Dyslexia is the most common cause of problems in writing, spelling and reading. About 20% of the population has some language learning disability and about 80% of them have dyslexia.

Children with dyslexia often have a high level of intelligence, but they were often mistaken as slow learners because of their condition. They lag behind their classes. This builds frustration within them and changes their attitudes towards school. They lose their interest, which greatly affects their academic performance.

Dyslexia can take many forms at different intensities, which makes a correct diagnosis of dyslexia difficult. Some children with dyslexia do not receive the proper attention for their learning problem.

Indirectly, in-home tutoring helps children with dyslexia, although it is not part of therapy. A correct diagnosis should always come first. From this, educators and parents can create a learning program to help dyslexics cope with school.

If the problem is indeed dyslexia, then there are professional tutors specially trained to teach children with dyslexia. They have specialized modules and learning materials that make learning fun and easy for any child.

Tutorial modules for children with dyslexia involve sensory activities. Since they have trouble reading texts they can learn through the other senses like through listening to music. Most children with dyslexia can do easy reading of very simple text, but have trouble with higher level reading skills, such as paragraphs.

In-home tutors can help the child improve reading and writing skills by giving various exercises that gradually develop the child’s confidence. The child eventually succeeds in learning along with classmates in a regular classroom setting.

Teachers teach a class, but tutors facilitate learning. As learning facilitators, tutors are more effective than teachers. Teachers usually teach up to 30 children in one class. The group setting most effective for learning should only have up to 15 students in one class. A tutoring session, on one hand, usually consists of one tutor to one or two students, which is an ideal set up.

Tutors, especially summer tutors, bridge the gaps in learning in a classroom setting. Summer tutors focus on their students’ needs more than a teacher can do in the classroom. Students who enroll in summer classes benefit from this one-on-one guidance. Tutors closely monitor their progress and immediately apply interventions.

Several reasons for summer tutoring exist. Since the teaching set-up is one on one, the lessons focus on the child’s needs. A summer tutor pays more attention to the child’s learning process and can attend to the child’s weaknesses. Aside from that, summer tutoring address the child’s learning style and matches it to the pacing of the lessons.

In the classroom set-up, the teacher attends to an average of twenty to thirty students. Naturally, students learn at different levels and speed, and using different styles. Some students need lengthy discussions and more time to digest the lesson, while others read the materials and study on their own.

If the majority of the students understood the lesson, then the teacher moves forward, leaving behind one or two students in the process. In-house tutors help these children catch up with the rest of the class.

A summer tutor also makes it easier to diagnose learning problems. Although tutors are not expected to diagnose and correct these problems, they may give advice or refer the child to the proper professional.

For parents who cannot find time to help their children with homework or projects, summer tutors act as substitutes. Children can easily manage schoolwork while parents get the assurance that their child’s needs are met.

A sudden drop in the grades of your child indicates a disturbance in learning, but it does not necessarily mean your child needs tutoring. Disturbances, such as a death in the family, a long period of illness or a sudden change in the child’s home life, can affect the child’s grades.

Another factor contributing to low academic performance could be the absence of challenges in school. The child might be a fast learner who finds the pace of regular classes boring. The teacher and the teaching method also affect a child’s performance. Changes in the child’s social circle also affect the child’s attitude towards school and learning.

While most children easily cope with demanding schoolwork, some kids lack the intellectual stamina to keep up. A pattern of low grades and lack of initiative to participate in school show a set of alarming behavior in children. These children need more attention and help from someone who understands their difficulties in learning.

A teacher can help, but the rigid schedule at school, and the strict rules of some schools in disallowing tutoring jobs for their faculty, restricts the capacity of a teacher to tutor students beyond school hours. Hiring a professional seems a better alternative, aside from parents putting in time helping their children with schoolwork.

In-house tutoring, as opposed to online tutoring, provides more than academic assistance. Another human being who does not appear to be on the same level of authority as teachers eases the flow of learning. Pressure from maintaining good grades, getting high scores in exams, and competing with other children do not exist in in-house tutoring.

The most important basis for hiring an in-house tutor answers the question: Does your child actually need tutoring? Observe your child’s attitude towards learning. Is your child showing distaste to studying? Does it affect your child’s self-esteem? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you should consider in-house tutoring. If he or she remains curious and exhibits a desire to know, then the problem could be in school.

Some parents prefer to give their child a chance to recover from low grades. However, if you see your child try his or her best, and yet grades remain low, then it would be better to hire an in-house tutor.

Most of the time teachers take a proactive approach and recommend tutorials to students who seem to require some help. The teachers usually call the attention of the parents and discuss with them how to help their child cope up with schoolwork.

Parents often have second thoughts when hiring tutors. They hesitate because they hope the child can still improve without the need for a tutor. The think children can overcome that phase eventually.

Some parents mistake tutors as expensive ways to deal with their child’s academic woes. This wrong perception probably came from novels and films featuring scenes of governesses and private tutors working for the rich.

However, times have changed and private tutors do not only work for the rich, but more so for the disadvantaged students who truly need their help. Aside from that, private in-home tutors do not charge exorbitant fees to help children learn.

If you and your child feel a tutor will greatly help improve your child’ academic performance, then you should look for the following qualities when hiring a professional tutor:

Well-trained: Look for tutors who have undergone the right training to handle children with learning disabilities, behavior problems, and other possible causes for the child’s difficulty in dealing with lessons and pressure at school.

Also, seek the ones with extensive training in the subjects they tutor; ask for certifications and recommendations from previous employers and from previous clients, if possible. A tutor has to be equipped with the necessary knowledge that he or she can impart to the child.

Positive attitude: A tutor must have a personal investment in the child’s welfare. Look for someone who loves children and teaching. This positive attitude leads to positive actions during the tutorial sessions. A tutor with a positive attitude motivates the child to take the initiative to learn.

Passionate: This trait often goes with a positive attitude. The tutor who loves what he or she is doing can impart the same love of learning to the child. This same trait also leads the tutor to show patience and determination in helping the child.

Reliable: Being reliable as a tutor has many indicators. Professional tutors are punctual and prompt. They come to the scheduled time and place early and well prepared for every lesson.

Empathetic: A tutor who can put himself or herself in the shoes of the child would be a good choice. A good tutor understands how the child feels and knows how to relate to the child. While the tutor has the expertise and knowledge to teach, he or she should also learn to pace the lessons according to the child’s learning style and speed.

Face-to-face interviews, recommendations and feedback from other clients help parents decide which tutor to hire. To be sure, parents should hire a tutor from a reputable source, such as from an agency or from an online source, which provides testimonials from previous clients.

Peer tutoring is not new to the world of education. Having students help their fellow students learn the lessons was a serendipitous innovation developed by Mr Andrew Bell of England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Andrew Bell primarily wanted to save money by using trays of sand as writing materials at the Military Male Asylum in Egmore. To make sure the sand trays were being used, Bell used some students as monitors, which were children who taught other students using the sand trays.

Later, Bell realized the use of having students teach other students in class has its benefits. The students were segregated into two types of classes: the well performing students and those who were struggling with their lessons. The achievers were utilized as peer tutors to their under-performing fellow students.

On one hand, the teachers and their teaching assistants worked in “helping children, monitoring the tutors and quizzing students to make sure the teaching system was working,” as described by Brendan Dabkowski in his paper, The History Of Peer Tutoring. This systemic approach to tutoring was adopted and later expanded by Joseph Lancaster in his school.

Lancaster’s peer tutors were provided with detailed teaching materials and answer keys for testing students with their knowledge of the lessons. All these was done while the teacher was focused in one group of boys in a class of hundreds.

William Fowle, another educator who embraced this system, conducted studies on peer tutoring and found that the children were able to teach their fellow students more effectively than adults could.

The ideas of these men spread to the United States, where few teachers worked. The educational system was still developing and financial support was hard to come by. The teachers relied on the better students to tutor their peers.

Source: Dabkowski, Brendan. The History Of Peer Tutoring. http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/VIII/dabkowski.html. 2000

Stepping Stone Tutors, a home tutor service specializing in matching students with local tutors announces a new milestone, six years in business. In addition to hiring mostly credentialed teachers and professionals with graduate degrees, Stepping Stone Tutors, since its inception, has never required contracts and conducts a 50 state criminal and sex offender background check on every applicant.

Bend, OR (PRWEB) January 27, 2010 — Stepping Stone Tutors, a company specializing in home tutoring for K-12 subjects, including test-prep for the ASVAB, GED, SAT, and ACT announces a new milestone, six years in business.

“The down economy has definitely increased the number of tutors looking for jobs which is great for us because we have an excellent pool of very experienced tutors to choose from” says Cogen. In addition to hiring mostly credentialed teachers and professionals with graduate degrees, Stepping Stone Tutors, since its inception, has never required contracts and conducts a 50 state criminal and sex offender background check on every applicant.

Stepping Stone Tutors

Stepping Stone Tutors, a home tutor service specializing in matching students with local tutors announces a new milestone, six years in business. “When we first started out, the company was actually called ‘Book Worm Tutoring’ but right up the road in Carlsbad, CA (we were in San Diego at the time) there was another service called ‘Book Worm Tutors’ so within the first month of being in business we had to change the name. The funny thing is that I don’t even think the other company is still in business. After building a website I realized ‘well I should probably go hire some tutors now.’ I’ll always remember sitting down with the first group of Stepping Stone Tutor applicants at Cafe976 and hiring the first 6 tutors. You know after that, you go back to the office and more or less wait for the phone to ring” said Andrew Cogen, CEO of Stepping Stone Tutors. And the phone did ring (and ring, and ring) until a small operation of a handful of tutors morphed into a network of more than 150 tutors throughout the West coast and Southwest.

With Stepping Stone Tutors, students are able to request an in-home tutor for their location and within 24 hours (or less) start working on current assignments or get ready for an upcoming test. The company provides home tutors for nearly every grade level and subject matter. Students are able to meet with tutors face-to-face as frequently or infrequently as needed and are able to develop long-term relationships that can pay dividends later on.

“Aside from a ton of repeat business from returning customers we have recently started to tap into social networking to spread the word about our tutoring service” says Cogen, “We now maintain a blog or you can follow us on Twitter.”

About the Company: Stepping Stone Tutors was founded in 2004. A home tutoring service, it has matched thousands of students with home tutors in more than 18 cities nationwide.

The National Guard recently raised their test score requirements on the Armed Services Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) from a 31 to a 50 so students who need a few more points or are rusty on the material (mostly high school level math, science, and English) might want to consider looking for a tutor.

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For a limited time Stepping Stone Tutors is offering reduced pricing for in home tutoring services.  As always, there are never any contracts or sign-up fees. Our tutors are college graduates and can help with most K-12 subjects.

In home tutoring service is available for San Diego, Irvine, Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco, Bend, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Denver, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.

Stepping Stone Tutors, a company specializing in home tutoring for K-12 subjects, announces that it now has more than 18 locations nationwide.

Bend, OR September 22, 2009 — Stepping Stone Tutors, an in-home tutoring service specializing in matching students with local tutors, announces that it now offers in-home tutoring in more than 18 cities nationwide. With so many tutors to choose from, students can be confident they will be able to find one just right for their needs, no matter what the subject.

Students are able to request a tutor for their location and within 24 hours start working on current assignments in the comfort of their own home. Each tutor is required to meet a list of requirements including education level, number of years experience, and a 50 state criminal and sex offender background search.

“Because we have been doing this since 2004, we can be pretty selective about who we hire to work for us.  I would say that probably only the top 5% of applicants are selected to become Stepping Stone Tutors.  We literally receive 100-200 applications a day for people wanted to work for us.  The problem is that just having a college degree and doing some tutoring her and there with your little brother or sister doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be a good tutor.  We look for tutors who have a genuine passion for helping students understand the material not just someone who wants to make money.  Most of our tutors have graduate degrees and are experts in the subjects they tutor and most importantly, love what they do.” said Andrew Cogen, CEO of Stepping Stone Tutors.

Stepping Stone Tutors offers tutors for nearly every grade level and subject matter. Students are able to meet with our tutors face-to-face as frequently or infrequently as needed and are able to develop long-term relationships that can pay dividends when test time comes around.

Stepping Stone Tutors began in 2004 in San Diego, CA and originally focused its efforts on the San Diego County area. Since then, the company has matched thousands of students with private tutoring service in more than 18 cities.

“We’re excited to have added over 200 tutors since we started Stepping Stone Tutors. Our tutors range from college graduates to young professionals to retirees who want to keep busy. We know that whether our students are looking for an algebra, Spanish, or English tutors we’ll be able to provide a great one. Our students’ success is very important to us and we want to make sure both our students and tutors have the tools they need to be successful,” said Cogen.

About Stepping Stone Tutors: In-home tutoring service, Stepping Stone Tutors, (http://www.steppingstonetutors.com) helps parents and students locate qualified, certified in-home tutors at an affordable price. In addition to one-on-one tutoring with math tutors, physics tutors, calculus tutors and more.

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[Re-syndicated from cbsnews.com]

All You Need To Know About Tutoring

Photo (CBS/The Early Show)

Interactive Education In AmericaBackpack ready? Learn more about education in America through fun facts, national statistics and unusual schools.

(CBS)

There are several signs that will indicate to parents that their child needs a tutor, says Edward Gordon, a tutoring consultant for the federal and state governments and author of “Tutor Quest.”

According to Gordon, parents spend approximately $8 billion a year on tutors. He said the federal government will spend about $1 billion to pay for tutors due to the “No Child Left Behind” Act that was passed by Congress in January of 2002.

Under this legislation, children who attend schools that do not meet new government standards and are determined to be “failing” schools for two consecutive years will have the option to transfer to better schools and receive tutoring.

Here are some signs to find out whether your child needs a tutor:

• Continued failing grades in school.
• Child is constantly making excuses as to why he or she is not doing homework. The student is unhappy in school or having problems in general that you are aware of.
• The teacher sends notes home to you and you have to go to school because there is disruptive behavior, a pattern that goes on for at least a full school year.”The typical pattern is the child gets a bad report card in the first semester and the second semester they get a second bad report card. In February through May, that’s when the parents typically take action and get a tutor because they don ‘t want the child to go to summer school or to repeat a grade,” Gordon says.

Gordon says there is no such thing as a lazy child. “That is a symptom. It’s a question of motivation or if the child is having a problem processing the information or if there is a problem at home, such as parents going through a divorce.”

So if your child is falling behind, Gordon recommends getting a tutor to help him or her catch up. “The purpose of tutoring is to speed up the learning process, make up the skills the child has lost and get them back up to the instructional level so the teacher in the classroom can continue the learning process with the child,” he says.

Here are some typical ways of finding a tutor:

• Network through friends
• The public library
• Teachers acquaintances, but not necessarily at the school child goes to. Gordon says the school the child attends may be hesitant to recommend a tutor for liability reasons.
• Volunteer organizations, such as church organizations
• Web sites and the yellow pages

Gordon says the first thing that any parents who are interviewing a prospective tutor should ask is how many years of experience does the person have in teaching the specific subject or area of concern. If the child has a learning disability, reading problem like dyslexia or attention deficit disorder, find out if the tutor is trained to identify and work with children who have this problem.

“You need someone with at least five years or more experience,” says Gordon. “Second, ask if they have a degree in the area they are going to teach and if they are certified to teach in this area. Many people need help in math and science, particularly high school students. Teachers who are not certified can still be good. You may have a teacher who has many years of experience teaching math on a college level and has a degree, but is not certified to teach high school.”

He notes that having degrees and experience does not necessarily mean the person will be a good teacher. “There are certain things you should look for. The teacher needs to be able to explain in laymen’s terms what they are going do, how are they going to find out what the child’s problem is and how they will go about improving the child’s skills,” he says.

Most tutoring programs work with the child on average three to four months, seeing the child for an hour’s session two to three times a week. “Less than twice a week is often a waste of time because it’s not enough assistance,” he says.

Although a tutor cannot give a guarantee, Gordon says, the tutor can give parents some idea of what their expectations should be for success.

There are two aspects of tutoring, he explains:”While the tutor is there, what they do; and afterwards, after the tutor leaves, what do they do to make sure that the homework is done. Do they check it and make sure the child does whatever the tutor suggests?” And after the tutoring is over, he says, what are you doing to continue to reinforce it on a day-to-day basis? He says parents should also make sure the child has a quiet place to study and the supplies he needs. The parent shouldn’t do the child’s homework, but be willing to help, if needed.

The primary motivation of the child to learn comes from the parent, Gordon says. The following is a list of things that a parent should do to reinforce what the tutor is doing:

• Check homework everyday (assigned by the school and the tutor).
• Structure time to do homework
• Provide a quiet place to study
• Be available to help, but don’t do the work
• Show that reading and education are important.

Gordon estimates that the cost to hire a private tutor in the U.S. ranges from to $20 to $150 an hour, depending on the area of the country and what the tutor is doing.

© MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[re-syndicated from wsj.com]

By Sue Shellenbarger

Associated Press

Most times when I try to teach my children something – how to mow the lawn, do a budget or clean a toilet – I feel as if I have a positive or at least a neutral effect – with one big exception.

When I have tried to tutor my children in school, or simply help with homework, I often feel like Typhoid Mary. In most cases I have managed only to confuse them.

As the school year revs up, many parents are now trying to figure out how best to help their kids academically. More parents are trying to tutor their kids at ever-younger ages, as pressures mount for even the youngest children to perform well in school. Based on my e-mail, though, tutoring is no slam-dunk for parents; many puzzle over how they can wield deep professional skills at work, yet fail so completely at tutoring their children in related skills at home.

Studies on the value of parent tutoring for elementary-age children yield mixed results, as shown here and here.

For older students, say Duke University researchers Nancy Hill and Diana Tyson in a recently published study, parental tutoring is linked to worse performance in school. By middle school, the researchers say, students may see parents’ attempts to help as interference or pressure. Parents often confuse students by presenting material in different ways than teachers. Also, parents may not dive in to help until a student is already in trouble, and the students know that, reinforcing their discouragement.

Parents who are anxious about school or test performance can easily infect their kids with the same angst. One mother I interviewed, who started a professional tutoring service helping students prepare for the SAT and ACT, says she spends a lot of time undoing the anxiety and confusion caused by parents who try first to tutor their kids themselves.

If do-it-yourself tutoring is your only option, confer with teachers and brush up your skills before you begin, experts say. Don’t make the mistake I did – trying to figure out your kids’ homework while working side-by-side with them. Working with my stepdaughter on her algebra homework years ago, I found her assignments so baffling that I had to give up in frustration. And my son and I halted our junior-high algebra sessions years ago, after several meltdowns. He’s been doing great ever since – with no help whatsoever from me. I have watched in joy and relief as he has surpassed me in math, both in grades and the difficulty of his courses.

Readers, what has been your experience tutoring your own children? Have you found ways to make the sessions work?

]Re-syndicated from “The Independent”]

By Jaisal Noor
From the September 18, 2009 issue | Posted in Jaisal Noor , Local

SIGN ME UP: Dan Brown, 20, enlisted at a U.S. Marine recruiting station in Brooklyn Heights in mid-September after a five-month long job search. Brown, a Jamaican immigrant, said that one of the advantages of enlisting was receiving U.S. citizenship. PHOTO: JAISAL NOOR

When high school senior Ciarra Boyd recently persuaded her friend to not join the U.S. military, she got something she was not expecting: an irate call from her friend’s recruiter.

Boyd, who lives in the South Bronx and attends Urban Academy High School on Manhattan’s East Side, says she was deeply shaken by the experience.

“He [the recruiter] is yelling at me on the phone, ‘You need to mind your business. He’s a man, he can make his own decisions. You’re lucky I don’t know where you live,’” said Boyd, a member of the Ya-Ya Network, a student-driven organization involved in “counter-recruiting,” or stopping teens from joining the military.

New regulations by New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein announced earlier this year hope to monitor U.S. military recruiters who focus on courting high school students. Under the new rules, which take effect this semester, recruiters will be banned from using class time for presentations and all 9th to 12th grade students will be given forms to opt out of the provision in the No Child Left Behind Act, which automatically releases students’ contact information to recruiters.

“I don’t want to just be fed a whole bunch of lies and possibly die in Iraq,” said Tracy Hobbs, a Flatbush senior who attends Metropolitan High School in Brownsville. Hobbs is also a member of the Ya-Ya Network.

Also under the new mandate, each school must select a school official to coordinate these efforts. Schools will also be prohibited from automatically releasing test scores and contact information to the military for students who have taken the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test (ASVAB).

A report on student experiences with recruiters that was released by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in 2007 charges that the city’s Department of Education (DOE) has failed to protect students’ rights.

Of the 1,000 students surveyed in the report, 40 percent did not receive opt-out forms at the beginning of the school year, and 45 percent were unfamiliar with the procedure for reporting recruiter misconduct.

While optimistic, many advocates are concerned about how the rules will be implemented. Ya-Ya Network Executive Director Amy Wagner says enforcing the new regulations will be difficult if students, parents and teachers are not aware of them.

There has been so little press coverage of the new rules that when The Indypendent contacted two different military recruiter spokespeople, it appeared neither knew the regulations existed.

While this policy change is the result of six years of lobbying efforts by the NYCLU, the Students or Soldiers? Coalition and other community groups, many still worry that these changes will be inadequate to prevent teens from enlisting.

Advocates are concerned that the rules will not affect how the military disproportionally targets poorer and minority communities. According to the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker social justice organization, lower-income neighborhoods, such as the South Bronx, East New York and Flatbush, have higher rates of military recruitment, while more affluent areas have lower rates.

While recruiting rates had dropped in recent years, the economic recession, however, has forced many people, like Dan Brown, to reconsider enlisting. Brown said he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at the Brooklyn Heights recruiting station in mid-September after looking for a job for five months. In the first six months of 2009, the military reported that it exceeded its active duty recruitment goals by 5 percent.

According to the progessive think tank National Priorities Project, in 2008 52 percent of U.S. Army recruits were under the age of 21, and 82 percent were 24 and under. The Army accounts for nearly half of total recruiting numbers.

While the new rules will make it more difficult for the military to contact students, the military collects information in many other ways, including data mining, online career tests, video games and marketing software.

With more than 260,000 high school students, New York City is the largest schooldistrict in the country. Advocates hope that Klein’s regulations will serve as an example for others districts and they plan to hold DOE accountable. Currently only a handful of other cities, including Los Angeles and Portland,Ore., limit recruitment efforts in schools.

Advocates are concerned over the absence of a provision that would allow students to report problems they may have with recruiters. “This policy fails to set out a clear, definite grievance procedure where if students have a problem, where to go, how to deal with it, ” said Ari Rosmarin, the NYCLU’s senior advocacy coordinator who has worked on the campaign to create the guidelines for the past five years.

“Advocates, community members, students, we are all looking this year to see if the DOE is actually going to live up to its word and implement this policy,” Rosmarin added.

For more information, and to download opt-out forms, visit http://www.nyclu.org/milrec/optout.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Parents Start to Look For Tutoring Services as School Starts

Bend, OR – September 15, 2009 – With school starting, parents are looking for tutoring services which can deliver results.  If you go with a company, ask what their guarantees are and what kind of results they can deliver.

Because our tutors are among the best in the industry, we are able to guarantee results and also the lowest rates relative to our competitors especially for test-preparation.

Stepping Stone Tutors has started a price match guarantee for the 2009/2010 school year and will beat any competitor rate by 10%.  We also guarantee that students will improve their grades, study skills, understanding of material, and most importantly, self confidence.

About Our Company

Stepping Stone Tutors provides in-home tutors for most academic subjects and all ages. We will meet with you at a time that is convenient and conducive to learning. A tutor will come your home, office, or nearby library depending on your preference. Our tutors are college graduates, have at least 3 years of teaching or tutoring experience, and have passed a background check. We employ credentialed teachers and professional tutors who work well with students of all ages and learning styles and are experts in their subject areas.

Contact Info:

Andrew Cogen
 Stepping Stone Tutors 
2379 NW 2nd Street
 Bend / OR / 97701 Phone: 888-303-8088
 Email: a.cogen@steppingstonetutors.com
 Web: http://steppingstonetutors.com

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The Oregon Department of Education is working on creating a test for students who speak English as their second, not first language.  It appears that the current test required for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by the Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program is biased towards native English speakers.

The new test in Oregon called the “Aprenda” will cater to Spanish speaking Oregonians and will meet federal guidelines for NCLB

The Oregon Department of Education is working on creating a test for students who speak English as their second, not first language.  It appears that the current test required for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by the Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program is biased towards native English speakers.

The new test in Oregon called the “Aprenda” will cater to Spanish speaking Oregonians and will meet federal guidelines for NCLB

A new school year is upon us and now is a great time to rethink parenting strategies when it comes to school.

Dr. Ron Taffel, a New York-based child and family therapist, and author of Parenting by Heart, Why Parents Disagree, Nurturing Good Children Now, The Second Family, and a guide for child professionals, Getting Through to Difficult Kids and Parents, offers these suggested New Year’s resolutions:

Listen without fixing.

Just once during the first two weeks of the new year, resolve to listen to your child’s story about something that happened in school without immediately “fixing” the problem, interrupting or teaching a constructive lesson. Concentrate on listening first and then later on, when you and your child are both calmer, give advice or guidance and keep it short, very short!

Make a habit of finding time to talk and listen.

Pay attention to the times of day your child is most naturally open, whether it be during after-school snack, while watching TV, at bath or bed time, and protect those times as very special. In the new year, get in the habit of talking and listening for just a few minutes a day.

Debra Collins, a California-based licensed marriage and family therapist who has worked in both primary and middle schools as a school counselor, suggests the following:

For Parents of Young Children

Try not to overextend.

Make an effort to limit activities for your kids, especially younger kids – one or two activities are enough, especially for parents with more than one child. Otherwise, it causes stress all around.

If you have a child with special needs, he may already be getting extra services at school, such as working with a learning specialist and/or a tutor. If you add on more than one or two extracurricular activities, you’ll have overload.

For Parents of Adolescents

Get involved.

Once your child hits middle school, it’s harder to stay involved at his school. Your child may not want you around as much and there may be fewer opportunities to volunteer. Make a new year’s resolution to get involved with your school’s PTA, parent education forums, or start an independent support group with parents of your child’s friends. If your school doesn’t offer parent education forums, ask your principal about organizing one.

Take small steps toward giving your adolescent independence.

As children want freedom, parents tend to hold on tighter and tighter, which creates conflict. Let your child achieve small successes. For example, start out your teen driver driving short distances and gradually build up to longer trips. Or if your child wants a later curfew, give him a chance to show he is responsible by giving him a slightly later curfew. Tell him you’ll extend it after he has met his current curfew for a specified period of time, and also consistently keeps you informed about where he is and who he is with.

Learn to listen to your child with your ears and not your mouth.

Make an effort to remain calm, slow down and listen to find out what your child is really asking before jumping in with an answer.

Dr. Ruth Jacoby, a Florida educator, principal, educational consultant and author, (most recently of Parent Talk!: The Art of Effective Communication With the School and Your Child) had the following suggestions:

[Re-syndicated from cbsnews.com]

All You Need To Know About Tutoring

Photo (CBS/The Early Show)

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There are several signs that will indicate to parents that their child needs a tutor, says Edward Gordon, a tutoring consultant for the federal and state governments and author of “Tutor Quest.”

According to Gordon, parents spend approximately $8 billion a year on tutors. He said the federal government will spend about $1 billion to pay for tutors due to the “No Child Left Behind” Act that was passed by Congress in January of 2002.

Under this legislation, children who attend schools that do not meet new government standards and are determined to be “failing” schools for two consecutive years will have the option to transfer to better schools and receive tutoring.

Here are some signs to find out whether your child needs a tutor:

• Continued failing grades in school.
• Child is constantly making excuses as to why he or she is not doing homework. The student is unhappy in school or having problems in general that you are aware of.
• The teacher sends notes home to you and you have to go to school because there is disruptive behavior, a pattern that goes on for at least a full school year.”The typical pattern is the child gets a bad report card in the first semester and the second semester they get a second bad report card. In February through May, that’s when the parents typically take action and get a tutor because they don ‘t want the child to go to summer school or to repeat a grade,” Gordon says.

Gordon says there is no such thing as a lazy child. “That is a symptom. It’s a question of motivation or if the child is having a problem processing the information or if there is a problem at home, such as parents going through a divorce.”

So if your child is falling behind, Gordon recommends getting a tutor to help him or her catch up. “The purpose of tutoring is to speed up the learning process, make up the skills the child has lost and get them back up to the instructional level so the teacher in the classroom can continue the learning process with the child,” he says.

Here are some typical ways of finding a tutor:

• Network through friends
• The public library
• Teachers acquaintances, but not necessarily at the school child goes to. Gordon says the school the child attends may be hesitant to recommend a tutor for liability reasons.
• Volunteer organizations, such as church organizations
• Web sites and the yellow pages

Gordon says the first thing that any parents who are interviewing a prospective tutor should ask is how many years of experience does the person have in teaching the specific subject or area of concern. If the child has a learning disability, reading problem like dyslexia or attention deficit disorder, find out if the tutor is trained to identify and work with children who have this problem.

“You need someone with at least five years or more experience,” says Gordon. “Second, ask if they have a degree in the area they are going to teach and if they are certified to teach in this area. Many people need help in math and science, particularly high school students. Teachers who are not certified can still be good. You may have a teacher who has many years of experience teaching math on a college level and has a degree, but is not certified to teach high school.”

He notes that having degrees and experience does not necessarily mean the person will be a good teacher. “There are certain things you should look for. The teacher needs to be able to explain in laymen’s terms what they are going do, how are they going to find out what the child’s problem is and how they will go about improving the child’s skills,” he says.

Most tutoring programs work with the child on average three to four months, seeing the child for an hour’s session two to three times a week. “Less than twice a week is often a waste of time because it’s not enough assistance,” he says.

Although a tutor cannot give a guarantee, Gordon says, the tutor can give parents some idea of what their expectations should be for success.

There are two aspects of tutoring, he explains:”While the tutor is there, what they do; and afterwards, after the tutor leaves, what do they do to make sure that the homework is done. Do they check it and make sure the child does whatever the tutor suggests?” And after the tutoring is over, he says, what are you doing to continue to reinforce it on a day-to-day basis? He says parents should also make sure the child has a quiet place to study and the supplies he needs. The parent shouldn’t do the child’s homework, but be willing to help, if needed.

The primary motivation of the child to learn comes from the parent, Gordon says. The following is a list of things that a parent should do to reinforce what the tutor is doing:

• Check homework everyday (assigned by the school and the tutor).
• Structure time to do homework
• Provide a quiet place to study
• Be available to help, but don’t do the work
• Show that reading and education are important.

Gordon estimates that the cost to hire a private tutor in the U.S. ranges from to $20 to $150 an hour, depending on the area of the country and what the tutor is doing.

© MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[re-syndicated from wsj.com]

By Sue Shellenbarger

Associated Press

Most times when I try to teach my children something – how to mow the lawn, do a budget or clean a toilet – I feel as if I have a positive or at least a neutral effect – with one big exception.

When I have tried to tutor my children in school, or simply help with homework, I often feel like Typhoid Mary. In most cases I have managed only to confuse them.

As the school year revs up, many parents are now trying to figure out how best to help their kids academically. More parents are trying to tutor their kids at ever-younger ages, as pressures mount for even the youngest children to perform well in school. Based on my e-mail, though, tutoring is no slam-dunk for parents; many puzzle over how they can wield deep professional skills at work, yet fail so completely at tutoring their children in related skills at home.

Studies on the value of parent tutoring for elementary-age children yield mixed results, as shown here and here.

For older students, say Duke University researchers Nancy Hill and Diana Tyson in a recently published study, parental tutoring is linked to worse performance in school. By middle school, the researchers say, students may see parents’ attempts to help as interference or pressure. Parents often confuse students by presenting material in different ways than teachers. Also, parents may not dive in to help until a student is already in trouble, and the students know that, reinforcing their discouragement.

Parents who are anxious about school or test performance can easily infect their kids with the same angst. One mother I interviewed, who started a professional tutoring service helping students prepare for the SAT and ACT, says she spends a lot of time undoing the anxiety and confusion caused by parents who try first to tutor their kids themselves.

If do-it-yourself tutoring is your only option, confer with teachers and brush up your skills before you begin, experts say. Don’t make the mistake I did – trying to figure out your kids’ homework while working side-by-side with them. Working with my stepdaughter on her algebra homework years ago, I found her assignments so baffling that I had to give up in frustration. And my son and I halted our junior-high algebra sessions years ago, after several meltdowns. He’s been doing great ever since – with no help whatsoever from me. I have watched in joy and relief as he has surpassed me in math, both in grades and the difficulty of his courses.

Readers, what has been your experience tutoring your own children? Have you found ways to make the sessions work?

Now is a perfect time to start looking into a tutor for one or more subjects for your son or daughter especially if they’ve had a hard time with school in the past.  Usually parents who come to us early in the year and are proactive end up in a much better situation as the school year progresses.

One reason to line up a tutor in September/October is that tutors get booked up and when you’re really in a crunch around the time that tests come up, tutors are already maxed out with students they already have who also have tests coming up and usually need their tutor to dedicate more of their time.

Another reason to start early with a tutor is to build a relationship with them.  A healthy tutor-tutee relationship helps create more student self-confidence and makes the student more likely to let the tutor know early on when they’re starting to have a hard time with the material.  This is especially true of math and science where the content is cumulative and builds on previous concepts.

Customers call us all the time right before a test (sometimes even the night before) and think the tutor will be able to help the student master the material overnight.  While this is possible, it is unlikely the student will be able to “cram” enough material to retain it the day of the test.  It is also difficult for a new tutor to come in and be able to accurately diagnose where the student is having issues or to go back to previous examples of their work.

If they didn’t make us take math in school, would we still need tutors? The answer is yes and yes. Of course!  Even if you don’t struggle with English, science, or languages, most students encounter some type of math though their course of studies that quite simply baffles them.

For most people math starts to get tricky after pre-algebra.  Something about solving for an unknown variable just seems to be an abstract concept when you’ve been doing arithmetic and word problems from grade school until about 6th or 7th grade.

Don’t feel bad because you’re not alone. Many students in middle school or high school have problems with math.  Most adults still have problems with algebra or anything beyond, for example, geometry, trigonometry, or calculus and need private tutoring.

We’ve had people call us who are in their 50s needing to take a test that requires basic algebra and they just don’t remember because they haven’t used it since they were in middle school or high school.

With jobs hard to come by in the United States during the current recession, many professionals are turning to tutoring as a way to earn extra money and to make a difference in their communities.  With budget cuts going on in school districts around the country, many qualified teachers have recently been laid off and are looking for work.

At the same time, because schools are cutting teachers from their payroll, class sizes are going up and student performance is suffering as a result.  In the wake of this, tutoring services are booming.

One of the reasons why we started our tutoring program was that in many families in the United States, both parents work.  Often mom or dad will be gone until 6 or 7 p.m.  Instead of sitting around and watching television, it makes more sense to use the time constructively to work on homework.

We saw a really big need in communities nationwide for tutors to come in while parents were still at work and help students with their homework.  While we don’t require it, we usually recommend that at least one parent be present for the first 1-2 tutoring sessions to make sure they feel comfortable leaving their son or daughter alone with the tutor and that it is a good fit.  Another reason for a parent to be present is so that they can be more involved in goal setting and expectations for the student and tutor.