Mobilizing future teachers as high-impact tutors

The Aspiring Teachers as Tutors Network (ATTN) is a national collaborative of 23 tutoring initiatives representing 13 states. Collectively, these programs share a vision for increasing the number of aspiring teachers serving as tutors for K-12 students, and improving teacher-candidates’ instructional skills through field experiences and training.

Over the 2022-23 school year, this network aims to:

• Connect educational leaders mobilizing aspiring teachers as tutors through virtual and in-person convenings geared at fostering learning and resource-sharing across diverse contexts.
• Develop a policy framework for scale and sustainability that considers opportunities to align funding streams, allows tutoring service to fulfill specific clinical and/or coursework requirements, and increases access and affordability to high-quality, practice-based teacher preparation.
• Develop and test high-quality tutor training modules focused on equipping tutors with the knowledge and skills to apply principles of learning science to their practice.
• Elevate stories of teaching and learning that highlight the diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences of people and communities across the country contributing to meaningful outcomes for students through tutoring. 

Participating Programs

Programs in this network include educator-preparation programs, nonprofit tutoring corps initiatives, and cross-organizational collaborations:

 

The network is funded by Accelerate, a nonprofit organization that seeks to embed high-impact tutoring programs into public schools now and for the long term. Accelerate funds and supports innovation in schools, launches high-quality research, and advances a federal and state policy agenda to support this work.

Voices from our Network

“As a college student, I only felt prepared with the theoretical part, the knowledge and the coursework…but I didn’t feel prepared as a person. [Now] I’ve gotten the hang of how to have control within a group, how to execute the material, how to become a smaller version of a teacher.”

Pricila Cano
Aspiring Teacher & Tutor, Dallas College and Dallas Independent School District

 

“Tutoring is a tremendous opportunity for students who want to become teachers, because it gives them a real sense of a day in the life of a teacher. It gives them an opportunity to see what teaching will be like before they even have to pursue it as a major. It lets them get comfortable in the classroom.”

Lisa Zagumny
Dean, College of Education at Tennessee Tech University

 

“I would hire anyone with this degree of preparation in a heartbeat.”

Carol Crowling
Principal, Bush Elementary School

 

 

“My 5th grade teacher made learning fun, but he also made teaching seem fun. Him being a male teacher made me realize, ‘Oh, men can be teachers.’ I want to play a similar role for future generations, and I think this opportunity is one way I can do that.”

Christian McCarville
Aspiring Teacher & Tutor, New Jersey Tutoring Corps

 

Resources for Education and Policy Leaders

Mobilizing Aspiring Teachers as Tutors: Policy Solutions to Accelerate Student Learning and Strengthen Teacher Pipeline

Policy leaders can create conditions that would mobilize hundreds of thousands more tutors in the coming years. The resource explores three solutions, accompanied by specific policy actions, to solve the field’s most pressing problems preventing the scale and sustainability of successful efforts.

Download this resource

 

Strengthening Pipelines and Serving Students

Leveraging future teachers as tutors is a win-win. Learn how education leaders can map out a plan for embedding tutoring as a foundational component of teacher preparation.

Download this resource