Five years after the onset of the pandemic, schools continue to combat pandemic-era learning loss and chronic absenteeism. One evidence-based method to expedite learning recovery is high-impact tutoring. While much has been said about the positive impact of tutoring on student achievement levels, little has been conveyed about its impact on student absenteeism. A June 2025 study helps to fill this void.
A Stanford research team used student-level attendance data collected in Washington, D.C. during the 2022–23 school year. That year saw the implementation of the High-Impact Tutoring (HIT) Initiative, which funded tutoring providers across D.C. Public Schools (DCPS). The initiative aimed to expand access to high-impact English and math tutoring for K–12 at-risk students in DC schools, prioritizing those with the greatest academic needs (i.e., students who scored in the bottom two levels of math and ELA standardized assessments in the previous year). The team compared student absences on days with and without scheduled tutoring, controlling for student demographics and variations in the time and day the tutoring took place. Student and date fixed effects are included in the models to control for unobserved student characteristics and day-specific factors that may influence attendance on a scheduled tutoring day. Overall, the findings provide strong evidence that scheduled high-impact tutoring sessions help improve student attendance.
The researchers find that students were 1.2 percentage points less likely to be absent on scheduled tutoring days than on days with no scheduled tutoring, which translates to an overall 7 percent reduction in the likelihood of a student being absent.
The HIT Initiative’s effect varied among different student groups. For example, scheduled tutoring sessions had an especially large positive effect on students with more absences the previous academic year. Students who were chronically absent for more than 30 percent of the previous school year were 2.6 percentage points less likely to be absent on days with scheduled tutoring sessions. Additionally, effect sizes were strongest for middle school students compared to elementary and high school students, with middle school students 1.9 percentage points less likely to be absent on scheduled tutoring days, a 0.7 and 1.7 percentage point difference compared to elementary and high school students, respectively. Furthermore, estimates for middle and elementary school students were statistically significant, in contrast to those for high school students. Given that student engagement often declines in middle school, this finding is particularly valuable. The HIT Initiative can facilitate strong student-tutor relationships that strengthen students’ sense of belonging within their school, in turn boosting their desire to attend school and reducing absenteeism levels.
Variations in the design of tutoring programs within the HIT Initiative impacted student absenteeism as well. Students in tutoring programs offered during the school day were 1.9 percentage points less likely to be absent than those in after-school programs, who were still 0.7 percentage points less likely to be absent than non-participants. Furthermore, larger effects were seen in programs with the smallest student-tutor ratios (1:1 or 1:2) and more frequent tutoring sessions (3-5 sessions per week), which were associated with a reduction in student absenteeism by 3.8 percentage points and 2.1 percentage points, respectively.
The researchers also looked at the impact of “bundles” of features of high-impact tutoring (e.g., tutoring during the school day, small student-tutor ratios, and frequent tutoring sessions). Students exposed to programs containing two such features were 2.6 percentage points less likely to be absent; those exposed to a bundle of all three features were 5.5 percentage points less likely to be absent (i.e., more than twice the effect for students in programs with a bundle of two features and approximately five times the overall effect).
While this is only one study in one district over one school year, and showed relatively small effects, the results indicate that high-impact tutoring can have a positive influence on student attendance—yet another reason for schools to embrace the practice.
SOURCE: Monica G. Lee, Susanna Loeb, and Carly D. Robinson, “The Impact of High-Impact Tutoring on Student Attendance: Evidence from a State Initiative,” Annenberg Institute at Brown University (June 2025).
