Compare: In-house Tutoring

TUTOR & CURRICULUM CONTINUITY

When tutors change or instruction isn’t aligned to the classroom, students don’t build momentum, they start over.
Progress only happens when learning compounds, not resets.

LOGISTIC & OPERATIONAL OWNERSHIP

When no one truly owns tutor scheduling, tutor session content, or student progress monitoring, consistency is the first thing to slip.
And over time, consistency gives way to what’s urgent.

UNCOMPROMISED SCALE & EXPANSION

Sustaining a program is hard enough—expanding it across grades, schools, and students is where it breaks.What doesn’t hold at scale doesn’t deliver impact.

TIER 2 / TARGETED SUPPORT FIDELITY

Most tutoring labeled as Tier 2 operates more like Tier 1—general support without sustained intensity. Meaningful Tier 2 impact requires a higher level of consistency, structure, and intent.

MEASURABLE ACADEMIC OUTCOMES

If you’re not using assessments and tracking progress at a granular level, you’re relying on perception, not evidence.
What matters is whether students are measurably moving forward—and how you respond when they’re not.

Category	Description	In-House	GROW

Built Specifically for Tier 2	Structured, targeted support designed to deliver intervention-level impact	⚠️	✅
Before & After Assessments	Clear baseline and endline measurement to evaluate academic growth	⚠️	✅
Granular Progress Monitoring	Ongoing visibility into student growth between start and finish	⚠️	✅
Easily Scalable	Can expand across grades, schools, and student groups without losing quality	❌	✅
Session Visibility	Clear insight into what’s happening during tutoring sessions	⚠️	✅
Tutor Feedback on Students	Ongoing insight into student performance, participation, and needs	⚠️	✅
Student Feedback on Tutors	Mechanism to capture the student experience and improve quality over time	❌	✅
Content Creation	Instructional materials are developed, maintained, and aligned to learning goals for the district	⚠️	✅
Tutor & Curriculum Continuity	Same tutor and instructional thread carried across sessions	⚠️	✅
Logistic & Operational Ownership	Scheduling, coordination, and program review are done for the district	❌	✅
Uncompromised Scale & Expansion	Program can easy grow across grades and schools without breaking consistency or quality	❌	✅
Measurable Academic Outcomes	Impact is visible through start and end assessments, progress monitoring, and qualitative feedback	⚠️	✅

ESSA Level 3 Evidence

See the Evidence

NSSA Tutoring Program Design Certification

See the Evidence

Instructional & Relational Continuity

Consistency is what allows trust, momentum, and real instructional progress to build over time.

The same tutor is scheduled for the entire program, building familiarity and trust session after session
Active, instructional exchange that keeps students actively engaged, even in a virtual setting
Sessions custom built to district curriculum, standards, and classroom pacing
Instruction builds from one session to the next so students move forward instead of starting over

No. GROW is live instruction with a consistent tutor in a small-group setting, not passive time on a device or another digital learning tool. The virtual format is what makes it possible to reach more students across more schools and grades, while continuity, dialogue, and curriculum alignment are what make that time meaningful.

In-person tutoring can be powerful, but it is also limited by staffing, scheduling, and scale. GROW uses live virtual delivery to expand access while preserving the things that matter most: consistent tutors, active instructional exchange, aligned content, and ongoing progress visibility. Many districts start in-house and move to GROW from this reason.

Tier 2 requires more than extra help. It entails targeted support, consistent dosage, instructional continuity, and measurable academic progress. GROW is designed around those conditions, with structured delivery, aligned instruction, and progress monitoring built into the model.

Continuity is what makes it personal. Students work with the same tutor over time, which allows trust, familiarity, and instructional momentum to build session after session. The relationship is not incidental to the model. It is one of the reasons the model works.

> Get to know our tutors

The goal is to reduce work, not add it. Paper manages staffing, scheduling, curriculum development, and day-to-day coordination, with on-site rollout support and ongoing program updates so schools are not left managing the program alone.

GROW is backed by research-based program design and ESSA Level III evidence, and it has been recognized by Stanford NSSA for excellence in tutoring design. Just as important, the program is structured to generate the kind of ongoing progress data districts need in order to evaluate impact responsibly.

Most districts do want control, but what they often need most is control over outcomes, not logistics. GROW gives districts visibility, alignment, and accountability while taking on the operational work that usually makes in-house models difficult to sustain. Your dedicated rep will work with your district on program design and mid/end-of-program updates; there is plenty of room for collaboration and adjustments before and during the program.

This is the more meaningful Tier 2/targeted support option. The cheaper option is not always the more responsible one if it cannot hold quality, scale, and measurable impact over time. The real cost question is whether your model can deliver enough consistency and growth to justify the investment.