There’s an interesting little cluster of tutoring-related pieces out over the last couple of days, including a relatively fair-minded critique from USA Today’s editorial page (Taxpayer-funded tutoring fails), a predictable and unsatisfying defense from EdSec Spellings (Tutoring shows success), and an investigative piece from the Miami Herald (Needy Students Deprived of Tutoring.) I think it’s a mistake to expect proof of the program’s effectiveness (a problem in all of education, not just tutoring), judge the law based on its goals rather than its accomplishments, and -- especially -- to leave out the state, district, and school-based roles in making or breaking the program.