Matthew A Kraft
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matthewakraft.com
Matthew A Kraft
@matthewakraft.com
Professor of Education and Economics. Former high school humanities teacher. Proud papa & volunteer soccer coach. Reading as much as I can about climate change. www.matthewakraft.com
That is a key question from a cost-benefit perspective. We cannot fully nail it down b/c we lack a pure control group, but we estimate that 3:1 tutoring would need to raise student achievement by at least 0.07 SD to be more cost-effective than 1:1. This is far from guaranteed based on literature.
November 4, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Check out the full paper - it is a short and sweet 7 pages.

Many thanks to the good folks at Littera Education for their partnership and my amazing coauthor Ginny Lovison!
November 4, 2025 at 2:33 PM
And finally, survey responses indicated that 1:1 tutoring online allowed tutors to:

4) create a space where a “kid feels special, valued, and safe to be themselves” and students “weren’t afraid to ask questions” and “weren’t afraid of being wrong.”
November 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Tutors reported 1:1 tutoring online was more successful because they could:

2) “build a better relationship with students”

3) “move at a faster pace” because there were “less distractions” and students were not “working at different paces”
November 4, 2025 at 2:31 PM
4️⃣ primary advantages of 1:1 tutoring online emerged from tutors’ open-ended responses.

Tutors commonly reported that individual tutoring allowed them to:

1) “personalize the lesson” and “customize the learning experience” so that each student “learned at his/her own pace”
November 4, 2025 at 2:31 PM
My hot take - extrapolating from this study & other evidence:

Tutoring in small groups is harder in an online setting than in person.

If online tutoring is the best fit for your context, I would prioritize one-on-one.

If you want small groups, prioritize tutoring in person.
November 4, 2025 at 2:30 PM
When we think about education & climate change, we often picture images of schools damaged by natural disasters made more frequent & severe by climate change.

Extreme weather events are an increasing threat, but the relationship between schools and climate change is much more complex and expansive.
July 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM