What do parents look for in a tutor?

In my experience, in this order: that the tutor is consistent and does not change; that they explain what is wrong in plain language rather than in jargon; that the child will actually talk to them; and that progress can be seen somewhere other than in the child’s own account of it. Price matters, but it is rarely first — most families who write to me have already paid for tutoring that did not work.