Does tutoring help students catch up?

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1. 1

   Peer Tutoring and Academic Achievement in Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis

   Eurasia Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education (Alegre et al.)Published Nov 6, 2017Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “A meta-analysis of findings from 50 independent studies of peer tutoring programs in Mathematics at multiple educational stages showed that 88% of these programs have positive effects on the academic performance of the participants (Hedge’s g = 0.333). Some of the variables to be taken into account when developing a peer tutoring experience were analyzed. Results showed that variables such as the ages of the participants, roles, skills of the tutees (disabled or at academic risk vs non-disabled and not at academic risk), length of the sessions and frequency were not significant moderators of the academic achievement. Variables such as educational stage, design of the study, duration of the program, level of knowledge of the tutors, time of the day (school time vs out of school time) and sample size turned out to be significant moderators. Results are discussed and proposals for future research are suggested.”

2. 2

   A Meta‐Analysis on the Effects of Peer Tutoring on Emergent Bilinguals’ Academic Achievement

   Psychology in the Schools (Romero et al.)Published Feb 19, 2025Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “Fourteen studies, including peer‐reviewed journal articles and unpublished dissertations published between 2010 and 2021, were analyzed based on study characteristics, student variables, and intervention characteristics. The findings indicate that peer tutoring yielded a moderate effect size (g = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.22–0.94) on EBs’ academic outcomes. The majority of studies focused on elementary‐aged students, with significantly fewer studies addressing preschool or secondary‐level EBs. Nearly all studies involved Spanish‐speaking students (n = 14), and most targeted reading outcomes demonstrated a moderate effect size (g = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.24–1.00). Only a limited number of effects came from studies involving EBs with disabilities. These findings underscore the potential of peer tutoring to support reading development among EBs while highlighting critical research gaps, particularly at the secondary level and in core content areas such as mathematics. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.”

3. 3

   An updated meta-analysis on the effect of peer tutoring on tutors’ achievement

   School Psychology International (Leung)Published Oct 30, 2018Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “Some previous analyses are dated and have methodological or theoretical limitations. Hence, there is a compelling need to fill this gap by conducting an updated and comprehensive meta-analysis for identifying certain determinants of best practices for peer tutoring on tutors’ academic achievement in the present study. Additionally, role theory and equity theory in peer tutoring were tested. The present meta-analytic study examined 16 articles using The comprehensive meta-analysis software programme and SPSS macro for analyses. It was found that the weighted mean effect size was 0.43 ( p < 0.001). Moreover, the crucial parameters for optimizing the effectiveness of peer tutoring interventions are identified as follows: Tutees with low academic ability; tutors coming from secondary school; fewer tutor training sessions per week; shorter tutor training time per session; choosing mathematics as subject content; random assignment of tutees and tutors; structured peer tutoring; same-age non-reciprocal peer tutoring; same-sex dyad grouping; and more weekly tutoring sessions but longer tutoring time for each session.”

4. 4

   Academic Interventions for Elementary and Middle School Students With Low Socioeconomic Status: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

   Review of Educational Research (Dietrichson et al.)Published Jan 24, 2017Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “Socioeconomic status is a major predictor of educational achievement. This systematic review and meta-analysis seeks to identify effective academic interventions for elementary and middle school students with low socioeconomic status. Included studies have used a treatment-control group design, were performed in OECD and EU countries, and measured achievement by standardized tests in mathematics or reading. The analysis included 101 studies performed during 2000 to 2014, 76% of which were randomized controlled trials. The effect sizes (ES) of many interventions indicate that it is possible to substantially improve educational achievement for the target group. Intervention components such as tutoring (ES = 0.36), feedback and progress monitoring (ES = 0.32), and cooperative learning (ES = 0.22) have average ES that are educationally important, statistically significant, and robust. There is also substantial variation in effect sizes, within and between components, which cannot be fully explained by observable study characteristics.”

5. 5

   Feasibility and Effectiveness of an Adolescent Glass-Analysis Reading Intervention Delivered Online by Lay Tutors.

   Dyslexia (Chichester, England) (Durisko et al.)Published Aug 1, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “These concerns motivate the present pilot study, which adapts the Glass-Analysis programme, a theoretically distinctive analytic phonics intervention, for online delivery by lay tutors. Fifth- and sixth-grade students (N = 34) with poor reading skills were alternately assigned to an intervention or waitlist control group. Intervention participants completed individualised sessions over 11-19 weeks. The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (WRMT-III) and Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE-2) were used to measure changes in reading skills. Tutors reached high fidelity at the end of training; technological barriers were minimal, and tutor and participant retention was high. Moderate effect size differences between the intervention and waitlist control group were observed for measures of decoding and rapid automatised naming, but the study was designed with low statistical power and none of the observed group differences were significant. We conclude the Glass-Analysis programme holds promise as a scalable and accessible reading intervention for adolescent struggling readers and that future work to more definitively test its effectiveness is warranted.”

6. 6

   National Tutoring Programme (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaPublished Sep 29, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “The National Tutoring Programme was a UK Government scheme announced in June 2020 and launched in November that year forming part of a £1.7 billion catch-up fund to try to address learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. It outsourced the tutoring of school children to 33 organisations, most of them private companies. The scheme attracted criticism over cost, claimed inefficiency, and over the use of children as tutors.”

7. 7

   Mobile education builds resilience during shocks in five countries.

   Nature (Angrist et al.)Published Sep 9, 2026Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “During these emergencies, alternative models are needed to deliver education. However, rigorous evaluation of effective educational approaches in these settings is challenging and rare, especially across multiple countries. Here we present results from five randomized trials in India, Kenya, Nepal, the Philippines and Uganda to evaluate the provision of education in emergency settings. We test multiple scalable models of remote targeted tutoring instruction, comparing delivery by governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Whereas text messages have mixed results, tutorials conducted via phone call show effectiveness across diverse settings. We find large and robust effect sizes on learning. These effects are highly cost-effective, and deliver approximately 4 years of high-quality instruction per US$100 spent. Results show large effects when delivered by government teachers or NGO instructors. Together, our results reveal that it is possible to strengthen the resilience of education systems, enabling education provision amid disruptions, and to deliver cost-effective learning gains across contexts and with governments.”

8. 8

   High-Impact Tutoring to Accelerate Learning for Intermediate Students: A Pilot Study

   Education Sciences (Brodeur et al.)Published Jul 9, 2025Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “High-impact tutoring is a promising way to address reading and mathematics achievement declines following years of pandemic-interrupted schooling. This pilot study seeks to determine the impact of small-group tutoring, provided by preservice teachers, on students in grades 2–5. Using beginning-, middle-, and end-of year benchmark assessments, descriptive statistics were calculated for tutored and non-tutored groups and compared against the norming sample. The results indicate that students receiving mathematics tutoring (fourth and fifth grades) and third-grade students receiving reading tutoring demonstrated growth at rates that exceeded their non-tutored peers. Second-grade students who received reading tutoring improved at a greater rate than the norming sample but less than their non-tutored peers. The results of this pilot study indicate the potential impact of tutoring by preservice teachers on reading and mathematics outcomes for intermediate students.”

9. 9

   The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta-Analysis

   Review of Educational Research (Ritter et al.)Published Mar 1, 2009Checked Oct 3, 2026

   “This meta-analysis assesses the effectiveness of volunteer tutoring programs for improving the academic skills of students enrolled in public schools Grades K–8 in the United States and further investigates for whom and under what conditions tutoring can be effective. The authors found 21 studies (with 28 different study cohorts in those studies) reporting on randomized field trials to guide them in assessing the effectiveness of volunteer tutoring programs. Overall, the authors found volunteer tutoring has a positive effect on student achievement. With respect to particular subskills, students who work with volunteer tutors are likely to earn higher scores on assessments related to letters and words, oral fluency, and writing as compared to their peers who are not tutored.”