Tutor Program Offered by Law Is Going Unused [re No Child] (NYT)

NYT ^ | Feb. 12, 2006 | Susan Saulny

[summer]

Four years after President Bush signed the landmark No Child Left Behind education law, vast numbers of students are not getting the tutoring that the law offers as one of its hallmarks.

In the nation's largest school district, New York City, fewer than half of the 215,000 eligible students sought the free tutoring, according to figures from the city's Department of Education for the school year that ended in June 2005.

In one area of the city, District 19 in eastern Brooklyn, about 3,700 students completed a tutoring program last year, even though more than 13,000 students qualified.

Yet New York's participation rate is better than the national average: across the country, roughly two million public school students were eligible for free tutoring in the school year that ended in 2004, according to the most recent data from the Department of Education, yet only 226,000 — or nearly 12 percent — received help.

City and state education officials and tutoring company executives disagree on the reasons for the low participation and cast blame on each other. But they agree that the numbers show that states and school districts have not smoothed out the difficulties that have plagued the tutoring — known as the supplemental educational services program — from its start as a novel experiment in educational entrepreneurship: largely private tutoring paid for with federal money.

Officials give multiple reasons for the problems: that the program is allotted too little federal money, is poorly advertised to parents, has too much complicated paperwork for signing up, and that it has not fully penetrated the most difficult neighborhoods, where there are high concentrations of poor, failing students....

[summer]

Based on my experience as a teacher in schools with students in need of tutoring, I can offer several reasons why students are not getting this tutoring. And, my reasons were not mentioned in this NYT article.

See my post to come in this thread.

[Jim Noble]

Why isn't Bush out there reading that goat book he likes so much?

[Jim Noble]

I can offer several reasons why students are not getting this tutoring

Lazy, or stupid, or both?

[summer]

First of all, in school districts having poor students who are coming to school by bus: these kids do not stay after school for anything because they will have no transportation home if they do.

I don't why this is so. When I grew up, there was always the "late bus" which arrived about an hour after all the other busses had left. If you missed your bus, or you stayed after school for extra help, or some club, you could always get a ride home on the late bus.

In every school district I know of, I have never seen nor heard anyone mention the "late bus." Kids today have to rely on their parents for transportation if these students miss the bus, and some kids' parents either work, have no car or are not available.

In addition, many schools I have seen as a teacher literally go into "lock-down" at the end of the school day. They don't want students on the property at all.

This is very different than the old days when I went to school, and kids returned to school to play on the playground or play tennis on the tennis courts. Nowadays, every school property has a locked fence around it, due to insurance reasons I guess. But this is not the way it always was, as I recall.

[mpoulin]

This is like a government program to offer free health club memberships to fat people.

The people who want it don't need it, and the people who need it don't want it.

[summer]

See my post #4. Also, last year I really wanted to tutor my students in my class. I was told I could get paid for tutoring if I signed up with one of these private companies -- but, I would not be allowed to choose the students I tutor, and there was no guarantee I would have my students.

Well, then -- how does that tutoring program help me, as a teacher? I am concerned with my students since I know their weaknesses and what they need.

Consequently, instead of me being able to tutor, get paid and teach my students, I have to: tutor, and not get paid extra, in order to have my students in my tutoring sessions.

And, my strudents would rather come to me as a tutor than to one of these programs that know nothing about what we are doing in class.

So, the federal program is often bypassed if the teacher is willing to tutor. To get teachers and private companies and No Child on the same page, there needs to be more flexibility by these private companies or the fed govt, re being willing to pay me as a tutor. Then, I should be able to choose my students, and make sure the students I am tutoring are the ones in my class, in addition to any other student I may tutor.

[summer]

LOL...actually, I think the intent makes sense: give the kids who can not afford to pay a tutor the tutoring services anyway.

But, here's another problem I discovered: it's hard to mail information to parents, and students don't always give information sent home to their parents. School "clerk/typsts" have said their job is not to do a mass mailing to parents. Plus, postage costs money. So, no notices get mailed en masse.

Maybe there needs to be free mailing, lcoations outside schools like churches, and better communications with teachers about this program, because teachers are the ones who may best be able to get their students to attend these programs.

[summer]

FYI.

[Born Conservative]

If you have asked to be added to this list, and haven’t been receiving the pings, please let me know. I’ve had a problem with my file synchronization between my home and work computer, and apparently have lost some names on the list. I think I have the problem fixed, and will gladly re-add your name.

[summer]

The problem seems to be mostly at the district and school level on this issue.


Ninoska Valverde, 13, who goes to a junior high school in Brooklyn that is classified as failing, said she did not know about the free tutoring program. "I'm interested in anything that would help me," she said.

[latina4dubya]

largely private tutoring paid for with federal money.

now, why is this okay, but vouchers are not?

[ClaireSolt]

You saw the problem in the teacher's post above. She wants to tutor the students in her class. Sounds reasonable, right? It might be in her case, but teachers unions are opposing the development of other ways to provide these services. They want to maintain their monopoly. In reality, those students who do not get it from her may profit more from help from another person with a different approach.

[summer]

You may be right, Claire.( BTW, I am the teacher who posted the reply you mentioned.) And, I am for all students getting as much help as they need.

But, yes, you are correct in that the union seems to always oppose any private company doing anything in education. And, that is too bad since kids need more help. Thanks for your post.

[dufekin]

The problem with many failing schools is that the teachers simply don't teach anything whatsoever. If we hire these teachers as tutors for their own students, that's giving them a bonus (incentive) to keep NOT teaching. (Those who don't teach probably wouldn't tutor either. Many of these teachers themselves don't know enough to pass the class that they're purporting to teach.) Because this incentive lasts only as long as the school remains in failing status, it gives teacher-tutors an incentive to perpetuate failure. Although your personal intentions may be good, we don't want yet another government program to degenerate into subsidized failure.

[summer]

Again, I am sympathetic to your point. And, true, some teachers who are not teaching in the first place would not want to then tutor.

[joey'smom]

Let me guess...the kids all speak Spanish and the tutors only know English.

[VOA]

thanks for posting...
this should get a lenghty expose on major media, esp. FOX News Channel...

[bboop]

I personally don't think it is the school district's/ government's problem to GET kids to school. Our district spent $1 MILLION a YEAR on busing. What about walking 5 miles through the snow? What about being responsible for your kids to get them to this wonderful, free thing that they have the opportunity to have? an education. Why is it always the government's fault?? Does not make sense.

(a teacher)

[bboop]

If the students really want it, they will find a way. "Free" is never free, really.

[P.O.E.]

So I guess that means taxpayers get their money back? Or am I to be so naive to imagine no bureaucrats scarfed up the funding anyway?