Closing Inequality Education Gaps through Online Tutorship: Results from Aprendizajes para Todos in Mexico

• In Event: Student Support in an International Perspective

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary findings from an impact evaluation of Aprendizajes para Todos, a large-scale peer tutoring program implemented in Mexico to address persistent learning gaps among high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The evaluation uses a quasi-experimental design to estimate the causal effect of online peer tutoring on student learning outcomes.

 

The intervention, developed through a public-private partnership between Tec de Monterrey and state education authorities, offers personalized online tutoring sessions in math and reading comprehension. These sessions are delivered by over 5,000 university students completing their mandatory social service that participate in a 5-week training course. Since 2021, more than 22,000 public high school students have received tutoring in the program across seven states: Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Jalisco, the State of Mexico, Aguascalientes, and San Luis Potosí. The program specifically targets students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, aiming to expand access to learning support through low-cost, scalable interventions capable of reaching remote or underserved areas.

 

This preliminary evaluation leverages standardized test results from Nuevo León Aprende as outcome measures, using Nuevo León as a first test case for broader causal analysis. The test is census-based and administered to all high school grades, with a baseline applied prior to the intervention in 2022 and a follow-up in 2023. Students were matched using Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) based on their 2022 test results and sociodemographic characteristics such as gender and school. The Mexican CURP (the national population identifier) was used to link student records across datasets. This process yielded 509 comparable pairs of tutored and non-tutored students. Additional covariates—including self-reported socioemotional skills, mother’s education, and school system—were included in the analysis, all of which were collected through the preliminary questionnaire administered as part of the standardized test application. Post-matching regression analysis was conducted to estimate the treatment effect. Further robustness checks will be carried out as additional data become available.

 

The preliminary results suggest that participation in Aprendizajes para Todos led to a statistically significant average increase of 0.33 standard deviations in test scores among treated students, as measured by the 2023 Nuevo León Aprende assessment. This represents a meaningful academic gain—comparable to teacher effects, as identified in Hattie (2009)—and provides early causal evidence on the effectiveness of peer tutoring as a complement to traditional classroom instruction in upper secondary education.

 

Ongoing data collection in Nuevo León, Querétaro, and Guanajuato will support further testing of the program’s replicability and strengthen the validity of results to inform potential public policy scale-up in different state-level contexts. Continued evaluation efforts are essential to determine whether peer-based online tutoring can serve as a cost-effective, sound, and scalable public policy to reduce educational inequalities in Mexico.

Author

• MARCO ANTONIO FERNANDEZ, ITESM
  Presenting Author