How To Choose Effective Summer Tutoring Programs For Your Students
Summer tutoring programs are helpful for students who may experience learning loss, also known as the “summer slide,” over the extended summer break. Summer tutoring programs help improve academic skills and provide students with a boost of confidence to better prepare them for the upcoming school year.
This article explores the benefits of summer tutoring programs and details what to look for when choosing a summer tutoring program for your students.
What are summer tutoring programs?
Summer tutoring programs are part of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). They offer individualized learning and instruction to ensure that students retain the knowledge and skills acquired during the year. Summer tutoring services target students’ areas of weakness and provide additional practice during the summer months.
Summer tutoring sessions ensure students retain their learning from the previous school year and prepare them for the upcoming school year.
Benefits of Summer Tutoring Programs
Despite taking up some of students’ summer break, summer tutoring presents many benefits for students in the upcoming school year. Students already receiving Response to Intervention, Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 intervention will likely benefit the most.
Here are four benefits of implementing a summer tutoring program for struggling students.
1. Prevents learning loss
Each year, students learn brand new content that builds upon the content learned in the previous school year. But learners can experience the summer slide and forget some of the knowledge and skills learned during the summer break.
While students in middle school and high school can experience the summer slide, elementary school students are more prone to it.
On average, students lose 17–34% of the previous school year’s learning gains over the summer months.
Summer tutoring programs reduce the summer slide and help students catch up and maintain a strong foundation of the previous year’s material. Well-designed programs also help prepare students build upon their learning during the next year.
2. Improves academic skills
Summer tutoring programs prevent summer learning loss and help students gain skills and confidence and secure concepts that are areas of weakness.
Students who may not achieve proficiency on state assessments during the school year can receive extra help and practice, through high impact tutoring, with the concepts they struggle with most before the upcoming academic year. This helps to:
- Secure understanding
- Build confidence
- Catch up on the previous year’s curriculum
An independent study found that one 45-minute session per week with Third Space Learning helped students achieve 7 months of math growth in 14 weeks.
3. Enhances confidence and motivation
Students who struggle in some areas during the school year can be apprehensive about moving to the next grade. They are introduced to a new and possibly more challenging curriculum which can be intimidating.
Maintaining regular academic practice during the summer break helps these students feel more secure in their knowledge and skills. In turn, this makes them feel more confident overall.
As students’ confidence grows, their motivation to continue practicing also grows.
4. Helps prepare students for standardized testing
Many students use the summer months to prepare for standardized testing in the upcoming school year. Summer tutoring programs focus on the skills needed to perform well to reinforce study skills and provide test prep.
Meet Skye, the voice-based AI tutor making math success possible for every student.
Built by teachers and math experts, Skye uses the same pedagogy, curriculum and lesson structure as our traditional tutoring.
But, with more flexibility and a low cost, schools can scale online math tutoring to support every student who needs it.
Find out moreHow to implement effective summer tutoring programs
Not all summer tutoring programs are equal. Choose the summer program that is best suited to your student’s needs.
To have the highest impact on student learning, the summer tutoring program must:
1. Include standards-aligned programs
The summer program you choose should be a pre-designed, well-thought-out, planned program.
Some programs offer tutors who “make it up” as they go and plan their tutoring sessions from week to week, often just before the session.
An unclear path of progression can lead to confusion for the student, missing out on areas of weakness and a lack of progress.
Additionally, ensure the tutoring program is aligned with your state’s standards with a clear path of progression so tutors can accurately address student learning gaps.
Current and former math teachers design Third Space Learning’s summer tutoring programs with a clear curriculum and best practices in mind.
Course creators have years’ of experience planning a cohesive math curriculum for different states. They ensure lessons are aligned to specific state standards and Common Core, and cover the broad range of standards.
2. Recruit qualified tutors
Summer tutoring sessions require learners to take time out of their well-earned summer break to attend educational classes. Ensure tutors are highly-qualified so learners get the most out of their tutoring sessions.
Skye, the AI math tutor, has been developed by former teachers and pedagogy experts and is trained using the data, insights and expertise we’ve gained from the last decade of providing online math tutoring to schools and districts.
Skye functions by talking learners through math problems; speaking, listening and giving explanations and tailored guidance to help them solve them at their own pace. Like a traditional tutor, Skye has been trained to use tools like modeling, scaffolding, and real-life contexts to help learners understand and solve problems, excel and have fun.
3. Provide one-on-one tutoring
Tutoring programs typically offer small-group tutoring or one-on-one. While both types of programs have benefits, research has shown that one-on-one tutoring has a much larger impact on student growth, learning, and understanding.
| Advantages | Disadvantages | |
| One-on-One Tutoring | • Personalized to each student’s areas of need • Focuses on each students learning style • Tutors adapt to students pace and pitch • Can provide real-time, personalized feedback • Accelerates growth more quickly • Builds tutor/student rapport • Improves student confidence | • Can be costly • Can limit the number of students receiving tutoring |
| Small Group Tutoring | • Usually a lower cost • Peer collaboration • More students receive tutoring • Students may feel more comfortable in a group setting | • Less impact on student learning and growth • Less attention on individual students’ needs • Tutor may struggle to manage different learning styles and pace • Harder for students to maintain attention and focus |
The personalized nature of a one-on-one summer tutoring program allows tutors to target each student’s needs. Tutoring session follow student’s learning style and pace, which has a greater impact on the student’s learning.
While one-on one tutoring can be costly, Third Space Learning’s tutoring program is the most affordable of its kind. Schools can save anywhere between 69% and 97% compared compared to other high dosage tutoring programs, depending on the size of the school, the frequency of sessions and the length of the program.
With Skye, you can support as many learners as need it, with as many sessions as they need. Tutoring is unlimited for one fixed low cost per school. This means that if you ever need to add more spaces or run additional school or homework sessions, you can do this without having to find more space in your budget.
Annual licenses depend on school size and start from just $5,000 per school.
4. Progress monitoring for schools
When students receive tutoring from an external provider, class teachers receive little feedback or communication from the tutor. Consider a tutoring program that allows classroom teachers progress monitoring opportunities for each student’s tutoring sessions. This allows the teacher to keep tabs on students’ improvements and remaining areas of weakness. It also allows the teacher to understand the impact of the tutoring sessions on the student.
After each one-on-one math tutoring session, schools receive reports for every student. This is helpful with summer tutoring programs as teachers can see the progress students made over the summer break and the concepts learned.
Regular session reports provide immediate feedback on what each student did well and what they may have struggled with.
Tutors should also monitor students’ progress across the program. One-on-one tutoring allows tutors to use assessment for learning to adapt the lesson pace and pitch in real-time to meet the student’s needs.
Skye has been trained to use continuous formative assessment to assess student understanding in real-time. Skye then adapts the pitch, pace, teaching technique and content as needed to best target the individual student’s needs.
How Third Space Learning’s summer tutoring programs can benefit your students
Identify student needs and goals
Each Third Space Learning lesson is aligned to a Common Core State Standard or a specific state’s learning standards to meet the academic needs of each student.
When enrolling students in the tutoring program, school leaders can select the math concepts students struggle with most, or choose a program with a pre-selected set of lessons.
Skye can focus on concepts students struggled with during state testing in the previous academic year, serving as test prep for the upcoming school year.
Every session involves ongoing assessment. In addition, each session begins with a pre-assessment question and ends with a post-assessment question to track student understanding and ensure mastery of the content.
Personalized learning plans
Learning plans are personalized for each student enrolled in Third Space Learning’s tutoring program.
Progress monitoring and reports help identify any outstanding learning gaps the student still has and guide the learning plan for the next session.
Skye assesses student’s prior learning at the beginning of each session and the learning goal of the current lesson to ensure a strong foundational understanding of grade-level content.
Lessons finish with an enrichment activity to extend learners’ skills and understanding further.
One-on-one low-stakes math tutoring
Students participating in the summer tutoring program work with Skye every session. The one to one nature means purposeful talk for maths is at the core. As a voice-based AI tutor, Skye prompts students to explore their understanding in a nurturing low stakes environment through modelling, waiting, rephrasing, scaffolding and encouraging verbal reasoning. It’s one of the things the schools we work with love about our programme.
Fun technology in summer tutoring
Tutoring sessions take place online in an interactive classroom complete with interactive tools to ensure students actively participate in sessions. The interactive tools require students to draw, type, and talk directly to Skye.
An online math intervention makes learning more fun for students, especially over the summer break, while also allowing Skye to assess students understanding using a variety of assessment methods.
Read more:
- Math intervention strategies to boost learning
- 5 math intervention myths
- 7 Benefits of One-on-One Tutoring Every School Leader Should Know
- 5 Benefits of Online Tutoring
- High-Dosage Tutoring
- Traditional vs AI Tutoring
Third Space Learning’s targeted summer tutoring programs
Third Space Learning offers flexible summer tutoring programs for elementary and middle school students in 2nd to 8th grade. Programs are tailored to meet the needs of each student and address learning gaps.
Research shows the higher the frequency of the tutoring sessions, the higher the impact on student learning and progress; however, schools are often limited by their budget. However with Third Space Learning, there are no per-session fees. Programs and session dosage are flexible depending on how much students need to catch up over the summer break and you’re free to support as many students as need it with unlimited AI tutoring sessions for one fixed low annual price.
Find out more about:
Conclusion
Research shows summer tutoring programs are highly effective at reversing or preventing the “summer slide.” High-quality summer tutoring prevents knowledge loss and helps students retain skills gained during the previous school year.
Summer tutoring programs also prepare students for the upcoming school year and even state assessments.
When looking for a summer tutoring program, remember to:
- Identify personalization
- Check for tutor qualifications and training process
- Look for assessment and progress reporting
- Make it fun for students
- Assess student comfort and satisfaction
FAQs
Summer tutoring is an excellent tutoring strategy to address summer learning loss and any knowledge gaps or areas of weakness from the previous school year. Enrolling students in summer tutoring helps address their educational needs and prepares them for the next school year. Tutoring can take place in-person or online, depending on the needs of the student.
Tutors help students beat the summer slide during the summer break and retain knowledge from the previous school year. They fill any learning gaps and ensure students feel prepared for the coming year.
Many factors contribute to the high cost of tutoring such as the cost of living and demand for private tutors. Third Space Learning believe that tutoring should be accessible to all students. That’s why sessions take place online rather than in-person. Summer math tutoring starts from as little as under $17 per student per session.
Do you have students who need extra support in math?
Skye—our AI math tutor built by experienced teachers—provides students with personalized one-on-one, spoken instruction that helps them master concepts, close skill gaps, and gain confidence.
Since 2013, we’ve delivered over 2 million hours of math lessons to more than 170,000 students, guiding them toward higher math achievement.
Discover how our AI math tutoring can boost student success, or see how our math programs can support your school’s goals:
– 3rd grade tutoring
– 4th grade tutoring
– 5th grade tutoring
– 6th grade tutoring
– 7th grade tutoring
– 8th grade tutoring
