Different types of tutors: the nine types, what each one is for, what each costs in the US, what the evidence says about 1-on-1, small-group and peer tutoring, and five questions that pick the right one for your child

Search "tutor" and you get one word for nine different jobs. A college student who helps with tonight's worksheet, a certified teacher who rebuilds two years of fractions, an SAT coach and a reading specialist trained in structured literacy are all called tutors, charge very different amounts, and solve different problems. Most disappointing tutoring is the right tutor hired for the wrong job. This page sorts the types the way a parent has to choose: by what the child needs.

The nine types, at a glance

Where a figure is given, it is the published US range we collected for how much a math tutor costs per hour; the top of each range is a large city.

Sorted by format: four ways the hour can run

One-on-one. One tutor, one child, the whole hour. The tutor sees every line the child writes, which is the point: a wrong answer shows where the thinking went wrong only if someone is watching it happen. It is the most expensive format per hour and the fastest per month.

Small group. Two to five children. It costs less, and children hear each other's questions. It works when the group is at one level and working on one thing. It stops working when the group is a mix, because the tutor teaches to the middle.

Peer tutoring. Students teaching students, in pairs, set up by a teacher. It is a classroom method more than something a parent buys, and it helps the child doing the explaining as much as the one listening.

Center programs. A child works through the center's own worksheets while a supervisor moves between several children. It builds routine and fluency. It is not built to find out why one particular child cannot do one particular thing.

Any of the four can be online. Online or in person is a question about the child's age and attention, not about quality; the comparison is in online tutoring vs in-person tutoring.

What the evidence says

The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit, a summary of several hundred studies used by schools in England, gives these averages:

Three findings sit behind the averages and matter more than the format. Frequency: short sessions several times a week beat one long one. In the US the name for this is high-dosage tutoring: three or more sessions a week, one tutor to no more than three or four students, the same tutor throughout. Consistency: the same tutor each time, because the first month is spent learning the child. Connection: tutoring tied to what the class is doing this week beats a separate program.

So the question to ask any tutor is not which type they are. It is how often, with whom, and connected to what.

Sorted by who is teaching

A student or peer tutor took the course recently and remembers what was confusing. Good for homework in that course. Not trained to find the missing step from three years ago.

A certified teacher knows the curriculum, the state test and the common mistakes at each grade. Best for a child who is behind.

A subject specialist has a degree in the subject and teaches one or two courses. From Algebra 2 upward, and for AP sciences, subject depth is what you are paying for.

A learning-difference specialist is trained in a specific method. For dyslexia that means structured literacy (Orton-Gillingham and the programs built on it): explicit, sequential, cumulative phonics. A kind general tutor reading with a dyslexic child is not a substitute. We wrote about what changes in online tutoring for dyslexia.

Five questions that pick the type

1. Is the homework getting done and mostly right? If yes, the child probably does not need a tutor. If it is getting done only with a nightly fight, the need is structure: a homework helper or a study-skills coach.
2. Can the child do last year's work? Give five questions from the previous grade. If they are shaky, you need a catch-up tutor who tests first and teaches backwards.
3. Is there a date? A test in the calendar means test prep, starting from a full practice paper.
4. Is the child bored? Finishing early and switching off is a reason for an enrichment tutor, a year ahead.
5. Has reading or number sense been hard since the start, despite practice? Ask the school about an evaluation and look for a specialist, not more of the same.

Whether to hire anyone yet is its own question, answered in signs your child needs a tutor, and when to wait.

Five questions to ask any tutor before the first class

1. What will you do in the first session to find out what my child does not know?
2. Will it be you every week?
3. How will I know after a month that it is working?
4. Do you follow the school's curriculum, or your own?
5. What do you send the parent after each class?

A tutor of any type who answers these plainly is worth trying. One who answers with a package price is selling hours.

Where we fit

Science with Shobha is one type, on purpose: one-on-one, online, with a subject specialist who holds a master's degree, the same tutor every week, following the child's own school curriculum. The first class finds the gap, the classes after it close the gap and then keep pace with the school, and the parent gets the recording, the notes and marked homework after every class, for US$10 to $13 an hour. We are not a homework-completion service, and for dyslexia we say so and work alongside a specialist. The free 30-minute first class is a real lesson on this week's topic.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →