History

Tutoring Plus has been providing academic support to Cambridge students for over 40 years. Please continue reading to learn about Tutoring Plus's evolution from a community idea to a professional organization.

Tutoring Plus was started in 1964, when a group of Cambridge mothers seeking more academic support for their children tapped into a new source - MIT student tutors. The Mothers' Executive Committee of the Cambridge Neighborhood House established an initial partnership with the MIT Social Service Committee, and started one of the longest-running out-of-school academic programs for Cambridge students. Mothers volunteered to meet tutors and match them with students, and tutoring sessions mostly took place in students' homes. In 1971, Tutoring Plus was incorporated as a non-profit organization, and donations supported a small paid staff. Mothers, students, and community members continued to volunteer, providing most of the programs' services.

In the mid-70s, Tutoring Plus added a Learning Center to its home-based tutoring program to provide more homework help and enrichment activities through small group tutoring in a safe learning environment. Since then Tutoring Plus has continued to offer both one-on-one and center-based programs. In 2003, Tutoring Plus staff began a training program for tutors to develop skills for academic support and relationship building with students to encourage their success. Tutors appreciated this training; they told us how helpful it was to them, and we realized that providing more structure and support for tutors not only improved tutoring but encouraged longer commitments by tutors to our program and to students. More tutors stayed with us from year to year.

After serving elementary and middle school students for many years, Tutoring Plus added high school programs though new community partnerships with an athlete’s tutoring center at the high school and with the Cambridge Housing Authority's WorkForce Program. Our programs for elementary students moved into school settings - Fletcher Maynard Academy, King Open School, and most recently Cambridgeport School. Since 2004, Tutoring Plus has run enrichment classes as well as tutoring, beginning with a Science Explorers program developed for elementary students by MIT tutors. At the request of the school that houses our largest center, we found a math curriculum that supported tutors working with students on math word problems. Then a partnership, including Vecna Technologies, Inc. and additional MIT students, led to the creation of engineering classes for grades 7-8 that allows students to design and build machines to solve simple engineering problems.

Tutoring Plus now offers three Middle School Tutoring Centers, three high school tutoring sites in Cambridge Public Housing, and four math, science and engineering classes for grades 4-8. Our small staff focuses on organizing our many volunteers and families into working for productive academic results, reaching out to meet with students' teachers, and developing additional community partnerships to bring greater resources to our students.