Bridge Tutor Academy
A blended training program that prepares new tutors — college students and community members, most with no teaching background — to deliver high-impact math tutoring with consistency: the same session routine, the same student-facing moves, every session, so that quality survives scale.
Bridge Math Tutoring is a fictional organization: a nonprofit partnering with six middle schools, whose paid part-time tutors deliver in-school sessions to groups of 2–4 students in Grade 7–8 linear equations, 3 × 30 minutes per week. All transcripts, dashboards and program data on this site are fictional or simulated and labeled as such.
Why this program exists: small tutoring studies show large learning gains, but large programs deliver roughly a third to a half as much (Kraft, Schueler & Falken 2024) — and what erodes at scale is implementation: dosage, consistency, and tutor skill. Training, coaching and fidelity measurement are the countermeasures. The research notes trace every claim to a primary source.
What’s in the program
| Section | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Modules 1–5 | Self-paced, ≤ 25 minutes each: role & relationships, the 30-minute session, questioning & errors, feedback & motivation, exit tickets & data. Plus a safeguarding placeholder pointing to your organization’s own required training. |
| Annotated transcripts | Six fictional session transcripts (2 strong, 2 mixed, 2 weak) with numbered annotations naming the moves — and the spot-the-move practice tool. |
| Live practice sessions | Two 60-minute facilitator guides for role-play rehearsal (session routine; error handling) with role-play cards. |
| Tutor tools | Session plan template, exit-ticket bank (20 linear-equation items), student progress tracker, tutor self-reflection form. |
| Coaching system | One-page observation rubric with behavioral anchors, the coaching cycle, the coaching conversation guide, and a calibration activity for coordinators. |
| Program measurement | Fidelity and outcomes measurement plan, a simulated six-school dashboard, the onboarding timeline, and the full alignment table. |
| Evaluation of these materials | How this training itself is being evaluated — including what is still pending. |
The competency model underneath it all
Everything on this site trains, observes or measures the same five domains, defined once in the competency model:
- Relationships — greet by name, reference last session, spread attention
- Session structure — the five-part 30-minute routine, exit ticket every session
- Questioning and errors — probing question, hint ladder (levels 0–5), wait time, worked example after repeated failure
- Feedback and motivation — specific feedback, confirm and ask why, offer a similar problem, normalize mistakes
- Data use — give, record and read the exit ticket; adjust the next plan
The move names and the hint ladder are shared with the companion project Socratic AI Tutor — the same moves, encoded for an AI.
The four-week onboarding timeline
This is the schedule a new tutor follows inside the fictional program (full version with facilitator notes):
| Week | Self-paced | Live practice | With students |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Modules 1–2 · safeguarding training | Live Session A: role-play the routine | Observing a veteran tutor |
| 2 | Modules 3–4 · transcript practice | Live Session B: role-play error handling | Co-tutoring (second adult in the room) |
| 3 | Module 5 | — | First solo sessions · observation #1 + debrief |
| 4+ | — | Monthly community of practice | Coaching cycle every 2–3 weeks · observation #2 and #3 |
Safeguarding: child protection, mandated reporting and digital-communication rules vary by jurisdiction and organization. This program does not teach safeguarding law. The safeguarding placeholder directs tutors to complete their organization’s own required training before any contact with students.
Status of these materials
- Automated accessibility testing and agent-based design reviews are complete. An agent-simulated tutor-trainee run and a transcript re-review are complete (one AI agent, single model; not human results). No real tutors or students have used these materials. See evaluation/METHODS.md and the pilot report placeholder.
- All session transcripts are fictional, constructed for training purposes — never recordings of real children.
- Content is licensed CC BY 4.0; code is MIT.