The High-Impact Tutoring Initiative and student attendance

By Cynthia Lake, Center for Research and Reform in Education, Johns Hopkins University

Chronic absenteeism remains a critical issue in schools, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a working paper released by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, researchers evaluated the High-Impact Tutoring (HIT) Initiative, a $33 million, three-year program launched by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in Washington, DC. This initiative targeted over 5,000 at-risk K-12 students, providing in-person, small-group tutoring sessions during the school day to rebuild their connection to school and improve academic outcomes. This analysis focused on attendance data to assess whether students were more likely to attend school on tutoring days compared to non-tutoring days.

The findings revealed that students were 7% less likely to be absent on days when they had tutoring, which translated to an average of 1.3 additional days of school for students scheduled for three sessions a week over a 180-day school year. Middle school students saw the largest benefit, gaining 2.1 additional days of attendance, while high school students showed minimal improvement. Students with extremely high absenteeism often remained disengaged. The modest gains observed emphasize the importance of program design, particularly scheduling tutoring during the school day and ensuring sufficient frequency to engage students effectively.

While the study underscores tutoring’s potential to reengage students and modestly improve attendance, the findings also reveal important limitations. Some may question whether an average increase of just 1.3 additional days of school per year is meaningful, particularly for students missing dozens of days annually. However, the study highlights the potential cumulative effect of such gains across larger groups of students and suggests that tutoring could contribute to broader classroom stability. Policymakers and school leaders are encouraged to pair tutoring with complementary strategies to address the deeper barriers faced by chronically absent students, ensuring such interventions can lead to more substantial long-term outcomes.