The after-school tutoring market is huge in China as families have to boost their children’s competitive advantage through paid after-school tutoring. However, mainly only relatively high-income families can afford to pay the tuition fee, as the cost is too high for vulnerable social classes. Thus, it is unknown how after-school tutoring impacts the academic performance of children from low-income families (LIFs). Li and colleagues conducted a study to explore the impact of after-school English tutoring on the academic performance of LIF children through a randomized controlled trial.

The sample consisted of 529 7th grade middle school students (54% boys) from registered poor families* (annual per capita net income lower than national rural poverty alleviation standard in 2019, ¥3747 RMB) from five schools in a county in Guizhou Province. While 120 LIF students were randomly assigned to receive a free online English tutoring program (worth ¥5000 RMB in total), the other 409 students were assigned to a control group. The program reviewed key and difficult points of English lessons from school and provided extended learning to improve students’ ability in drawing inferences, summarizing, and reaching conclusions.

Students in the treatment group attended the 2-hour online class every Saturday evening for 16 classes in first semester in the 2020-2021 school year. Students’ academic achievement was measured by first semester examination scores. After controlling baseline academic performance and students’ characteristics, results of regression analysis are presented below.

• The after-school tutoring had significant positive effect on students’ English scores (ES = +0.30)
• Higher learning ability students (higher baseline scores) benefitted more from the online program (ES = +0.27).
• Though not significant, a small spillover effect was also found on Chinese learning from the after-school English online tutoring for higher learning ability students. (ES = +0.22).
• Though not significant, the impact of the program was slightly higher on boys than girls (ES = +0.20).
• A positive effect was still found on English learning in the second semester exam scores (ES = +0.28).

The intervention being found to be effective might be due to the online English tutoring program being fully compatible with the learning content in school; it is a high-quality supplementary educational resource. The authors concluded that quality of education and teaching in economically backward areas needs to improve and that educational assistance to students from LIFs should be increased.

*Note: poverty was eliminated in China by 2020 through the efforts of Chinese government.

Source: Li, L., Yang, Y., & Zhou, L. (2022). Can after-school tutoring improve the academic performance of students from low-income families? Trial evidence from economically backward areas in China. Asia Pacific Education Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09803-3