A Look Back: Researchers Are Finding That High-Dosage Tutoring Isn’t The Silver Bullet – Maybe Schools (& Researchers) Should Prioritize Peer Tutors, Instead?

For the next month or so, I’ll be republishing my best posts from the last half of 2025.

For the past few years, I’ve voiced a lot of skepticism about the idea that bringing in a bunch of tutor was going to be effective in supporting students.  As I said many times,  I just didn’t see where schools were going to find people to hire and adequately supervise them.

New studies suggest that my criticisms have been well-founded.  Check out The Hechinger Report’s new article, Tutoring was supposed to save American kids after the pandemic. The results? ‘Sobering.’

Because of my community organizing background, I always keep in mind Saul Alinsky’s advice: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” So, I’ve paired my criticism of starting tutoring programs with suggesting that, instead, schools start peer tutoring programs. You can read all about them, and how I used them in my classes, at THE BEST RESOURCES ON PEER TUTORS.

However, I’m not holding my breath….