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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.
###
[Re-syndicated from cbsnews.com]
All You Need To Know About Tutoring
By Tatiana Morales
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 PressMost 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
###
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
By Tatiana Morales
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 PressMost 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.
I was just reading an article about a pilot program in Austin, TX where students are paid to study. In the program, students get paid $6 per hour to spend time with Austin Community College tutors. I would be interested to see how the program does long-term. “Bribing” students to study more is definitely one approach tutors can use to help them get motivated to work harder in school.
You can use money, candy, or promise a trip to get ice cream after a certain goal is met. I remember being in middle school trying to learn my multiplication tables with little success until my parents promised to pay me per table that I learned (I think about a $1 each). Whatever it was, I made sure I learned all of them and in a hurry! 
Although published in 2006, The Tutoring Revolution: Applying Research for Best Practices, Policy Implications, and Student Achievement by Rowman & Littlefield Education comprehensively discusses the importance of the benefits of tutoring for students based on research-driven results. Their recommendations provide an excellent resource for tutors nationwide and one of their conclusions is that tutoring, in-home tutoring programs in particular by well-trained professionals, can have a significant impact on learning outcomes.
Summer is a great time for students to work on study skills, get caught up on subject material, and study for standardized tests. Some students enroll in summer school classes and have ongoing homework assignments while others have spoken with their teachers at the end of the previous semester to get recommendations on what they can work on over the summer.
We have a lot of parents that contact us over the summer that want to work on specific skills like math or writing and we do our best to connect them with a tutor that can help them in their home. Depending on when a customer contacts us, we can talk to the students’ teacher(s) and get recommendations on additional assignments and activities they can work on over the summer. If we are not able to reach the students’ teacher, then our tutors can usually come up with other materials to use.
Aside from improving on subject material from the previous school year, a lot of parents want to keep their child’s brains from turning to mush over the summer. Signing up for a class or contacting a tutoring service can be a good way to keep things fresh so that they come better prepared for the upcoming school year. It also helps to build a relationship with a tutor early on so that the tutor can catch problems early once the school year starts again.
One of the reasons we started our in-home tutoring service back in 2004 was that we noticed there were TONS of listings in Craigslist for tutors but there was really no way for parents to screen out who was qualified and to make sure their child would be safe if they ever left them alone with the tutor.
Since our inception, we have required every tutor to provide references, teaching credentials, and authorize Stepping Stone Tutors to run a 50 state criminal background check which we outsource to a 3rd party called ABSO in part because they also have access to the FBI national sex offender database.
When I read the article today in the The Morning Call about an online scam from an individual claiming to be a tutor and asking the parents to wire money, it helped to reaffirm our decision to launch our service.
There are good tutors and there are great tutors. What sets them apart is their love for learning, their devotion to each and every student, and their continuing interest to hone their skills. Aside from the money and the flexible hours, which draws most tutors to the profession, there is an underlying need to “teach” other people.
While some tutors work independently, others work for a tutoring service which allows them to spend less time on advertising and billing and more time helping students learn study skills, improve their grades, and pass tests.
People become tutors for different reasons, some for the extra money and others to gain valuable experience which they can use when applying for full-time teaching jobs or deciding if they want to start a student teaching program. There are a select few; however, that go above and beyond this.
A “great” tutor of which we have many working for us truly loves what they do. They will usually do research before each tutoring session and spend time at the end of each session assigning homework, setting goals, and speaking with the student and parents about the progress (or lack of) that they are seeing.
Some (but not all) people have had a “great” tutor at one point in their lives that left a lasting impression on them either because they personally benefited from their experiences or their son or daughter did. Aside from helping a student master a specific subject, a “great” tutor can help teach study skills and build self-confidence which follows them throughout their lives.
Just a quick note since we hire a lot of tutors, make sure you always follow the instructions listed on a job application. If they say “no phone calls” for example, make sure not to call. The same applies to sending documents as attachments versus inline text. We get hundreds of applications a week for people who want to tutor at http:steppingstonetutors.com but immediately weed out the ones that don’t follow our instructions.
The biggest reason for an employer to be specific about their requirements when applying for a position is that they may receive a huge number for resumes or applications on any given day and simply don’t have the time or resources to read through each one if there isn’t a standard format. Here’s an example.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a program with excellent intent but poor funding. Most school districts are faced with the decision of whether or not to use NCLB money to pay for private tutoring and what their requirements for tutoring companies providing these services should be.
Depending on the allocation requirements, schools can use the funds to hire new teachers and support staff or designate some of the money for program improvement schools which have not met their AYP goals.
Using NCLB money for private tutoring can have a positive impact for students who attend program improvement schools; however, using these state and federal funds gives school administrators fewer options when considering how to allocate money for supplies and staff at the school site.
For school districts that have decided not to use NCLB funds for private tutoring or have only allocated a small percentage for this option the other option to consider is to use most of the money for additional teachers and resources at the school and to recommend reputable private tutoring companies.
A lot of blogs talk about traditional learning centers like Huntington or Sylvan or about the relatively new industry of online tutoring; however, few blogs talk about in-home tutoring or what I like to call the “other” option for tutoring.
Traditional learning centers are great for students who are doing well in school and just want to focus on specific skills. It also helps if the parents have a lot of disposable income to invest in one of the programs they offer that tend to start around $800 per class. They do offer their own assessment tests which can help to identify problem areas; however, these areas of need are only in relation to the programs being offered at the learning center and do not necessarily address current school work and low grades which for many families are a larger concern.
What typically happens at Sylvan Learning Center for example is that a student is given an assessment test when they first come to the center. They are subsequently enrolled in a course which would typically be several weeks long. The student would be in a classroom type setting usually with 3 or more other students. The “teacher’s” role is more or less to provide handouts and worksheets for the students to use throughout the course. The worksheets are specifically geared towards helping each student pass the test at the end of the course created by Sylvan.
While this approach may be successful in teaching set skills, it does not typically help most students in real time, students who are failing their classes and not understanding the material and are continuing to fall further behind in school.
The learning center model can be self serving because a student is only “guaranteed” to pass the learning center class which logic would tell us should be an easily attainable goal when the entire course is geared around helping students pass the test at the end. The “guarantee” is that if a student does not pass the class then then can keep taking it until they do. The problem again, is that even if the student passes the class, they are still falling behind in school and not understanding their homework.
In addition to falling behind, the student is using their free time after school to attend the learning center classes and their parents (unless the student can drive) are having to drive them to and from classes at the learning center often several times per week.
One of the other options for tutoring which has become more or less a recent phenomenon with the advent of widespread broadband internet access, is online tutoring. Online tutoring usually takes a totally different approach to learning centers which is to work on current assignments only. Students are able to login and connect with a tutor 24 hours a day and get help in real time.
Online tutoring can be great for families on a budget because it is the cheapest option for getting help with school work. The timing is also quite flexible because a student can get help at anytime throughout the day.
The downside to online tutoring is that the tutor is in another city, often another country altogether which presents some issues for the student, mainly they are not in the same room together or they have a hard time understanding the tutor especially when the tutor lives in India.
This brings me to what I call the “other” option for tutoring which are private in-home tutoring services. In-home tutoring brings the best of both worlds and bridges the gap between the traditional learning center approach and the new resource which is online tutoring.
With in-home tutoring, students can get help in real time on current assignments. The tutor works with them one-on-one at home usually after school. The benefit of the tutor coming to a student’s home is that the parent does not need to drop them off and pick them up again later in the day. In addition, working one-on-one is hugely beneficial to the student being able to ask questions and get the tutor’s full and undivided attention.
An in-home tutor can work on only the subject areas that the parent or student wants help with. Often times a student needs help preparing for a specific standardized test like the ASVAB, THEA, or SAT and more often than not, the student only needs help with certain content areas of that particular test.
What in-home tutoring allows a student to do in this case, is instead of enrolling in an entire course to prepare for their test at a learning center, usually at a premium cost and spending hours at a time working on subject areas the student has already mastered, the student can focus their time on the areas they need the most help with.
Working with an in-home tutor, students only pay for the time they spend with the tutor and can get help right away. In-home tutoring costs less than a learning center course and slightly more than online tutoring, but is often the best option for families who need help in real time for current assignments and tests and who need flexible scheduling.