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Why build an intentional recruitment plan?

The more applicants your program can recruit, the more selective you can be when choosing tutors. If your program cannot recruit enough qualified tutors, it must either serve fewer students or provide each student with less support. Poor recruitment can make it harder for your program to serve its mission, starting a downward spiral of lower impact, less funding, and fewer high-quality tutors.

Why create a tutor job description?

If your program plans to recruit tutors from outside the community, you will need a job description to post online or otherwise circulate. If your program plans to rely on teachers at partner schools, students’ families, or peer tutors, you should still create a job description internally for selection purposes. The checklist and the examples below will help you make sure your job description gets read, attracts applicants, and targets the specific kind of candidates you think would make ideal tutors in your program.

Implementation Checklist

• Delineate training content based on Model Dimensions and selection criteria for tutors
• Establish a clear structure for pre-service and in-service training, including frequency, format, facilitator, etc.
• Ensure inservice training is responsive to performance evaluations, stakeholder feedback, and student performance data
• Collect feedback from tutors on trainings and incorporate insights and lessons from feedback to improve training effectivene

Implementation Checklist

• Outline and implement all pre-entry legal requirements based on district, state, and institutional regulations
• Outline a clear support and management structure for tutors, including who will observe and evaluate tutors
• Clearly delineate and communicate all expectations, policies, and procedures to tutors prior to the start of tutoring
• Articulate a performance evaluation process to ensure tutors meet performance expectations

Implementation Checklist

• Delineate clear responsibilities for tutors based on your Value Proposition and Model Design
• Articulate the knowledge, skills, and mindsets necessary for tutors to be effective and successful in their role
• Distinguish between what you will select for and what you will train for and have a clear rationale for your choice
• Establish clear eligibility criteria based on your value proposition and model design
• Design an application process to evaluate eligibility criteria and en

Why should you send an introductory statement home to families?

When families know what to expect from a program (and what it expects of them), they are more likely to trust it. When families trust your program, they are more likely to encourage and support their students to meet its expectations and goals. To build trust, you must make a good first impression. Communicate your program’s purpose, design, and logistics in writing, so that both parties can refer back to expectations throughout the duration of the program.

Why should teachers and tutors share continual updates?

Teachers and tutors both work better when they work together. To keep the goals and agreements from the kickoff meeting alive throughout the year, consistent communication afterwards is needed. Continual updates help tutors adjust their instruction as new challenges emerge over time, and tutors can provide teachers with updates on students’ progress to help with positive reinforcement in school.

Why have a teacher-tutor kickoff meeting?

Teachers and tutors both work better when they work together. Tutors can drastically increase both the actual and perceived effectiveness of their tutoring sessions by building a dynamic relationship with their students’ teachers. To launch this partnership, an initial kickoff meeting helps set the stage for the rest of the year. This meeting should happen before the school year starts, so that teachers can make planning adjustments with the tutoring program in mind and tutors can start strong with students on the first day.

Why have a tutoring program-school kickoff meeting?

Particularly if your Setting is In-School, proactive coordination with school administrators is necessary to make tutoring sessions feel like a part of the school day rather than a separate entity. To facilitate this collaboration, your tutoring program must work with the entire school so that staff members inside the building — from school principals to maintenance staff — have aligned their goals, expectations, and logistics.

Implementation Checklist

• Identify stakeholder groups based on tutoring program design.

Why match tutors with students intentionally?

If your program’s Tutor Consistency is Consistent, then each student’s experience of tutoring sessions will be shaped by the individual personality and instructional style of their tutor. Thoughtful and intentional pairings significantly increase the odds that a student will feel engaged with their sessions and supported by their tutor. A good student-tutor match helps students build strong relationships with their tutors and find motivation to reach their learning goals.

What is a Growth Mindset?

A Growth Mindset is the understanding that your skills and intelligence can be developed and improved through practice. This is in contrast to a Fixed Mindset, which is the belief that your qualities are fixed, innate, and cannot be improved. These concepts were originally codified by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset.  

Why make learning culturally relevant?

When students can make connections between what they learn in tutoring and their culture, language, or life experiences, they can better access key ideas, develop higher-level understanding, and see the value of their learning in their daily lives.

Why incorporate routine relationship-building activities into tutoring?

Strong relationships are fundamental to students' success with tutoring. The more students feel safe, supported, and that they have a personal connection with their tutor, the more impactful the sessions will be. At the outset, relationship-building activities help tutors get to know their students and create a safe, positive learning environment. Building them into routine tutoring sessions helps tutors keep their knowledge of students alive and current.

Why does building relationships with students matter?

We learn best from people who care about us. Students who feel a connection with their tutor are more likely to engage in learning, ask questions, build motivation, and achieve better academic outcomes. Strong tutor-student relationships built on a foundation of shared understanding and trust create the conditions for all students to take the risks necessary to make dramatic academic gains.

Implementation Checklist

• Tutors take an asset based approach and are motivating in all interactions with students.
• Tutors reinforce a growth mindset whenever students struggle or make mistakes.
• If Tutor Consistency is Consistent: Tutors are matched to students using intentional and systematic methods. 
• If Tutor Consistency is Consistent: Tutors get to know their student using specific strategies and activities. 
• If Tutor Consistency is Inconsistent: The program uses centr

What is a Virtual Tutoring Platform? 

A virtual tutoring platform is an online conferencing system that facilitates virtual tutoring.

Why does small-group facilitation matter?

If your Student-Tutor Ratio is Small Groups instead of one-to-one, your tutors will need skills to establish group norms and manage behavior during sessions. In addition to the facilitation moves listed in the Facilitation Moves Checklist, small-group facilitation requires additional planning and tools to foster a positive, productive learning environment for a group.

Why does facilitation matter?

Facilitation is what keeps a student engaged and on-task throughout a tutoring session. Effective facilitation requires thorough planning: not just around what concepts and skills to work on, but also around the routines, directions, and logistics of the tutoring session itself. Time the tutor spends thinking these things through ahead of time maximizes the time the student spends actually learning during the session, rather than getting situated or resolving confusions.

Implementation Checklist

• Tutors reinforce the academic language and procedures of the classroom and hold students accountable for doing the same.
• Tutors appropriately use open-ended questioning to ensure students are articulating their understanding of the content.
• Tutors facilitate content clearly, correctly, and at an appropriate pace.
• Students engage with content using a variety of learning tools that promote productive struggle given their unique needs.
• Students experience multi

Why establish a consistent tutoring session structure?

When students know what to expect, they can better internalize what is expected of them. If each session has a consistent rhythm, students will feel safer and more engaged, and tutors will deliver more consistent and effective sessions. Instead of spending prep time internalizing directions and pacing, they can focus on content.

Implementation Checklist

• Sessions have a consistent structure with space for relationship-building, independent practice time, and formative assessment.

Implementation Tools

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

Example Tutoring Session Structure

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.