The 60-second card
The finding
Frequent tutoring in very small groups is one of the most reliable ways to help students who are behind.
Do this
Tutor at least three times a week, during the school day, in groups of one to three, using teachers or trained aides and a structured program.
Best evidence
A review of 89 randomized trials found tutoring raised achievement by about 0.29 standard deviations on average, similar for reading and math. Effects were largest with teachers or aides as tutors, in earlier grades, at least three days a week, and during school hours (Nickow et al. 2024(opens in a new tab)).
0.29 SD
average gain across 89 randomized trials of tutoring
The 5-minute brief
Why it works
Tutoring is the rest of this library at full strength: constant checking, immediate feedback on the task, practice pitched exactly at the student's level, and more time on the skill. It works best when the content is a structured program, not homework help.
The earlier working-paper version of the same review, with 96 trials, reported a larger average (0.37). It also found reading tutoring had bigger effects in the early grades and math tutoring in later grades (NBER 2020(opens in a new tab)). Use the published 0.29 as the headline.
What it looks like
| Grade band | In practice |
|---|---|
| K–2 | Trained aides run daily phonics groups of two or three, following the classroom's phonics sequence. |
| 3–5 | Three sessions a week of a structured math program, such as the fraction program in principle 11. |
| 6–8 | Math tutoring built into the schedule as a class period, not an optional after-school slot. |
| 9–12 | Algebra students behind on foundations get tutoring three or more days a week during an elective block. |
Common mistakes
- After-school or optional tutoring. Effects were larger during the school day.
- Volunteer tutors with no program or training, used in place of trained staff.
- Tutoring that is just homework help, with no planned content.
What a leader looks for in 5 minutes
- Is tutoring scheduled during the day, at least three times a week?
- Is there a program the tutor follows, and progress data showing who's moving?
What we don't know yet
Effects at scale can be much smaller: Nashville's district-run program for over 6,800 students found small reading gains and no average math effect (Kraft et al. 2024(opens in a new tab)). Cost is the main limit, which is why the review's guidance on tutor type and frequency matters for budgets.
Go deeper
- Researcher
- Philip Oreopoulos; Lynn Fuchs
- Translator
- J-PAL North America (evidence review(opens in a new tab))
Also called: high-dosage tutoring, intervention, small-group instruction, MTSS
Grades and subjects
Sources
- NBER 2020 version (opens in a new tab)
nber.org
- Nickow, Oreopoulos & Quan 2024 (opens in a new tab)
nssa.stanford.edu
- Kraft et al. 2024 (Nashville) (opens in a new tab)
edworkingpapers.com
- J-PAL evidence review: The transformative potential of tutoring (opens in a new tab)
povertyactionlab.org