Tutors Say Parents, Kids Missing Free Help

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - Schools are blocking huge numbers of poor children from getting free tutoring, civil rights advocates and private tutoring companies said Thursday.

In a Capitol meeting sponsored by House and Senate education leaders of both parties, tutoring providers pointed to what they called an unkept federal promise.

Low-income parents are supposed to get a free tutor for any child who goes to a school that gets federal poverty aid but has not made steady progress for three straight years.

Parents get to pick the tutor they want — even a private one — from a state list.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_go_ot/school_tutors

[Wilms]

1. Damn!

snip

Only 11 percent of eligible children, or 226,000 out of nearly 2 million students who qualify, received tutoring in the 2004 school year, according to the Education Department.

snip

The low numbers of tutored students are not because of a lack of interest, but because some schools make getting help nearly impossible for parents, tutoring advocates said. Their examples:

_Publicity that is so filled with jargon that parents don't understand it. "It needs to say two words: free tutoring," said Leigh Hopkins, vice president for education at Public/Private Ventures, a nonprofit think tank.

_Registration sessions are held in the middle of the work day, when parents cannot attend.

_School administrators and school board members who make it difficult for tutors to get time or space inside schools, or even to talk directly to teachers.

Panelists also spoke of schools and districts that dissuade parents from accepting tutoring on grounds that it would eat up federal aid that schools need for other reasons.

snip/damn

[kaygore]

2. This was a Republican "gift" to Sylvan Learning initially

I attended one of the hearings that was held across the country to get public input on the reauthorization of Title 1 (AKA No Child Left Behind). This portion of the reauthorization was challenged in the hearing I attended and was widely discussed as a give away to the private tutoring programs such as Sylvan.

[sandnsea]

3. We have an after school program

Have had for years, long before NCLB. When kids aren't doing well in classes, the school contacts the parents and recommends they go to the after school study program. I don't know about all the funding, but they even have McDonalds burgers and fries. Various people volunteer, along with teachers. All a school would have to do is use the NCLB money to hire tutors, call the parents, and have a tutoring program. I don't understand why some schools make this stuff so complicated. It wouldn't work for all kids, but it would help alot more than 10%. The ones who couldn't make it to the after school program would sign up for the "free tutor". Yes, that's what should be at the top of a notice with a phone number, and not a heck of alot more.

[rucky]

4. I am one of those tutors.

In Dayton, all the parents know about it, but only a few take advantage of it.