Five Things to Look for in a Virtual Tutoring Partnership

Virtual tutoring plays an intentional and strategic role in supporting academic needs at-scale. There are several factors that impact the success of a tutoring program, making it exceedingly important that the partnership you build with your tutoring provider be just as strong as the tutoring itself. This will help ensure that everyone—students as well as school leaders—achieve or even exceed their goals.

Here are 5 major factors to consider as you embark on a virtual tutoring partnership:

1. Qualified Tutors

When tasked with accelerating learning gains, it’s imperative that tutors not only be qualified to teach a specific subject to a specific grade level, but also that they’re qualified to do so virtually.

Consider:

• Do the tutors know how to engage students through a screen?
• How are the tutors vetted, trained, and evaluated?
• Do tutors follow best teaching practices and incorporate instructionally sound resources?
  

These tutors are an extension of your own staff resources, so it’s important that they be held to a high standard of excellence.

2. Equitable and Safe Access

You want to make sure that every student who needs support has access to it. This includes everything from how they log in, to the tools they use once in their virtual session.

Consider:

• What features are available for student accessibility?
• Are tutors qualified to address individual student needs?
• Is the platform compatible with student devices, as well as with your district’s technology and accessibility policies?
  

By ensuring students have access to equitable and safe tutoring options, you’re meeting the needs of your learners while also providing confidence and peace of mind to school leaders, families, and community members.

3. Data-Driven Instruction

Tutoring has the strongest impact as an evidence-based solution. The program should be anchored in data, including strategic enrollment, frequency, duration, and instruction.

Consider:

• Do tutors use performance data to tailor their instruction?
• Is that instruction in alignment with your institutional goals?
• Can students be strategically grouped to work with others at their same skill level?
  

Your tutoring program should operate based on data that best supports your goals.

4. Strong Design and Integration

Tutoring that is designed to integrate with what students are learning and how they’re engaging within the classroom is a highly impactful and research-backed practice.

Consider:

• Is the tutoring service able to accommodate your school’s specific needs, devices, and schedule?
• Are sessions directly connected to classroom instruction so learning is reinforced and accelerated?
• Do students feel value in their active participation?
  

When tutoring is a seamless part of students’ academic experience, this outlook will play a direct role in their ultimate learning outcomes.

5. Dependable Communication

You’re partnering with a service that fits your students best, but the people behind that work—those with whom you work directly—should be just as strong a fit.

Consider:

• Will you have a single point of contact for your services?
• Are they able to provide the data you need?
• Is communication more proactive than reactive whenever possible?
  

You’re investing a great deal of time, money, and trust into this partnership; it’s vital that you are able to depend on strong paths of communication.

A high-impact, virtual tutoring program is an essential tool toward supporting academic recovery and achievement. Edmentum offers three tutoring options with the flexibility to directly align targeted and intensive support to your program goals.

Keep an eye on the Edmentum blog. In the coming weeks, we’ll be unpacking our three flavors of tutoring: Targeted Small-Group Instruction, High-Impact Tutoring, and On-Demand Tutoring.