Innovate Public Schools was proud to co-host the San Mateo County High-Impact Tutoring Summit last week, a powerful gathering of families, school and district leaders, community partners, tutoring providers, and researchers committed to expanding equitable access to high-impact tutoring as a proven strategy for accelerating student learning.
More than 70 attendees came together at the San Bruno Recreation & Aquatic Center to engage in meaningful conversations, share lived experiences, and build momentum for deeper collaboration across the county.
From the outset, the summit placed family voice at the center, reflecting Innovate’s core belief that families are vital decision-makers in education and critical partners in advancing equity. Families shared firsthand experiences advocating for high-impact tutoring in their districts. During a panel, parent leaders Paty Medina, Marisol Valencia Hernandez, and Shan Hong powerfully articulated how their children with IEPs directly benefitted from high-impact tutoring pilots in San Jose and San Francisco, provided by Bay Area Tutoring Association (BATA), LearnUp, and Alexander Tutoring.
Across sessions, participants discussed how high-impact tutoring must be aligned with classroom learning to reinforce grade-level content and accelerate progress, an alignment emphasized by both families and researchers from the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University.
School leaders also contributed insight into what strong partnership looks like in practice. Principal Jeremy Hilinski of Bret Harte Elementary in San Francisco encouraged providers and partners to strive to be “high leverage, low maintenance,” ensuring support systems are effective while respecting the limited time and capacity of school staff.
Beyond instruction, data and quality assurance emerged as key priorities. Both Dr. Susanna Loeb, founder and executive director of NSSA and Chris Norwood, founding executive director of the Bay Area Tutoring Association, highlighted the need to collect rigorous student outcome data to improve tutoring programs and ensure they are delivering on their promise.
Through a session led by Hasan Ali, founder and CEO of Air Tutors and Joanna French, vice president of research and policy strategies at Innovate, participants also explored how schools and communities can sustain and scale high-impact tutoring by blending and braiding multiple funding sources. Examples of these funding opportunities include Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P) funds, Learning Recovery Block Grants, LCFF and Title funds, as well as local city, county, and philanthropic resources. By connecting funding strategy with real implementation challenges, the summit created space for leaders to think holistically about resource equity and long-term program success.
As the day concluded, there was a shared recognition of both the progress made and the work ahead. Attendees affirmed a collective commitment to expand access to high-impact tutoring throughout San Mateo County, deepen alignment among educators, providers, and families, and strengthen partnerships that are rooted in student-centered equity.
Innovate Public Schools extends special thanks to the summit’s co-hosts for their collaboration and leadership: Thrive Alliance, the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University, the San Mateo County Office of Education, and the Bay Area Tutoring Association (BATA).
We are also grateful to the tutoring providers who generously shared their expertise as speakers and by tabling during the summit: Air Tutors, BATA, Elevate Tutoring, East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring (EPATT), and LearnUp.