BUILDING CONFIDENCE AND COMPETENCE: EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF PEER TUTORING ON HIGH SCHOOL MATH PERFORMANCE AND SELF-EFFICACY

Abstract

Multiple factors contribute to schools nationwide having an increasing number of teacher vacancies upon the start of each school year. Pay dissatisfaction, high workload, increased expectations with paperwork, and concerns with educational policy are among the reasons that teachers indicate regarding why they leave the profession. With high levels of teacher departures and a diminished pipeline of incoming teachers to fill vacancies, school administrators must explore other strategies to maintain quality instruction. Peer tutoring is one such strategy and involves high-performing students assisting their peers to provide academic support. Often, there can be social-emotional benefits from peer tutoring as well. At Traditional High School, following the COVID-19 pandemic, math scores were trailing behind the state average. A peer tutoring program was identified as a viable strategy to improve math scores, address the math achievement gap at the school, and place another person in the classroom to help remediate struggling students. This inquiry aimed to examine the effects of this peer tutoring program framework on student attitudes, math achievement, and self- confidence. Using a mixed-methods approach, data from state testing, student surveys, and teacher and peer tutor interviews were collected and analyzed to evaluate how peer tutoring impacted growth and academic success. Findings indicate that peer tutoring increases student attitudes toward math, student self-efficacy, and student achievement in mathematics. The framework implemented for peer tutoring may be replicable in other content areas and similar instructional setting. The findings also offer important insights for improving math performance outcomes and easing the strain caused by teacher shortages in similar schools.