Shaping a new generation of high-impact tutors

Imagine you’re a tutor. Maybe you’re a retired educator or a college student hoping to make some extra money, or you’re a volunteer wanting to help at a local school. As a tutor, you would be joining a fast-growing and evolving workforce that currently numbers around 160,000 nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over recent years, there has been a large effort at the federal, state, district and community levels to recruit hundreds of thousands of tutors to support students’ learning recovery from the adverse impacts of the pandemic. Research has shown high-impact tutoring to be one of the most effective interventions to promote learning gains. 

However, until recently, there have been very few ways to scale training for tutors or validate a tutor’s skills and expertise. That’s where Arizona State University’s Community Educator Learning Hub, in partnership with Annenberg Learner and Step Up Tutoring, has stepped in to fill the gap through its collection of nanocourses geared toward high-impact tutors and new High-Impact Tutoring micro-credential. 

The goal of developing the micro-credential is two-fold, said Korbi Adams, the senior program manager for Community Educator Initiatives: not only can organizations use it to recognize the expertise of their tutors, but tutors themselves can use it to demonstrate their skills and earn promotions or pay raises.

“For community educators, there are not a lot of ways to advance in their career,” Adams said. “I think that the micro-credential is a really exciting new path that we’re introducing to the field because it gives tutors the opportunity to share a portfolio of their experience and expertise with an expert assessor and be acknowledged to have the competencies of high-impact tutoring.”

Partnerships with purpose 

The high-impact tutoring nanocourses have been available since last year with over 2,600 tutors enrolled, and the micro-credential just launched in the fall after months of research, planning and development. 

First, the Community Educator Learning Hub team brought together a group of key stakeholders — from those working in national policy to tutoring organizations — for a series of design sessions to define the competencies of a high-impact tutor and how they would be evaluated in a tutor’s portfolio of evidence.   

After a series of iterations, the Community Educator Learning Hub worked closely with ASU’s Office of Digital Learning, transforming the micro-credential into an engaging and interactive experience tested with a pilot group of tutors last spring. 

“Reflecting on my tutoring practice through the process of submitting this micro-credential, I have gained valuable insights into areas of strength and areas for growth,” Nikita, the first tutor to earn a micro-credential through the pilot program, wrote in her reflection. “The High-Impact Tutoring micro-credential challenged me to get out of my comfort zone as a tutor which has strengthened my ability to be flexible and adaptive to students’ unique learning styles and needs.” 

Nikita even took to LinkedIn to post about her achievement just after earning the micro-credential, an anecdote that Lauren Conn, the senior project manager for the Community Educator Learning Hub, fondly recalled. 

“I think it illustrates that tutors themselves are seeing it as a signal to employers that they’ve earned a credential that really bears weight in the market and demonstrates they have a high skill level in tutoring and also transferable skills in education,” Conn said. 

High honors

Along the way, Annenberg Learner and Step Up Tutoring have played a pivotal role in the creation and existence of the micro-credential and nanocourses.

Adams and Conn highlight Annenberg’s role in not only funding and supporting open access to the nanocourses in the Learning Hub for any tutor working with young people across the country but also in providing scholarships for tutors volunteering with or employed by non-profit organizations or public schools hoping to earn the High-Impact Tutoring micro-credential. 

“Our goal with the micro-credential is to expand the pipeline of highly qualified tutors so that all students, regardless of where they live, can access personalized attention and exceptional instruction,” said Nati Rodriguez, Program Director for Annenberg Learner. “This certification will signal tutors’ competency while ensuring more uniform standards across tutoring programs.” 

The Community Educator Learning Hub’s partnerships with Annenberg Learner and Step Up Tutoring were also recently recognized with the National Partnership for Student Success’ Collective Impact Award by U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten. 

“[This partnership] wonderfully represents the power of cross-sector collaboration for collective impact,” Marten said, in remarks regarding the award. “They have been deeply committed to answering the call to action and have supported NPSS by sharing their expertise with others, participating in working groups and truly bridging the efforts of our Higher Education Coalition and Supporting Champions to benefit the entire network.”

The recent award from the National Partnership for Student Success is just one of many accolades the Community Educator Learning Hub has received since its inception. In September, it received the Best for Back to School 2024 award from the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence, and in March it was a finalist for two EdTech Awards from EdTech Digest. 

While the Community Educator Learning Hub team is honored by these recognitions, perhaps most meaningful is the consistent, positive feedback they’ve received from tutors on how Learning Hub resources are impacting their practice. For B. Starczewski, a tutor with OnYourMark, the micro-credential has helped her become a “better tutor who shows up for my students [in] every lesson.” 

“Tutors are calling out the emphasis in the micro-credential to learn skills that enable them to personalize learning for their students, understand where their students are coming from and be able to lead tutoring sessions that are adapted to their needs,” Conn shared. “It’s been lovely to see the feedback.” 

To learn more about the High-Impact Tutoring micro-credential, join us on Dec. 5 for a webinar hosted by the Community Educator Learning Hub.