Review of research concerning the effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction from The University of Missouri-Kansas City and other institutions from across the United States

Abstract

Educational leaders are faced with the need to make a careful selection of academic interventions from among a field of possible choices. Part of the criticism of the developmental education and learning assistance field is that it is difficult to find programs that have regular programs of rigorous evaluation. The most prevalent program on most college campuses are individual tutoring programs. In a review of the professional literature concerning tutoring, Maxwell (1990) made the following observations: some studies find that high ability or more experienced students benefit most from tutoring (p. 2); it is rare for studies to show that tutored students improved their grades (p. 2); and that there is no evidence that tutoring helps the weakest students (p. 4). Since SI is one academic treatment that is academically beneficial and attracts students in nearly equal percentages from different ethnicities and previous academic achievement levels, the institution may be able to reduce expenses since they do not have to maintain duplicate programs for each student subpopulation. It appears that no other student academic support program has the wide appeal with a research-based strategy for learning and success.