09/29/2026
When three dozen education experts were asked by The New York Times recently how to improve student achievement, their answer was clear: small-group, high-impact tutoring rises to the top as most effective. It’s also, historically, expensive. So the question is: what’s the value proposition of effective tutoring?
Test scores tell part of the story. Students are capable of accelerating their growth when given the right support. High-impact math tutoring creates opportunities for tutors to build positive learning relationships with students, helping them gain confidence and master critical skills.
Value is found in long-term outcomes for students, and benefits for their school districts, too. A 2024 Urban Institute study found that improving students’ math scores directly raises earnings at age 30 across all racial and ethnic backgrounds. And if students can clear the two biggest challenges toward earning a HS diploma–being proficient readers by the end of grade 3, and passing algebra 1 by the end of grade 9–there is a 4-fold boost in their graduation rates for achieving each of those milestones. As students persist toward graduation, and don’t drop out, they preserve all of the per pupil dollars that would have been lost if they dropped out because of academic failure.
Accelerate’s research suggests that determining the cost-effectiveness of tutoring requires accounting for both tutoring dosage and per-pupil cost to understand how much student learning is produced for a given investment. At Saga, we’re testing practices that reduce tutoring costs while maintaining quality, including using live-online tutoring and AI to support the coaching of tutors to be more effective with kids.
Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?
