Most of us learned to think about tutoring as something that happened after the school day ended. A student fell behind, and somebody helped catch them up. Families who could afford it hired someone, and everyone else hoped the after-school program had space.
That version of tutoring still shapes how many districts budget, schedule, and talk about tutoring in board meetings.
The districts getting the most out of tutoring have stopped treating it as a separate thing. They start from the instructional system they already run and ask what tutoring adds to it. The first question becomes what they are trying to accelerate, and for which students.
That’s MTSS in practice. In Michigan, that means thinking about high-impact tutoring within the MiMTSS framework. It is about creating a coherent continuum of support, with each layer building on the others. Coherence does not mean everyone is doing the same thing; it means the language, approaches, and goals make sense together. The reading block, intervention time, and tutoring may each add something different without asking students to unlearn or translate what they learned somewhere else.
In recent Catapult Learning implementations, 90% of students demonstrated growth in math. In one Florida district, literacy rose 45%, and math rose 68%. None of that depends on tutoring being a Tier II service. It can strengthen all three tiers for distinct reasons.
Where high-impact tutoring fits
MTSS is the structure. MiMTSS provides the Michigan context for putting that structure into practice.
Before we go further, let’s define MTSS together.
MTSS is the structure that makes that coherence possible. At its simplest, it is a whole-school framework for making sure students get the right support, at the right level of intensity, as their needs change. Michigan’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MiMTSS) organizes research-based instruction, interventions, and supports along a continuum designed to meet the needs and assets of the whole child.
The tiers are one part of it, but they are not the entire system. A strong MTSS also includes the assessments that help us understand what students need; the data teams use to make decisions, and the routines for adjusting support when something is not working. Around all of those are the conditions that make the system work: strong implementation and coaching, aligned leadership, and communication with families. That systems-level approach is central to MiMTSS, which emphasizes effective, data-driven practices and the infrastructure needed to implement them with fidelity.
So, when we talk about Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III, we are really talking about one part of a much bigger framework. In the MiMTSS structure, Tier I is universal instruction and differentiation intended to meet the needs of all learners. Tier II adds supplemental, targeted interventions for learners who need support or extension beyond Tier I. Tier III provides intensive, individualized intervention, building on Tier I instruction and Tier II intervention. Those layers are not replacements for one another. They build on each other.
High-impact tutoring is not just tutoring done well. It is a specific, research-backed model with a set of design features that make it high-impact. Across tiers, the research points to several consistent design principles: trained tutors, strong tutor-student relationships, small groups, frequent sessions, meaningful instructional time, and close alignment to classroom learning.
What changes across tiers is not what makes the tutoring high impact. What changes is why it is being used, who needs it, and what that additional time is designed to accomplish.
Tier I: Strengthening Universal Instruction
Tier I begins with strong, evidence-based core instruction for all students. Within MiMTSS, Tier I is the universal instruction and differentiation intended to meet the needs of all learners. Within that environment, some students benefit from additional opportunities to practice and consolidate what they are learning before small misunderstandings become larger gaps.
The Science of Reading is clear about what works: explicit, systematic instruction followed by real chances to practice and get feedback. What can be hard is finding the minutes to make it happen.
That is where high-impact tutoring (HIT) strengthens Tier I.
Consider a second grader working on short-vowel patterns during the literacy block. During high-impact tutoring, she receives additional practice on those same patterns with a tutor who knows where the class is in the instructional sequence. She is not being introduced to a competing approach or disconnected content. Instead, she gets more opportunities to practice, receive immediate feedback, and correct misunderstandings while the learning is still fresh.
The student does not necessarily need formal intervention. She may simply benefit from additional time and practice to achieve mastery.
Used this way, HIT can become a proactive support rather than something schools introduce only after students have fallen behind. It gives districts another way to increase instructional opportunities early and potentially reduce the number of students who later require more intensive intervention.
ASSESSMENT AT TIER I | Is universal instruction working for most students?
What we measure: Are students mastering the grade level skill the class is working on right now?
How and how often: Quick skill checks inside every session and classroom formative assessments give teachers immediate feedback. Universal screening and benchmark data provide the bigger picture of how well Tier I is working across students.
What it decides: Whether the group moves on or spends another session on the same skill. It also surfaces students who are not responding to additional practice alone, an early signal that they may need more targeted support.
Rethink Tier I
The old question: Is whole-group instruction covering the standard?
The better question: Would more chances to practice help this student master grade-level work?
Tier II: Finding the Skill That Is in the Way
Tier II is where most districts plan for high-impact tutoring, and the instinct is right. A student has shown a specific need through universal screening, benchmark data, or a teacher who has been paying attention. In MiMTSS, Tier II is the supplemental, targeted intervention layer for learners who need support beyond Tier I. Tier II has a narrower goal: find what is blocking the student, and teach directly to it.
That narrowing is critical to what happens next.
A fifth grader struggling with math word problems might be stuck on multi-step reasoning. He might have trouble comprehending the problem. Or he may be missing a multiplication fact he never mastered. Those are three different needs requiring three different plans, and choosing the wrong one wastes valuable instructional time.
That is why Tier II HIT works best when it is informed by existing student data and, when necessary, diagnostic assessment. The goal is not simply to provide more time with an adult. It is to use that time against a clearly identified need. That is what separates Tier II intervention from strong Tier I differentiation.
ASSESSMENT AT TIER II | Is the student catching up to grade-level instruction?
What we measure: The specific skill(s) the student needs to strengthen, tracked closely enough to see growth over time.
How and how often: Existing data helps identify the skill or area that needs more support, with a diagnostic used when we need to understand the gap more precisely. During sessions, quick checks help the tutor adjust instruction in the moment. A regular curriculum-based measure (CBM) shows whether those gains are adding up to meaningful progress over time.
What it decides: Whether the support is working or needs to change in duration or intensity, assuming the high-impact tutoring is delivered exactly as designed.
Rethink Tier II
Tier I asks: Would more chances to practice help this student master grade-level work?
Tier II asks: What specific skill is stopping them?
Tier III: Intensity Plus Coordination
Some students need more than extra practice on a named skill. They need intensive, individualized instruction, delivered often, by someone who knows both the student and the plan. That aligns directly with MiMTSS Tier III, where intensive individualized intervention builds on the supports already provided through Tier I and Tier II.
At this level, the relationship carries real instructional weight.
Students who are furthest behind may work with multiple adults across their school day. A consistent tutor who knows the student’s goals, remembers what happened in the previous session, understands how the student responds to instruction, and adjusts accordingly can provide valuable continuity.
Consider a fourth grader reading two years below grade level. He works with a reading specialist on decoding, a special education teacher on written expression, and a tutor four times a week. When all three are tracking the same decoding targets, the tutor’s Tuesday session picks up where Monday’s specialist session ended. When they are not, he spends part of every session re-establishing where he is.
Tier III is also where coordination matters most and where it usually breaks down. A student might have a reading specialist, a special education teacher, a tutor, and a behavior plan. If those adults are working from different data, students absorb the inconsistency. Tier III HIT must be part of one plan. Otherwise, it becomes a fourth service on an already crowded schedule.
ASSESSMENT AT TIER III | Have we designed the right individualized plan for this student?
What we measure: Progress on the specific skills in the student’s individualized plan, using measures sensitive enough to show minor changes in learning.
How and how often:
Quick skill checks happen in every session, alongside a consistent skill-based measure given regularly enough to see whether the student is responding. The data is reviewed frequently and shared across the team supporting the student.
What it decides: Whether to stay the course, intensify support, change the approach, or better coordinate high-impact tutoring with the student’s other supports. At Tier III, the data needs to be precise enough to make those decisions together—and make them quickly.
Rethink Tier III
What actually changes at Tier III:
Group size decreases, at times to 1:1 | Frequency and intensity increase | Instruction is individualized to each student’s needs, even when delivered in a small group | Progress monitoring and whole-child supports are individualized | Progress is reviewed more frequently–not just at benchmark periods .
A Simple Way to Think About Tutoring Across MiMTSS
| MiMTSS Tier | Instructional Purpose | How High-Impact Tutoring Is Used | Desired Outcome |
| Tier I — Universal | Strengthen students’ response to core instruction | Additional practice on current grade-level learning, aligned to classroom instruction and sequence | More students master essential content before gaps require targeted intervention |
| Tier II — Supplemental, Targeted | Close a specific, identified skill need | Targeted instruction on a clearly defined skill, informed by diagnostic and progress-monitoring data | Students close specific gaps and increase their success with grade-level instruction |
| Tier III — Intensive, Individualized | Provide intensive, coordinated support | Individualized instruction, higher frequency, coordinated with the student’s other supports | Accelerated growth and a changed trajectory for students with the greatest need |
Funding High-Impact Tutoring Through Michigan’s MiMTSS Framework
Michigan has put $50 million behind high-impact tutoring for the 2026-27 school year. Section 35p of the FY 2026-27 School Aid Act funds structured, evidence-based tutoring for students who need additional support. It comes with specific design requirements and a short runway.
Start with the calendar. MDE makes award determinations by January 15, 2027, with payments reaching tutoring partners by March 15. Services have to be deployed before the end of the 2026-27 school year. That is a narrow window, so districts that get real value here will have answered the planning questions well before winter: what are we trying to accelerate, for which students, and at which tier.
Section 35p also defines what counts. Sessions must be delivered in groups of four or fewer, at least three times per week, for 20 to 30 minutes, during the school day. Providers must appear on the ProvenTutoring list maintained by Johns Hopkins, hold a Tutoring Program Design Badge from Stanford’s National Student Support Accelerator, or be vetted in MiStrategyBank. Worth checking prospective partners against those lists early, since eligibility shapes who you can contract with.
Alignment matters for sustainability, too. When tutoring runs on the same student data, instructional priorities, and progress-monitoring routines your district already uses through MiMTSS, Section 35p adds capacity to a system you already know how to run and evaluate.
Coherence is the Point
High-impact tutoring can serve a different purpose at each tier of MTSS. Within MiMTSS, those tiers form a layered continuum of supports rather than separate programs or places students are assigned. A student may need more time to practice what is being taught in the classroom, targeted instruction to address a specific skill gap, or intensive support built around an individualized plan. The purpose becomes more targeted and the support more intensive as student needs change.
Across all three tiers, alignment matters. Tutors should know what students are learning in the classroom and understand the goals they are working toward. The data collected during high-impact tutoring should connect to the systems districts already use to monitor progress and make instructional decisions. For Michigan districts, that means connecting HIT to the data and implementation structures already supporting MiMTSS. That gives teachers and support teams a clearer picture of what is working, where students are gaining ground, and when the approach needs to change.
This is where high-impact tutoring becomes part of MiMTSS rather than another program competing for time in the school day. It adds instructional capacity to the system already in place while giving districts another way to respond to student needs with greater precision.
Start with the students in front of you and the strengths and gaps within your existing MiMTSS framework. Where are students losing momentum? What is getting in the way of grade-level success? Where would additional, aligned instructional time make a meaningful difference?
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