When Accelerate launched in the wake of the pandemic, we set out to bring research-backed practices into the American school day so kids could make up for lost learning. We focused first on high-dosage tutoring because it had such a strong evidence base. And, over four years later, research increasingly confirms that, on average, high-dosage tutoring improves student achievement more than other educational interventions, including class size reduction, vacation academies, summer school, and an extended school day or year.
What’s become clear since is that the evidence isn’t the only thing tutoring has going for it. It is also the rarest of policy initiatives – one that is supported by huge majorities from all regions and political persuasions.
What Families Actually Want
Ask parents what they want from their schools, and tutoring comes back at or near the top of the list of nearly every survey.
The most comprehensive look comes from 50CAN, which surveyed more than 23,000 caregivers for its State of Educational Opportunity in America. Free tutoring emerged as the single most popular education policy in the country.
- 85% of parents favor free tutoring for K-12 students who fall below grade level, with 60% strongly in favor.
- 47% of families who don’t currently have a child in tutoring say they’d like to take advantage of these services if they could.
- Among parents whose children are doing the worst academically, 71% strongly favor publicly funded tutoring, a level of intensity you rarely see in any policy poll.
The same survey shows support does not split along party lines. A majority of Republicans (54%) and conservatives (53%) said they strongly favor free tutoring for students below grade level, alongside 69% of Democrats and 70% of liberals. On the state map, deep-red Montana, Louisiana, and Mississippi post the same high support as blue New York.
And it is not just one survey. When the National Parents Union polled families in May, following the announcement of the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), 85% of respondents said that expanding academic tutoring for K-12 public-school students is a “good use of taxpayer money.” A January 2025 poll from EdChoice and Morning Consult found the same thing from a different angele: 67% of parents rated tutoring as the most effective school-based support service for improving student outcomes, ahead of every other option on offer.
Parents like it. States and districts require it. Most importantly, it works for kids.
Transforming Public Opinion into Public Policy
Evidence of effectiveness plus public support helped move high-dosage tutoring closer to being an embedded part of the American school day. In 2025, 34 bills across 20 states were introduced to launch new tutoring initiatives, allocate resources, require tutoring for students who are behind, or strengthen tutoring infrastructure. Many states have allocated dollars to substantiate legislative and regulatory efforts. This year alone, Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, and Louisiana all passed significant direct appropriations for high-dosage tutoring ($50M in Michigan, $20M in Arkansas, $14M in Florida, and $24M in Louisiana).
Funding and popularity aren’t enough. We need evidence-backed policies that ensure tutoring programs don’t just exist but are implemented in ways that will ensure students receive the amount and type of support they need. Accelerate’s model policy provides guidance on how to define tutoring, clarify district and state duties, and put into place the necessary accountability, data collection, and reporting standards to ensure continuous improvement.
Some states have gone a step further to ensure that the high-dosage tutoring being delivered to students reflects what years of research defines as best practices. Florida’s statewide tutoring program uses outcomes-based contracting to incentivize mutual accountability for student outcomes. To deliver the services, tutoring providers receive a base payment of 60% of the total contract amount. They receive the remaining 40% depending on the outcomes of participating students.
Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, the Louisiana Department of Education will likewise require all tutoring providers receiving state-allocated high-dosage tutoring dollars implement outcomes-based contracting.
Across the country, states and districts have chosen to follow the evidence over political noise. Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. are rarely listed together, but all built dedicated tutoring programs coming out of the pandemic, and the results are showing up. As part of the LEARNS Act, Arkansas named high-impact tutoring as a core strategy and launched two programs focused on early elementary students. Fast forward three years, more than 25,000 students have benefited from in-school tutoring, and Arkansas is already seeing progress on its K-3 literacy and numeracy screeners and on state tests. This year, Washington, D.C. led the nation in academic growth, ranking first in both math and reading recovery, with tutored students exceeding their expected growth by an additional 44%.
What Comes Next
It’s rare to find an education intervention where the evidence, the public, and the political will all point the same direction. Tutoring is one of those rare cases. Most importantly, students continue to need academic support. We should make sure they get something that works.
Kimberly Ueyama is Managing Director of Development & Communications at Accelerate.
