support Accelerator!

The COVID-19 pandemic has widened existing educational inequities, causing an estimated 6 - 12 months of learning loss already. The National Student Support Accelerator’s vision is that all K-12 students in need have access to high-impact tutoring as part of their core educational experience that helps them learn and grow - to addressing COVID-19-related learning loss, and supporting academic success in the long term.