Tutoring and public policy: What might the role of tutoring be in the pandemic recovery?
What role can tutoring play in Canada’s post-pandemic recovery? Academic experts and leaders joined Wendy Cukier, Founder and Academic Director of the Diversity Institute, at the Tutoring in the Time of COVID workshop to delve into this question.
“All of the inequalities faced by young people prior to the pandemic were made worse by COVID,” Cukier explained. Students from groups that struggled before the pandemic—those from low income families, those who are Black or Indigenous, face even greater barriers. They are less likely to have the foundations for success, to families who have the time, capacity and resources to support them or to affordable internet and study space.
Philip Oreopoulos, Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto explained that there is consistent evidence that 1-on-1 or 1-on-3 can be beneficial for students. The key question is if tutoring happens. Oreopoulos finds the most promising opportunities within the school setting, where tutoring can be used as a supplement to traditional classroom teaching.
Students build confidence and self-efficacy through tutoring, noted Linda Massey, Associate Director, Principal Association Projects at the Ontario Principals' Council. Massey added that when a student’s family is involved in the tutoring process, tutoring also has a positive impact on a student’s family relationships.
Beverly-Jean Daniel, Assistant Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at Ryerson University, pointed out that it is necessary to talk about the ways in which race and racism impact this conversation, and how stereotypes impact what people assume Black students need. One factor in why Black students choose to continue on to postsecondary education is their perceptions of education, Daniel explained. Tutoring may be one way to positively shape those perceptions by pairing young learners with existing postsecondary students who can serve as mentors or role models.
While some families have easy access to the considerable resources needed to support their children with home schooling and the ability to arrange for often expensive private tutoring, many, particularly those who are racialized, could not. A range of innovative school and community based free tutoring programs can help bridge these gaps and support families, like beyond 3:30 (external link, opens in new window) , On Your Mark (external link, opens in new window) , and Study Buddy (opens in new window) , but they are fragmented and often without the resources needed to scale.
Significant questions remain about how to fund large-scale tutoring programs, explained Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. Ungerleider, given the pressure school boards and provincial governments currently face. There are also issues regarding equity of access, equity of outcomes, quality assurance, and allocating resources. Cross-age tutoring programs in which older students teach younger students is one cost-effective way to introduce tutoring within existing school settings, Ungerleider said.
“Governments at all levels need to think hard about thow to invest upstream to ensure we do not lose the ‘COVID generation,’” said Cukier. We know education is a critical pathway to social mobility, to inclusion and intergenerational wealth and we need to commit to investing upstream. Its a fundamental social and economic issue. If we do not bridge these gaps now, all our efforts to advance diversity and inclusion across sectors come to nought. If we do not help these students, especially racialized, Indigenous and Black students, graduate from high school and go on to attain post secondary education, we should not be surprised in years to come at their absence in leadership roles.
About the Project
This workshop is part of a larger project in partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University (external link, opens in new window) , the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) (external link, opens in new window) at the University of Toronto and the Diversity Institute with funding from the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre (external link, opens in new window) that aims to improve learning equity. It includes a suite of reports, an ecosystem mapping of community-based tutoring and academic support programs in Toronto, and a universal evaluation toolkit to support enhanced research.