--- title: Summer Tutoring Is Not the Solution to a Lost Year of School description: Parents are turning to summer tutoring to make up for a lost year due to COVID-19. But tutoring isn't as effective as many think it is. canonical: https://time.com/6084638/summer-tutoring-covid-lost-year-school/ author: Pawan Dhingra article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-07-28T12:17:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T10:09:57.560Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Summer Tutoring Is Not the Solution to a Lost Year of Schooling. It Might Hurt Kids More Than It Helps Them og:description: Parents are turning to summer tutoring to make up for a lost year due to COVID-19. But tutoring isn't as effective as many think it is. og:url: https://time.com/6084638/summer-tutoring-covid-lost-year-school/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69291e39a3d75d63/698a1b64b3fce354350c822d/tutoring-pandemic-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Tutoring Pandemic School og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Summer Tutoring Is Not the Solution to a Lost Year of Schooling. It Might Hurt Kids More Than It Helps Them twitter:description: Parents are turning to summer tutoring to make up for a lost year due to COVID-19. But tutoring isn't as effective as many think it is. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69291e39a3d75d63/698a1b64b3fce354350c822d/tutoring-pandemic-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Summer Tutoring Is Not the Solution to a Lost Year of Schooling. It Might Hurt Kids More Than It Helps Them > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Pawan Dhingra](https://time.com/author/pawan-dhingra/) ## Pawan Dhingra Jul 28, 2021 12:17 PM UTC  Hand Writing Working on Physics Assignment Study Education Hand Writing Working on Physics Assignment Study Education Getty Images by [Pawan Dhingra](https://time.com/author/pawan-dhingra/) ## Pawan Dhingra Jul 28, 2021 12:17 PM UTC Summer tutoring has become the rallying cry [by politicians](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/pandemic-summer-school/2021/04/21/bf71acf6-9882-11eb-a6d0-13d207aadb78%5Fstory.html) and [pundits as](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/10/we-need-our-schools-stay-open-this-summer-only-biden-can-make-it-happen/) a way to address the [learning loss](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-learning-loss-disparities-grow-and-students-need-help) from months of remote and hybrid learning. A frightening number of students did not show up to class last school year, including up to [15% of kindergarteners](https://time.com/5891855/school-coronavirus-kindergarten/) in some school districts. But tutoring is the not the easy solution many think it is. Before parents sign up their children, they need to do their own homework and, except under specific conditions, they should not pursue tutoring. Simply put, most children [do not benefit](https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/covid-getting-tutoring-right) long term from standard tutoring. Moreover, current trends in supplemental education can end up hurting children. Tutoring [can work](https://time.com/4025465/math-tutoring-anxiety/) well under [certain conditions](https://www.nber.org/papers/w27476) for children. Unfortunately, those conditions are quite strict. First, tutors should have a strong command of the content and must find ways to [connect it to](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10494820.2015.1009472?src=recsys&journalCode=nile20&) the student’s interests. Second, tutoring is more effective when [it is intensive](https://www.edweek.org/leadership/high-dosage-tutoring-is-effective-but-expensive-ideas-for-making-it-work/2020/08), with multiple hours per week and small teacher-to-student ratios and when run by trained professionals (e.g. teachers) during the school year rather than [over the summer](https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-slim-research-evidence-for-summer-school/). The costs for effective tutoring are high (e.g. [$3,800 per child](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/19/tutoring-kids-chicago-study-215729/) in a Chicago program). Without such expensive and intensive conditions, tutoring proves to be mostly ineffective. Studies find [little to no difference](https://www.proquest.com/docview/304465983?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true) between tutored and untutored children in their [academic achievement](https://rdw.rowan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1050&context=etd) under standard learning conditions. Even when students show short-term improvement, they [do not maintain](https://theconversation.com/hiring-a-tutor-may-have-short-term-gains-but-long-term-losses-35202) long-term gains. Still, all kinds of tutoring are [gaining steam](https://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2021/05/the-online-tutoring-market-is-expected-to-reach-usd-278-billion-by-2026-with-a-cagr-of-10-82-percent/) among parents, increasingly for those who need it the least. [Affluent students](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/10/29/most-parents-of-k-12-students-learning-online-worry-about-them-falling-behind/) in well-resourced schools increasingly take part. The national chain Mathnasium, for instance, advertises as serving students [already succeeding](https://www.mathnasium.com/) in math. A founder of another company told me their growth model is to open franchises in well-ranked districts. Companies are [cashing in](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/responding-to-the-covid-slide-mathnasium-launches-kickstart-program-301084624.html) on anxious parents with marketing directed at overcoming the “Covid slide.” This is despite the fact that their learning loss over the past 12 months is [less of a concern](https://www.renaissance.com/2021/01/22/blog-what-most-people-dont-realize-about-the-covid-19-slide/) than often assumed. [Kumon](https://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/fastestgrowing), [Mathnasium](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mathnasium-named-an-entrepreneur-2021-fastest-growing-franchise-301248732.html), and other tutoring companies rank among the fastest-growing franchises of 2021\. This popularity for tutoring continues a trend that has been going on [for years](https://www.kumon.com/assets/us-en/pressrelease/release2014-0716.html). In fact, No Child Left Behind gave [billions of taxpayer dollars](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4683278) to the tutoring industry, jumpstarting their rapid growth. Parents have strong motivations behind their enrollment. Based on my research with over 100 parents for my book, [_Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough_](https://nyupress.org/9781479831142/hyper-education/), I learned that such parents worry that their child otherwise will not be adequately challenged in schools, even before the onset of remote learning. They also fear that their child would fall behind peers who are being tutored. Learning is sold at younger and younger ages as parents seek an academic edge. [Junior Kumon](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/fashion/with-kumon-fast-tracking-to-kindergarten.html) starts at age three; I even saw a child in a diaper at a center. Parents even believe that after-school academics instills values of hard work, sacrifice, and more. The fact that the child does not like this after-school activity is not necessarily a reason to stop. Yet what parents see as essential to their child’s development can be detrimental. Teachers bemoan this trend. They struggle to appropriately reach elementary and middle school children with increasingly wide ranges of abilities, which is prone to grow by the fall. What’s more, as children in well-ranked schools seek private, corporate-sponsored education, it appears as if even the best schools are failing to properly serve our youth. This becomes one more rebuke of our public-school system. While teachers lament their own struggles, they dwell on their worries for the children. Teachers see [stressed-out youth](https://www.k12dive.com/news/districts-seek-solutions-for-rising-student-anxiety/558834/) prone to either crying or silence due to increased academic pressure, much more than parents realize. Nor is it only those tutored who are stressed. One student I interviewed who performed at grade level in her well-ranked school confessed that she felt “stupid” relative to peers who “were three years ahead because of \[their tutoring\].” Tutored students are not necessarily better off in the long run either and, in fact, could encounter obstacles to in-depth learning. According to a middle school math teacher, students with supplemental education “do more posturing in class” because they feel they know the subject already. They also can be [“bored” in class](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED593886.pdf) if they have covered the material already. What’s more, they lose a love of learning, another educator said. If youth are not invested in their after-school education, they come to see all education as a chore to get through. Such monetary and emotional costs are all the more unnecessary given that well-resourced schools, such as the ones many of these families attend, often [have a good record](https://www.epi.org/publication/us-student-performance-testing/) of educating children. Fears over children’s learning are understandable now more than ever. But the costs of tutoring go beyond the financial. Unless their children are well behind grade level and can enter effective programs, parents should avoid the treadmill of extra academics for the sake of their children and others. 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