CSTutorBench: Benchmarking Small Language Models as Tutors for Block-Based Programming

Abstract

arXiv:2607.05571v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Large language models are increasingly explored as AI tutors, yet deploying them in K-12 settings raises concerns around privacy, cost, and reliance on proprietary models. Small language models (SLMs) offer a promising alternative, but selecting the right model for a specific educational context remains difficult, particularly when the target domain, such as block-based programming, is largely absent from model training data. We introduce CSTutorBe