For several years, federal pandemic relief funds helped school districts across the United States expand high-impact, or high-dosage, tutoring programs that proved instrumental in improving student learning and mitigating pandemic-related learning loss. Now that the primary source of that federal funding has expired, education leaders nationwide are scrambling to keep those successful programs afloat, navigating difficult financial realities while trying to protect student academic gains.<\/p>\n
Between March 2020 and March 2021, Congress allocated nearly $190.5 billion to public education through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund. This represented the largest one-time federal investment in K-12 education in United States history, giving districts the financial breathing room to launch targeted academic interventions. That vital funding ended in phases between 2022 and 2024, although some school systems received targeted extensions to manage their remaining balances. <\/p>\n
In response to the expiration of ESSER, school districts have taken varied paths. Some education systems have been forced to pause or significantly scale back their tutoring operations due to cost pressures, while others are working aggressively to save these programs by weaving them directly into their core academic systems and standard operating budgets. A 2026 analysis of 35 districts conducted by the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) revealed that eight districts had significantly reduced their tutoring initiatives, while another eight had experienced a temporary pause or operational disruption after ESSER funds dried up. However, 19 districts\u2014representing more than half of the sample studied\u2014successfully preserved or even expanded their tutoring programs despite the fiscal cliff.<\/p>\n
Extensive educational research shows that high-impact tutoring, frequently called high-dosage tutoring, has stood out as the most powerful intervention deployed to make up for pandemic learning loss. Best practices dictate that high-impact tutoring typically occurs at least three times a week, providing highly targeted instruction that coordinates directly with regular classroom work. According to the NSSA, programs featuring frequent sessions over a minimum of 10 weeks\u2014delivered either individually or in small groups alongside data-driven instruction\u2014can generate an astonishing three to 15 months of additional learning for participating students.<\/p>\n
Despite these proven academic benefits, implementing such intensive support does not come cheap. Research from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University estimates that high-impact tutoring costs between $1,200 and $2,500 per student annually. Without the cushion of ESSER funds, meeting this financial threshold has become a daunting hurdle for many local education agencies.<\/p>\n
For schools that have deeply invested in these programs and are eager to retain their long-term benefits, the primary challenge moving forward is transforming tutoring from a temporary pandemic fix into a standard, permanent fixture of the school day. Devon Wible, vice president of teaching and learning at Catapult Learning, a provider of supplemental educational services, notes that districts across multiple states are increasingly viewing tutoring not as an optional add-on, but as a foundational layer of daily academic support.<\/p>\n
"A few years ago, when ESSER funds were here, the conversation was, ‘Let’s see if it works,’" Wible observes. "Now it’s, ‘How do we sustain this?’"<\/p>\n
One of the primary ways districts are trying to secure the longevity of tutoring is by integrating it directly into the regular school day and leveraging existing academic-support systems. While this structural shift does not completely eliminate the financial cost of running a tutoring program, it proves considerably less expensive than establishing a separate, standalone extracurricular program outside of school hours.<\/p>\n
Wible explains that various districts have creatively added dedicated intervention periods, commonly referred to as "WIN" (What I Need) blocks, directly into their daily bell schedules. This modification carves out protected time for students to receive extra academic support without pulling them away from core classroom instruction. Furthermore, this integrated model encourages much tighter professional collaboration among regular classroom teachers, specialized tutors, and intervention staff, who can regularly share up-to-date student data and pull toward common academic milestones.<\/p>\n
The tutoring itself is deliberately designed to align with what is happening in the standard classroom. A student struggling with grade-level reading, for instance, might receive targeted coaching on foundational phonics and decoding skills during the intervention block while continuing to engage with rich, grade-level literature alongside their peers during regular reading instruction. Schools utilize ongoing student assessment data to identify specific learning gaps, continuously adjust instructional approaches, and determine precisely when a student has mastered a skill and is ready to exit the program.<\/p>\n
"Ultimately, our shared goal is that students experience classroom instruction, intervention, and tutoring as one coherent learning experience," Wible says.<\/p>\n
Wible has observed the tangible impact of this integrated philosophy firsthand. A Catapult Learning analysis tracking roughly 700 students spanning kindergarten through third grade across 12 Massachusetts school districts found that children achieved substantial literacy gains after receiving high-impact tutoring, with some making up to five additional months of reading progress over their baseline projections.<\/p>\n
In one specific Massachusetts district, the results proved exceptionally striking. After just 12 weeks of structured tutoring, the proportion of kindergarten and first-grade students performing at or comfortably above grade level jumped dramatically from 11% to 55%, according to Wible’s data.<\/p>\n
While finding alternative revenue streams remains a top priority, David Blazar, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Maryland, suggests that an equally pressing concern is what happens to program quality when schools cannot secure new funding and are forced to cut spending on tutoring.<\/p>\n
Blazar recently co-authored a University of Maryland study investigating tutoring programs across all 24 of Maryland’s school districts, analyzing how local educational systems design, implement, and scale their academic interventions. The analysis revealed that 18 districts offered tutoring featuring several key attributes associated with stronger implementation, such as small-group formats, frequent weekly sessions, and delivery during regular school hours. <\/p>\n
Although the research concentrates specifically on Maryland, it provides valuable insight into the broader strategic dilemmas facing districts nationwide as they attempt to sustain tutoring after pandemic relief resources expire. Blazar anticipates that as financial pressures mount, cash-strapped districts may be tempted to increase group sizes, reduce the frequency of weekly sessions, or contract with lower-cost, less rigorous providers rather than completely eliminating tutoring from their budgets.<\/p>\n
"The more likely change is quieter and, in some ways, more consequential: erosion of the design features that make tutoring work," Blazar warns. "When you have to find savings, dosage\u2014and other components of quality, including how many students work with the same tutor simultaneously\u2014are very likely to change."<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Blazar’s analysis of implementation plans under the Blueprint for Maryland\u2019s Future from 2024 to 2027 discovered that Maryland districts proactively planned to restructure their academic schedules to preserve tutoring. Because tutoring functions as a core mandate of the state’s landmark education reform policy, he expects local Maryland districts to maintain a firm institutional commitment to the strategy.<\/p>\n
"I think they will continue because it is a core part of the Blueprint, and there is growing consensus that tutoring is a critical resource for improving student outcomes, so it is money well spent," Blazar notes.<\/p>\n
For school systems everywhere trying to stretch limited local and state dollars, the ultimate trial lies in figuring out where to trim administrative or operational costs without inadvertently weakening the core structural features that make high-impact tutoring effective in the first place, Blazar emphasizes.<\/p>\n
West Feliciana Parish Schools in Louisiana provides a clear real-world example of a school district successfully identifying new funding sources to embed tutoring directly into the regular school day. The rural district maintained basic intervention and tutoring practices prior to 2024, but it dramatically expanded and formalized its school-day high-dosage tutoring program during the 2024-25 academic year with critical financial assistance made available through Louisiana\u2019s Accelerate: High-Dosage Tutoring initiative.<\/p>\n
The district instituted a comprehensive schoolwide master schedule that includes a dedicated 30- to 50-minute block each day where standard core instruction pauses. During this designated window, students are divided into precise, skill-based groups and report either to their regular classroom teacher or a specialized interventionist for high-dosage tutoring, according to Jodi Lemoine, director of accountability at West Feliciana Parish Schools.<\/p>\n
Students who are not scheduled for tutoring during that specific block remain in the classroom to work independently, utilizing targeted educational software or reading library books to reinforce independent study habits. Meanwhile, fourth and fifth-grade students access online tutoring sessions supervised through vetted external providers.<\/p>\n
This thoughtful scheduling approach significantly expanded the reach and capacity of the district’s overall intervention program. Before the statewide initiative launched, the local reading intervention program served approximately 96 students per week. Lemoine reports that this figure surged to more than 430 students after a single year of implementation.<\/p>\n
"From the get-go, our philosophy was: This is gonna require good teaching, not just programs," Lemoine says.<\/p>\n
The district rigorously monitors student progress every two to three weeks, making timely instructional adjustments as necessary. Lemoine points to district assessment data demonstrating clear performance gains between the fall and spring assessments of the 2025-26 school year. According to data from the Northwest Evaluation Association\u2019s Measures of Academic Progress, the district recorded notable upward shifts in overall student performance metrics.<\/p>\n
West Feliciana Parish Schools was formally recognized by the Louisiana Department of Education as a Model of Excellence for its innovative and disciplined approach to high-dosage tutoring. By December 2024, more than 45% of its kindergarten through fifth-grade students were actively receiving tutoring\u2014more than double the proportion served previously. Furthermore, about 60% of participating students successfully reached the established performance benchmark on their targeted literacy skills by their very first progress-monitoring checkpoint.<\/p>\n
"We have figured out a way to use the resources we have smarter," Lemoine says. "Our high-dose tutoring program is truly an example of that: Work smarter, not harder."<\/p>\n
Today, the district relies on a sustainable combination of state grants and local operational funding to keep the initiative running smoothly, but school leadership remains deeply committed to preserving it for the long haul. Superintendent Hollis Milton asserts that the district’s demonstrated success proves that high-impact academic interventions do not simply have to vanish the moment a specific federal funding stream runs dry.<\/p>\n
"If something’s working, you find the will, and then you’re gonna find the way," Milton says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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