Search the NSSA Website

Forty states have spent money on tutoring since the pandemic began, according to a recent review conducted by the National Student Support Accelerator, a Stanford University program that researches tutoring.

That’s added up to a huge investment. Last year, the nonprofit Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents state education department heads, estimated that states would spend $700 million of their federal COVID relief dollars to expand tutoring efforts. And local school districts are expected to spend more than $3 billion of their own COVID aid on tutoring, according to an estimate from the Georgetown University think tank FutureEd, based on data compiled by the company Burbio.

Once CEO Matt Pasternack, a former teacher who moved into education technology, acknowledges that’s expensive and labor-intensive. He estimates CMS would have spent $200,000 for this year’s pilot, which involves 400 children. But Stanford’s National Student Support Accelerator, which specializes in research into tutoring, has a grant from Accelerate to cover this year’s costs for participating schools in CMS, Nashville and South Bend, Indiana.

Second, a policy framework that supports the growth of genuinely effective high-dosage tutoring. This means direct funding and flexibility to pay for tutoring, which can cost anywhere from under $1,000 to more than $3,000 per student. Policymakers must also require reporting from school districts on tutoring delivery at the student level. The “dosage” piece of high-dosage tutoring is non-negotiable for getting results, so It is unacceptable to pay for services without knowing and reporting which students received exactly how many tutoring sessions. Additionally, policymakers can put guardrails on which types of tutoring and which specific programs are eligible for public funding. Our partners at the National Student Support Accelerator have created excellent guides correlating research-backed principles with student success. And individual programs continue to produce research showing their own efficacy.

Total Tutoring Services delivers personalized one-on-one tutoring, accessible both in-person and virtually. With over 15 years of experience, we excel in providing exceptional personalized tutoring, test prep and academic coaching for students in grades PreK-12. Our team is composed of highly qualified tutors who work closely with classroom teachers, customizing targeted learning to meet a student's immediate educational needs while aligning with ongoing classroom activities.

Our tutors not only can explain the test well, but will help you with everything from content to strategy to things like test anxiety, test-taking skills, time management, and how to get more out of the studying and homework you do.

nGenius provides 1-on-1 virtual and in-person tutoring led by experienced tutors focused on enriching academic skills for K-12 and college students. Our team takes an individualized approach to identify strengths/weaknesses, learning preferences, and goals for each student in order to develop a personalized learning plan.

The nGenius program offers:

Club Z! offers both in person and virtual tutoring lessons, which can be delivered one-on-one or in small groups. Tutoring lessons are configured around each student's unique learning goals and objectives, and may include reinforcement of classroom materials, test preparation, and outside intervention support materials. Club Z!

Math N' More is an acute mathematics firm, offering educational concierge services, specializing in virtual math tutoring and intervention to ensure grade level mastery. In 2020, Math N' More was founded to support all learners in succeeding in mathematics. Math N’ More has maintained its commitment to moving the needle in math education for students and providing education advocacy support to families.
Math N’ More offers:
● K-12Math Tutoring
● Homework Help

With Common Ground Tutors, students are grouped by skill level into small cohorts of 4 students and receive personal attention during their 45-minute tutoring sessions, three times a week. Students learn best when they develop a long-term relationship with a tutor who knows them well, cares for them, and gives them the personal attention they need. This is key to academic achievement, as well as social-emotional learning. SEL and positive psychology are core guiding principles in all our work, as research shows that SEL is closely linked to improvement in academic performance.

School Connect WA hosts an academic intervention-based afterschool program for K-5th grade students, offering tier 2 & 3 level intervention, for low income students.

For nearly 20 years, Aspire has collaborated with fellow Bay Area education nonprofits and schools to design customized programs that empower historically underserved students to reach greater academic results and achievement levels. Tutoring programs take place during the school day in-class or after-school in partnership with other programs (such as Girls Inc or Boys & Girls Club).

How often does it happen that a national policy priority, robust research, and the aspirations of classroom teachers converge? On an issue with bipartisan support, no less? Not very often.

But tutoring is an exception. As many as 80 percent of school districts and charter school organizations have launched tutoring programs to help students rebound from the pandemic.

High-dosage tutoring, sometimes called “high-impact” or “high-intensity” tutoring, is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated significant positive effects on math and reading achievement. Yet high-dosage tutoring is a very specific form of tutoring that must meet specific criteria:

• One-on-one or small-group sessions with no more than four students per tutor
• Use of high-quality materials that align with classroom content
• Three tutoring sessions per week—at minimum—each lasting at least 30 minutes
• Sessions held during school hours
• Students meeting with the same tutor each session
• Professionally trained tutors who receive ongoing support and coaching

Small, regular interactions with a reading tutor — about 5 to 7 minutes — are making a big impact on young students’ reading skills, new Stanford University research shows.

First graders in Florida’s Broward County schools who participated in the program, called Chapter One, saw more substantial gains in reading fluency than those who didn’t receive the support, according to the study. They were also 9 percentage points less likely to be considered at risk on a district literacy test.

The first randomized controlled trial of a virtual tutoring program for reading was conducted during the 2022-23 school year at a large charter school network in Texas. Kindergarten, first and second graders received 20 minutes of video tutoring four times a week, from September through May, with an early reading tutoring organization called OnYourMark. Despite the logistical challenges of setting up little children on computers with headphones, the tutored children ended the year with higher DIBELS scores, a measure of reading proficiency for young children, than students who didn’t receive the tutoring. One-to-one video tutoring sometimes produced double the reading gains as video tutoring in pairs, demonstrating a difference between online and in-person tutoring, where larger groups of two and three students can be very effective too. That study was published in October 2023. 

Susanna Loeb is named to the 2024 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, recognizing the 200 university-based scholars who had the biggest influence on educational practice and policy last year.

For the full list and to learn more about the rankings, visit The 2024 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings.

High-dosage tutoring programs have expanded significantly, with nearly 40 percent of schools now using individual and small-group tutoring with trained teachers or tutors four or five days a week. This approach has been shown to boost student learning, but it can also be expensive. A new study by the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University suggests virtual tutoring could be a less-costly option, if it remains as intensive and rigorous as in-person tutoring.

"We're pretty clear on the big picture about what makes tutoring work, and it is focused on intensive, relationship-based, individualized instruction," said Kathy Bendheim, managing director of the National Student Support Accelerator. After-school tutoring has spotty attendance records, she said, and on-call, web-based tutoring may not be tailored to the student or used very frequently, either.

Thankfully, states and districts aren’t sitting on their hands in the face of learning loss. Supported by billions of dollars of federal funds, many have invested heavily in tutoring programs that promise to help struggling children overcome the challenges imposed by past school closures and virtual instruction. The question is whether those efforts work for enough students to justify their cost — and according to data generated by the National Student Support Accelerator, a Stanford initiative devoted to studying the effects of tutoring, there is reason for hope.

Transformative change in education often begins with a powerful story. Increasingly, high-impact tutoring is that story, where students find both significant academic success and personal confidence in their abilities. Rhyne Richards—a 6th-grade student in Washington, DC.—met several times each week with a tutor, Ms. Burns, to overcome math challenges. Rhyne’s journey speaks volumes. “I get distracted a lot [in class],” Rhyne admitted. “But when I’m with Ms. Burns, I learn a lot; a lot more than I knew last year.” It’s a testament to the remarkable impact of intensive, one-on-one tutoring. “I’m proud of myself,” Rhyne continued. “Before, I didn’t really know math like I do now. But now I can do it myself. I want to be the smartest person in the world.” Rhyne’s regained confidence in math and optimism for the future epitomize the profound evidence for and influence of intensive, relationship-based, individualized instruction—it is a narrative we must tirelessly work to replicate and scale.

Those results are not unique to Oakland. Another recent study on a virtual early literacy tutoring model called OnYourMark found minimal impact in second grade. The lack of growth could be due to a mismatch between tutoring and testing, said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University professor who leads a nationwide tutoring research center and conducted the OnYourMark research.

What makes tutoring high-impact? According to the National Student Support Accelerator, it involves substantial time each week, sustained and strong relationships between students and tutors, close monitoring of student knowledge and skills alignment to school curriculum, and oversight to ensure quality interactions. 

Appropriates $27 million in state funds and $97 million in federal funds for for matching grants to districts for high quality tutoring and rigorous extended learning programs.