What is High-Impact Tutoring?

High-impact tutoring is an in-class, tutor-led, small group tutoring model. It helps students learn more deeply, improve their grades, pass their classes, and even increase their chances of graduating high school. It improves students’ educational outcomes by giving them the tools, strategies, and individual attention they need to be successful.

How High-Impact Tutoring Works:

• High-impact tutoring is a regularly scheduled supplement to core classroom instruction during the school day.
• Tutoring happens in small groups, with one tutor for every three students.
• High-impact tutoring is scheduled three times per week for at least 30-50 minutes each session.
• Tutors follow the same small group of students throughout the school year to build trust and consistent relationships.
• The tutors receive ongoing feedback and participate in professional development.
• Tutors use a high-quality curriculum aligned with academic standards, practices, and assessments to monitor student progress.

Rigorous studies show that high-impact tutoring bridges the gap between where students are and where they need to be to succeed academically. Because of this, high-impact tutoring is beneficial for all students, whether they are in a well-funded and high-performing school district or a historically underserved school district with fewer resources.

Addressing Learning Loss in Underserved Schools

Students fall behind in school for many reasons, and if they do not pass Algebra I, they struggle to move forward academically. These learners also have a significantly lower chance of graduating high school.

Learning loss from COVID-19 has impacted students across the U.S., and students in underserved districts are at a more significant disadvantage. Due to poorly funded schools, students in these districts may have larger class sizes, fewer resources, and less time to make up their work. In addition, outside circumstances may impact attendance and availability of academic support in the home.

How High-Impact Tutoring Works to Address Learning Loss

Using high-impact tutoring to help students learn math skills, increase literacy, and build strong study habits can result in significant, measurable improvements for all learners, particularly for disadvantaged students. In fact, high-impact tutoring results in improved educational outcomes in all classes, decreased absences, and higher graduation rates.

Saga Education’s High-Impact Tutoring Model

At Saga Education, we use objective and rigorous standards, like large-scale randomized control trials, to evaluate our program. Reputable resources have validated our methods and model. We follow the small-group model outlined above with proven success. 

How Much Does High-Impact Tutoring Help Students? The Evidence-Based Results:

The University of Chicago Urban Labs tested Saga’s impact via large-scale randomized controlled trials. They found that:

• Students learn up to 2.5 years of math in one academic year, and math course failures are reduced by up to 63%.
• Course failures in non-tutored subjects are reduced by up to 26%.
• Student attendance increased by as much as 18 days per year.

These unparalleled results show that high-impact tutoring is a clear solution for improving educational equity and helping students succeed.

How to Implement High-Impact Tutoring in Your School

High-impact tutoring is a proven solution for learning loss and addressing educational gaps in underserved schools. Students and school districts alike benefit from implementing high-impact tutoring in the classroom.