Chicago Schools to Beef Up Tutoring
Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 12:00 CST
By Tracy Dell'Angela, Chicago Tribune
Jan. 10--Chicago schools will spend $6.5 million in the coming months to offer extra after-school help to struggling students who have not been able to benefit from federally mandated tutoring programs.
One eight-week program will be offered to some 17,000 elementary pupils who score below national averages but not low enough to be counted among the neediest students given priority for free tutoring in failing schools.
As part of a recent federal desegregation agreement, the district was ordered to spend millions more on tutoring in racially isolated schools.
That prompted the expansion of the district's tutoring program to 70 schools covered under the desegregation order.
It will include 40 hours of tutoring over eight weeks at a cost of $3.5 million.
The academy program was created two years ago in 124 schools citywide to offer students 16 hours of extra test preparation in reading on Saturdays and after school.
In schools not covered by the desegregation order, the program will continue to serve 10,000 students and will give them 28 hours of help in both reading and math at a cost of $1.8 million.
Students will be taught by district teachers, with class size capped at 20.
Test scores suggest the program is working, school officials said. On last year's Iowa Test of Basic Skills, 61 percent of schools with the after-school program saw improvement in their reading scores, compared with 52 percent citywide.
The district also will spend $1.2 million to prepare 11th graders for the Prairie State Achievement Exam taken in April.
tdell'angela@tribune.com
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Source: Chicago Tribune
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