A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Peer Tutoring on Emergent Bilinguals' Academic Achievement

This meta-analysis investigated the effects of peer tutoring interventions on the academic achievement of Emergent Bilingual (EB) students from preschool through Grade 12. Fourteen studies, including peer-reviewed journal articles and unpublished dissertations published between 2010 and 2021, were analyzed based on study characteristics, student variables, and intervention characteristics. The findings indicate that peer tutoring yielded a moderate effect size (g = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.22-0.94) on EBs' academic outcomes. The majority of studies focused on elementary-aged students, with significantly fewer studies addressing preschool or secondary-level EBs. Nearly all studies involved Spanish-speaking students (n = 14), and most targeted reading outcomes demonstrated a moderate effect size (g = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.24-1.00). Only a limited number of effects came from studies involving EBs with disabilities. These findings underscore the potential of peer tutoring to support reading development among EBs while highlighting critical research gaps, particularly at the secondary level and in core content areas such as mathematics. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.