In May 2021, The Education Trust, Education Reform Now, and FutureEd published State Guidance for High-Impact Tutoring to help…
February 18, 2022 by Ed Trust 
In May 2021, The Education Trust, Education Reform Now, and FutureEd published State Guidance for High-Impact Tutoring to help states implement successful tutoring programs. This follow-up publication outlines the features of effective and equitable state tutoring initiatives and provides examples of states that show promise in implementing them, to further support the work of state and district education leaders.
When school buildings closed nearly two years ago, students across the country experienced many educational, familial and life disruptions. Students, especially students of color, endured illness and death of family members, economic hardships, uneven instruction, inadequate internet access, and stress. They witnessed racial injustice and negative encounters with police. These challenges had a direct impact on students’ learning and have exacerbated educational inequities. The latest studies show that schools serving Black and Latino students are getting even fewer students to grade level than they were before the pandemic. These students deserve the best, and research should be driving state level strategies and supports.
To address the challenges students, educators, and school systems are facing, Congress sent unprecedented relief funds to states and districts. The American Rescue Plan requires states to spend at least 5% of their allocation to implement evidence-based strategies to address students’ unfinished learning, what federal officials in the plan call “learning loss.”1 This has created a window of opportunity to provide the supports that too many schools haven’t had the resources to provide. One such support stands out: well-implemented, targeted, and intensive tutoring programs, which research suggests is highly effective in catching students up.
Many state education leaders have recognized this. In the plans submitted to the US Department of Education, at least 17 states have committed to investing in targeted intensive tutoring, at least five have committed to building statewide tutoring programs, and at least six have committed to providing state-level guidance and support targeted intensive tutoring programs.
Unfortunately, most of these plans lack details around how they plan to support districts and schools to offer tutoring or how districts should go about implementing high quality tutoring programs. Questions such as who and how to hire tutors, what curriculum to use, or how to schedule tutoring during the school day are largely unaddressed. These hurdles may seem particularly daunting when many school districts are struggling to find enough qualified teachers to staff their classrooms.
A handful of states, however, have presented tutoring plans that show promise. They reflect a commitment to tutoring systems that incorporate best practices that have emerged from research literature. This policy brief highlights these practices and describes how several states are using them to build effective tutoring systems.
The strategies include:
Targeting services to schools’ most underserved students
There is much work to be done to get from blueprints to fully built-out tutoring systems. State education officials have a particularly important role to play in helping schools and school districts deploy effective, evidence-based tutoring systems, including issuing research-based guidance, providing technical assistance, and supporting district leaders to ensure that underserved students, in particular, receive the support they need. This publication aims to help state and district leaders achieve those goals, while acknowledging that evidence-based tutoring programs should be implemented alongside strategies to ensure all students have strong and racially diverse teachers.
