COVID-19 has disrupted the delivery of education to more than 50 million public and private school students. Parents are supplementing their children’s education in partnership with teachers online, while others partner with schools and colleges to make the best out of a tough situation.

Yet another option is often overlooked—an option that is backed by research and that can draw on the many strong teachers that schools already have in place: tutoring academies.

Tutoring youth is a time-honored practice that was employed as far back as ancient Greece, writes Beth Schueler, an Assistant Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, in the article linked below. And while delivering tutoring services to millions of students during the coronavirus pandemic is a challenge, it is also an opportunity. Schueler makes the case for “vacation-academies” based on tutoring to address not just the summer learning loss that occurs for so many students during this time of year, but the learning loss that the coronavirus-induced closure of schools will force upon so many students already at risk of academic failure.  

And it’s worth noting that tutoring also provides a prime opportunity for the adult modeling and practices that are an important part of student moral formation. Click here to read “Summer ‘Vacation Academies’ Can Narrow Coronavirus Learning Gaps,” by Beth Schueler.