Study: Tutoring + Tech Can Accelerate Learning
Frequent, in-person tutoring sessions combined with the strategic use of technology can reduce costs and help overcome pandemic-related learning loss, according to new research co-authored by Northwestern University’s Jonathan Guryan.
The working paper, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, explored whether replacing a few days of in-person tutoring time with computer-assisted learning software would compromise effectiveness.
The researchers found that when students used the technology, they could reduce costs by one-third and halve the number of tutors needed with no impact on student gains.
“Cost is one of the most significant challenges to scaling up the proven benefits of high-dosage tutoring,” said Guryan, the Lawyer Taylor Professor at the School of Education and Social Policy and co-director of the Urban Education Lab at the University of Chicago, where the study was based. “But we found that strategic use of technology is a promising intervention.”
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The study builds on previous research by Guryan and his team suggesting that frequent, structured, in-school tutoring sessions— delivered three or more days per week‑ can double or triple what students learn in a year.
But school districts face two big obstacles: cost and staffing.
In the current study, “Can Technology Facilitate Scale?” Guryran and his coauthors evaluated a lower-cost tutoring model developed by Saga Education, called “Saga Technology.”
The randomized controlled trial included 4,000 students in Chicago Public Schools and New York City Public Schools, from 2018 through 2020.
Instead of daily 2:1 tutoring, students worked with instructors in groups of four, with two students working with an in-person tutor, while the others worked with computer assisted learning software, alternating every other day.
When students rotated between a tutor and the ed tech platform, schools were able to reduce the costs of tutoring programs by one-third without any drop-off in effectiveness from the previous study.
They experienced the equivalent of an extra one to two years of math learning, a result comparable to Saga’s traditional tutoring program.
“Very rarely do you see such a large reduction in cost and no loss in program effectiveness,” said Monica Bhatt, senior research director at the University of Chicago Education Lab. “These findings provide us a pathway to scale and a potential recipe for districts to follow for implementing high-quality differentiated instruction.”
In addition to Guryan and Bhatt, study co-authors include Salmon Khan and Bhavya Mishra of the University of Chicago and Michael LaForest-Tucker of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The study received substantial support from the AbbVie Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Overdeck Family Foundation, and Griffin Catalyst.