How Can Early Tutoring Support Improve Long-Term Academic Success?

Tutoring support in elementary school years is common, but it makes a huge difference whether that support occurs before or after the age of 10. Data indicates that students who received tutoring support before the age of 10 went on to achieve better academic results in high school than their peers who required remedial support in later elementary school years.

Foundation years matter more than most realize

Many would think that the elementary school years are of little importance for later years of study. This is not so! The elementary school years are like laying the foundation for a building. All of the concepts learned in each of the elementary school years form the basis of study for all of the academic disciplines in subsequent years. Thus, if a student is lacking in number sense in 2nd grade, he or she will continue to struggle with the same concepts in subsequent years in all of the academic disciplines including algebra, geometry, and even in calculus. Similarly, a student with an early deficit in phonemic awareness will have a cascading effect on reading comprehension in subsequent years, as well as in literary analysis and critical thinking in the high school years.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students who read at less than a grade-level in third-grade have a 12% chance of graduating from high school on time. Moreover, students who do not master the arithmetic for their age-level by the end of fourth-grade have a 70% chance of continuing to struggle in math through the rest of the elementary school years and the rest of the middle school and high school years.

Early intervention changes these trajectories completely.

Learning compounds like interest

Each concept that students learn to understand in school builds off of the previous concepts that they have learned. Therefore, the earlier that students learn concepts, the easier it will be for them to learn future concepts. For example, a student who has a math tutor in Union City to teach him or her the multiplication tables in 2nd grade will have developed learning pathways in his or her brain that will allow him or her to understand complex concepts in statistics in 7th grade and later. On the other hand, a student in 4th grade who has not yet learned the multiplication tables will be struggling to learn new concepts in addition to trying to "catch up" on the concepts from earlier grades that he or she has not yet mastered. This student will fall behind his or her peers in the classroom, and will need even more extra help outside of the classroom in order to try to get back on track.

Students not having a solid grasp of a fundamental number relationship can cause them to struggle with new material in subsequent years and at the same time try to 'fill in the gaps' of the same fundamental relationship that they are lacking from previous years. This Learning Debt can be very costly and increase in price as time goes by.

Study habits crystallize early

Much research has found that many of the study skills that students use are learned very early on. A second grader can work with a tutor to break down a very complex word problem into smaller parts. That skill will then automatically be used by the student in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grades and in preparation for the SATs and ACTs in high school. These skills are as important as the academic concepts that a student learns in school.

There are many benefits to students who receive academic tutoring from an early age. For instance, they learn how to study in the best way, and they learn to manage their time effectively in order to complete all of their school work. Furthermore, young students learn various problem solving techniques that become second nature to them as they grow and complete more challenging school work. There are many academic materials that are considered to be very difficult for students to learn. Students who are given the opportunity to learn such materials at a young age not only learn the material well but also develop a great deal of confidence in their academic abilities. They realize that it is okay to struggle with some material and that they will eventually master it with the help of their tutors and time.

The neuroplasticity advantage

Very early Years (Children 5 – 10 years old) are very malleable and study/learning strategies, study habits and other methods can be easily introduced and adapted by the Children as they grow up. Such a program may actually require less hours of study to reach the necessary academic level if started early enough in a Child's development.

The brains of children ages 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are wired differently than the brains of teenagers. They are far more malleable than their adolescent counterparts and can be programmed to adopt new ways of solving problems even if those problems have previously been solved by less than optimal means. In terms of numbers, children this age can learn to understand and work with a wide variety of number sense concepts. They can learn to read words of many different varieties and a tutor can develop a study skills practice that is uniquely suited to each child. Thus, as is the case with so many aspects of child development, even though young children require more time with a tutor, the experience can be of very high value.

Social benefits extend beyond academics

The most immediate benefit to a student who is receiving tutoring early is that he or she will be able to stay on par with his or her peers. This can prevent the student from feeling embarrassed or frustrated by not being able to keep up in the classroom. By avoiding these feelings, the student can be spared from negative feelings about learning in general. Many students who are not meeting their full potential in school suffer from what is called "learned helplessness." Essentially, this is when a student feels that no matter how hard he or she studies or how much effort he or she puts into his or her schoolwork, that he or she will not be able to achieve academic success. This feeling can affect a student's performance in school, as well as his or her feelings about himself or herself outside of the classroom. In order to help students avoid this feeling of helplessness, it is very important that they enter each new grade level with the tools that they need in order to handle the academic work of that grade.

In addition to fostering academic support, many schools focus on a student's social development during the middle school years. For students who are behind in reading and math, however, after school tutoring could keep them up with their peers in school, allow for time for other activities and interests, and allow for time to develop socially with their peers.

Implementation that works

A good tutoring program can help a student understand new concepts that they are learning in regular school, which will allow them to apply what they learned in new situations. These programs typically work with students by tying what they are learning to what the student already knows, and also to things that are of particular interest to the student. As with regular school, the tutoring is typically on a consistent basis over time rather than being a large number of sessions held close together. For example, instead of holding 20 one hour sessions held over the course of 5 months, hold 40-50 one hour sessions over the course of 1-2 years.

Most importantly, when searching for a tutor for your child, you need to look for a tutor who can meet your child's specific needs. For the parent, the first thing to look for in a tutor is that the tutor can explain the goals of tutoring for that session with the student. Then, in each session, the tutor should be able to discuss the progress that is being made by the student, as well as the changes that are taking place in the student's academic skills. It is quality tutoring over a long period of time as opposed to the quantity of tutoring that a student receives that will aid the student in learning the way that the student can best learn in order to reach his or her highest potential in school. Therefore, one hour of quality tutoring per week with the right tutor as opposed to several hours of tutoring per week with a tutor that is not able to teach the student in the way in which the student learns best is what will give the student the greatest amount of aid in reaching his or her highest potential.

A support program for students in early years of schooling can be of great value. The benefits of support for students in early years of schooling can extend far into student's high school years and even into their future careers. Students who have been given quality support before the age of 10 are able to perform better on high school standardized tests, have a better chance for college acceptance, and have better future careers.