What the research supports
Nickow, Oreopoulos and Quan’s 2024 review of randomized tutoring studies, from pre-K through grade 12, found an average effect of about 0.29 standard deviations. That’s a research measure used to compare gains across different tests. It is an average across studied programs, not a promise of a particular gain for your child.
The 2021 EdResearch for Recovery brief by Robinson and Loeb describes high-dosage tutoring as frequent, small-group support with a consistent tutor. Common design features include at least three sessions a week, groups of one to four students and sessions during the school day.
The review found differences across programs and tutor types. It doesn’t establish that every program with those features produces the same result, or that one missed feature makes tutoring useless. Ask how the actual program runs and how staff check progress.
What to ask your school
- “How often will my child attend, and for how long?” Ask for the weekly schedule and how many weeks the support lasts.
- “How many children are in the group?” Ask whether they are working on the same skill your child needs.
- “Who is the tutor, and will that person stay with the group?” Ask about training and how the tutor communicates with the classroom teacher.
- “When does it happen?” Check what your child would miss during the day, or whether transport and care make an after-school option possible.
- “What will they work on, and how will we check progress?” Ask for the skill being taught and when you will hear whether the help is working.
A clear answer might sound like this: “A group of three meets with the same adult for 30 minutes, three mornings a week. They are working on the math skill your child is struggling with.” That’s an example of useful detail, not a guarantee of results.
Ask whether the support appears in the school’s School Plan for Student Achievement, a public plan often called the SPSA, and how it is funded. If staff mention MTSS, they mean a system for organizing different levels of student support. You can simply ask who coordinates extra help for your child.
If the school can’t offer it
Ask what is available now, whether there is a waiting list, and when the school can revisit the request. A school may have another support option even if it doesn’t offer a formal high-dosage program.
You can also ask about:
- Library help. Check your branch’s schedule, tutor availability and whether sessions can focus on a specific skill.
- Community or peer tutoring. Ask the school counselor about current local programs and who supervises them.
- Small-group private tutoring. Ask about total cost, tutor consistency and how the work connects to your child’s needs.
- Practice at home. Ask the teacher for a manageable task and instructions for helping without taking over.
For home practice, a short regular session with a consistent adult may be easier to sustain than an occasional long one. You might discuss a routine of 20–30 minutes, three times a week, with the teacher. That is a suggested schedule, not a research-tested replacement for trained tutoring. Adjust it to your child’s age, attention and needs.
If you don’t have time to provide that routine yourself, say so. Ask the school which options fit your family’s schedule. Getting help shouldn’t depend on a parent becoming a tutor.
Before paying for a service
Use the same questions for an app, an online tutor or an in-person program. Find out whether your child gets the same tutor, what that person knows about the skill gap, and how progress is reported.
Price alone doesn’t answer those questions. Neither does the phrase “personalized learning.” Request a clear explanation of what happens in a session and what happens if your child isn’t improving.
Research on school-based tutoring doesn’t automatically apply to an on-demand service that changes tutors each time. We don’t have enough evidence here to promise that a particular platform will reproduce the review’s average result.
Leave with a plan you can check
Write down the skill, the schedule, the adult responsible and a follow-up date. At that check-in, ask to see work showing what your child can now do independently. If the plan isn’t helping, ask what will change.
If you’re still unsure whether your child needs extra help, start with their report card and state test result, read alongside recent classroom work. If you’re worried about the school’s overall score, this guide explains its limits.
Sources: Nickow, Oreopoulos & Quan, “The Promise of Tutoring for PreK-12 Learning,” American Educational Research Journal, 2024 (originally NBER Working Paper 27476, 2020); Robinson & Loeb, “Accelerating Student Learning with High-Dosage Tutoring,” EdResearch for Recovery, 2021.
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