28th February 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A recent study in San Francisco has shown that private tuition can have a significant impact on students’ academic achievement. In a report on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, a tutoring agency said that their students made an average improvement of 53% on test scores after a 30 hour programme of intensive tutoring. This amounts to an improvement in a student’s grade of 2-3 grade scores.
The survey assessed over 1,500 students as they completed the course. Each student was assessed at the beginning of their course, and again at the end of the course after their weaknesses in English and Maths had been specifically targeted.
An interesting figure from the study was that students in the second or third grade nearly doubled their test scores on average (an improvement of 100%). It’s claimed that this shows how effective private tuition can be at an early age, before a student is too far into their education, when it would take more time to make such dramatic improvements.
The tutors and students were all based in the Los Angeles area, and matched together based on geography and subject requirements. The study will continue, as thousands more students are currently still to complete their 30 tutoring course.