I recently came across a claim that, “one-on-one tutoring works magic” and this got me to thinking. We’re proud to to say that the vast majority of families who sign-up to work with our in-home tutors, gush about their child’s improvement or fabulous test results in just a few weeks. As a parent, I can certainly see why they might call this magic.

But, if you have a struggling student who fills-in learning gaps, improves grades, and gains confidence from tutoring, is it really magic? As a business owner, I would argue there is nothing magical about it. The students have taken the time to sit down with a tutor to learn information that was eluding them. We have provided these students with experienced teachers and they have had the benefit of one-on-one attention to address their specific learning needs. It seems obvious that this directed support gives kids the foundation, skills, information or support they may have missed in the classroom.

In some cases, however, students who are matched with the same qualified, capable tutors, do not experience magical results. Years ago, this left us scratching our heads. We believed every child could improve with quality tutoring. We carefully screened all tutors to make sure they were seasoned professionals, had teaching experience, and were highly reliable. Sure, some kids learn faster, but why is it that so many students felt the magic while a few continued to struggle or concluded that tutoring didn’t work. Why wasn’t every child experiencing the spectacular results we set out to provide?

And then we had our “aha” moment. And, like tutoring success, it was not due to magic. In our case, it was thanks to good old-fashioned number crunching. After looking at tutoring schedules and student success rates, we recognized that students who were not feeling the magic, were also not getting the prescribed tutoring.

When our successful students had scheduling conflicts, they did not skip tutoring, but rescheduled with the tutor for another day. When we recommended a certain amount of weekly tutoring, these families took it to heart. Even on weeks when our successful tutees were feeling good about their work, they met with the tutor to understand the deeper concepts in order to apply their knowledge on a broader scale. Many took advantage of tutoring during less hectic vacation weeks and summer to fill learning gaps or get ahead. In speaking with parents and tutors, we found families of successful students kept their appointments, were responsive to our calls, and worked closely with us to identify areas of progress, establish new objectives, and redefine tutoring goals and schedules over time.

Although a good magician never reveals the secret, in this case I’ll make an exception. For families who want magical tutoring results, the trick is simple… make consistent tutoring the priority.