Air Tutors’ Online Tutoring: Math Knowledge Impacts and Participant Math Perceptions

Air Tutors is an online tutoring organization that provides live one-on-one and small group tutoring for K–12 students with high-quality paid tutors. This study used a randomized controlled trial to measure the impact of Air Tutors math tutoring on 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students’ math achievement in three schools: a K-12 online school and an elementary school and middle school in Texas. The study also collected attendance data and measured changes in student math confidence, sense of belonging, and tutor-student relationships through a survey to students participating in tutoring. Two hundred and seventy-six treatment and control students had complete NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) math achievement data, and 105 treatment students had complete survey data. We found that students participating in Air Tutors received MAP scores that were 0.13 standard deviations higher than control students, and attendance was higher for tutoring programs held during the school day. In addition, 88 percent of Air Tutors students who responded to the survey reported strong relationships with their tutors, and on average, students’ reported math confidence improved from the beginning to the end of their tutoring. This report is one in a series of six reports on math tutoring programs. The report is based on research funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.