Building the Workforce for Tutoring: Emerging Options & Strategies

We know that tutoring — when it’s consistent, personalized, and aligned to what students are learning in the classroom — is one of the most effective ways to accelerate learning. And while the past few years have seen unprecedented investments in tutoring, particularly through ESSER funds, the momentum we built is at risk unless we solve some of the field’s most pressing challenges like building the scalable, sustainable pipeline of well-prepared tutors. This isn’t just a workforce issue, it’s a student success issue.

– Pete Lavorini, Overdeck Family Foundation

In this July 29, 2025 GLR Week session, Pete Lavorini of Overdeck Family Foundation shared the above statement as he moderated a lively and optimistic conversation with a panel of researchers, nonprofit leaders, and policy experts. Panelists underscored the potential of high-impact tutoring and highlighted several emerging tutor workforce pipelines that can enable the affordable scaling of this proven strategy.

Lavorini began by engaging three renowned tutoring researchers and advocates — Monica P. Bhatt, Ph.D., of University of Chicago’s Education Lab; Kevin Huffman of Accelerate; and Susanna Loeb, Ph.D., of the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) at Stanford University — in a discussion of the current landscape of high-impact tutoring and what is needed to ensure it can grow in the years ahead. Loeb reminded attendees what high-impact tutoring entails — relationship-based, data-driven, personalized instruction delivered to a small group of tutees by a consistent tutor at least three times a week over the course of at least a school term, preferably a full year.

“Running a tutoring program is not easy…but it is doable and if it’s run with these key elements, students can learn more than they possibly would otherwise. So, to sum it up, it’s relationship-based, intensive, individualized, and we can do it in schools.”

 – Susanna Loeb, Ph.D., National Student Support Accelerator

Bhatt shared insights from The Education Lab’s Personalized Learning Initiative (PLI), which has been tracking the results of 25 different tutoring program models being implemented in eight different jurisdictions across the country, including charter networks, large urban districts, districts in smaller cities, and the entire state of New Mexico. She stressed that more minutes of tutoring correlate with greater learning gains and encouraged programs to factor in transition times such as getting from the classroom to the tutor when scheduling tutoring to ensure students receive the sufficient dosage. PLI is tracking the effectiveness of lower-cost models — at a cost of about $1,200 per student — and finding that, while there is variability, the lower-cost models can be just as effective as the higher-cost models — at about $2,000 per student.

“That should lend enormous optimism in that we can reduce costs, oftentimes with the use of technology, and also preserve the effectiveness of this intervention when that technology is strategically deployed.” 

– Monica P. Bhatt, Ph.D., The Education Lab at University of Chicago

Huffman noted that tutoring is enormously popular and that it polls well in red, blue, and purple states, with jurisdictions such as Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C., investing dollars in it this year, despite incredibly tight budgets. Those investments reflect the growing body of research and data showing that investments in tutoring result in better student outcomes. Huffman noted that the five states making the most progress in reading and math recovery on the Education Recovery Scorecard had included high-dosage tutoring as a central part of their strategies.

“We have to have accountability for outcomes and data that shows where we actually are. Tutoring is an evidence-based solution and evidence-based solutions come into demand when we actually know where kids are and when there is pressure on the system to actually deliver results.” 

– Kevin Huffman, Accelerate

Lavorini then engaged three nonprofit leaders — Katherine Bassett of New Jersey Tutoring Corps (NJTC); Kate Cochran of Partnership for Student Success (PSS); and Patrick Steck of Deans for Impact (DFI) — in an exploration of several emerging tutor workforce pipelines that can be tapped to support the affordable scaling of high-impact tutoring. Launched during the pandemic, NJTC has engaged more than 400 tutors to deliver high-impact tutoring to scholars through in-school, afterschool, and summer programs, delivering measurable gains for the scholars while also helping pre-service educators get early exposure to and experience in the classroom. Like NJTC, PSS emerged during the pandemic as a national coalition of schools, districts, nonprofit organizations, and higher education institutions. PSS has helped to recruit and engage 320,000 additional adults into one of five evidence-based student support roles — tutor, mentor, postsecondary advisor, success coach, or wraparound support provider. Deans for Impact has been working with teacher prep programs, teacher educators, policymakers, and advocates for a decade to ensure that every teacher is confident and ready to deliver high-quality instruction to students.

Pre-Service Teachers as a Potential Tutor Workforce Pipeline — More than 600,000 individuals are currently enrolled in teacher preparation programs across the country and can be engaged as tutors to simultaneously accelerate K‒12 learning and provide future teachers more opportunities for practical experience. DFI’s Aspiring Teachers as Tutors Network currently includes 28 tutoring initiatives across 15 states in an effort to engage preservice teachers as tutors. In a recent survey of 180 teacher preparation leaders, 32% reported that they were actively mobilizing their teacher candidates as high-impact tutors. NJTC provides an example of this kind of pipeline. Bassett explained how her team works to build bridges between teacher preparation programs and districts and provides infrastructure and resources to pre-service teachers as they deliver tutoring support to students.

Federal Work-Study Programs — Institutions of higher education are required to allocate at least 7% of Federal Work-Study dollars to compensate students engaged in community service activities. The previous administration encouraged institutions to increase that to 15%. PSS provides technical assistance and guidance to institutions to help them take advantage of what Cochran called a “win-win” where school districts can boost their staffing support for students for no/low cost and higher-ed partners are able to strengthen relationships with community partners and provide students with career-building opportunities. Steck shared that StepUp Tutoring has pioneered efforts to mobilize work-study students as tutors in California and has recently expanded that work across 14 different states.

Apprenticeship — Registered apprenticeship programs provide structured on-the-job training with related technical instruction to develop skilled workers in a range of fields. Tutoring was recently added to that list by the U.S. Department of Labor. PSS, NJTC, NSSA, and others have drafted a set of National Guidelines Standards for tutor apprenticeship programs. NJTC recently received state funding to support the launch of the nation’s first official tutor apprenticeship program and has built a pathway that allows school districts in the state to access wage reimbursement discounts to overcome the cost of tutoring.

In addition to these workforce pipelines, Cochran noted that high school students and older adults could be a source of tutoring support for students.

“We always encourage districts, organizations, and providers to think about the existing assets in their community….Think about your population and who might be motivated and well-suited to serve in these roles. Is it older adults and retirees? Is it corporate volunteers if they are able to commit to the needed number of hours to make this high impact? Is it high school students if well-supported to provide peer tutoring? Really think about the existing assets in your community.”  

– Kate Cochran, Partnership for Student Success

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