Introduction to the Issue
As a tutor at Eugene Field Elementary School in Rogers Park on the North Side, Jacob Wilcox spent the last year listening to a small group of students read sentences out loud to figure out where they were struggling and build confidence. “You see so much growth from students when they have that one-on-one support,” he said. Wilcox said many of his mostly low-income, often multilingual students never had an opportunity for tutoring until he arrived.
The Impact of Layoffs
But this type of individualized support for literacy is vanishing from Chicago Public Schools next year. Wilcox and 530 other tutors got layoff notices this week. Their last day will be May 30. The hiring of hundreds of tutors was one of CPS’ key strategies to shore up learning as students returned to in-person classes after the COVID-19 pandemic. And when elementary school reading scores rebounded, leaders credited the tutors in part for the improvements.
Reason Behind the Layoffs
CPS said in a statement Friday that it’s “refining and refocusing the program in response to key lessons learned and in alignment with current district resources.” This year, 200-plus schools had literacy and math tutors, but next year only 55 will get math tutors for middle school students, according to CPS. CPS is facing a budget deficit of at least $529 million. Also, soon-to-be-released research suggests that the expanded CPS tutor program was not as effective as prior studies suggested tutoring could be.
Alternative Support Systems
CPS officials noted that they were planning to continue other supports put in place post-pandemic, such as providing some schools with extra teachers called interventionists. But the layoffs bring to an end one of the biggest tutoring efforts in the country. At the onset, district leaders set out to use $25 million in federal COVID-19 relief money to hire as many 800 tutors.
Effectiveness of Tutoring
After a launch in 2021, CPS eventually had hundreds of tutors, and they were stationed in most schools. Since then, it has targeted resources in the schools whose students needed the most support. In 2025, the budget was $10 million. But there’s a lot of variation among schools in how they are using tutors, said Monica Bhatt, senior research director for the University of Chicago Education Lab. Some students had sessions several times a week, while others averaged once a week or even less. Bhatt said tutoring could be a “very effective accelerant” for student learning when it’s implemented well. The key is getting a high enough dosage of tutoring to realize those big gains for students and families, she said.
Conclusion
The layoffs of hundreds of tutors in Chicago Public Schools mark the end of a significant tutoring effort that was aimed at supporting students after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the program showed promise, its effectiveness varied, and the district is now refining its approach to better align with available resources. The impact of these layoffs on student learning and the future of tutoring programs in CPS remains to be seen.
FAQs
- Q: How many tutors were laid off by Chicago Public Schools?
- A: 530 tutors were laid off.
- Q: What was the reason behind the layoffs?
- A: The reason includes CPS refining and refocusing the program due to lessons learned and current district resources, as well as facing a budget deficit.
- Q: Will any tutoring programs continue?
- A: Yes, CPS plans to continue other support systems, such as providing some schools with extra teachers called interventionists, and next year, 55 schools will get math tutors for middle school students.
- Q: What was the initial goal of the tutoring program?
- A: The initial goal was to use $25 million in federal COVID-19 relief money to hire as many as 800 tutors to support learning after the pandemic.
