District’s Tutoring Bill so Far Tops $400,000

By Icess Fernandez, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Jan. 2–Student achievement in Kansas is good business.

Twelve companies provide state-approved tutoring to districts statewide, paid for by taxpayers through federal money that helps children from low-income families.

While the state doesn’t track how much these companies make, three of them have made just more than $400,000 so far this school year from the Wichita district.

After listening to presentations this past fall from prospective tutoring providers, parents at Caldwell Elementary, Mead and Marshall middle schools chose Achievia, ClubZ and Huddle Learning Services.

Those schools are required to provide tutoring because of failing to make adequate progress on annual state tests under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The 2002 law says that all students must be performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014.

Achievia charges $40 an hour and has made $200,970 so far, according to district records. ClubZ, which tutors both at school and at children’s homes, charges $60 an hour and has made $118,755. Huddle charges $35 an hour for an individual and $20 an hour per person for small groups, and has made $82,215.

A record of success

The Kansas State Department of Education’s application for providing supplemental services requires that tutoring firms “have a demonstrated record of effectiveness in increasing student academic achievement” and provide services that are “high quality and researched based.”

“Those that met the criteria are on the list” of approved tutors, said Judi Miller, assistant director of state and federal programs.

Two of the three companies hired — Huddle and Achievia — use district personnel to tutor students. ClubZ doesn’t, said Mary Ellen Isaac, the district’s chief academic officer.

“They always start with teachers at those schools,” said Susanne Smith, the district’s director of Title I services. “If they don’t get enough, they would extend offers to teachers in other buildings.”

Gene Sherrilla, co-founder of Achievia, said that when teachers are tutoring, they are paid by his company, not the district.

“We hire from the district, that’s our first choice,” he said. “But those people have to go through our training program.”

Huddle uses software in combination with tutors to help with student achievement, said Donald Fast, the company’s vice president of operations.

Student progress is measured with the same exam that the school district administers in the fall and spring.

ClubZ did not respond to questions submitted in writing at the company’s request.

Denise Davis, an art teacher at Marshall, has tutored for Achievia twice a week after school since mid-November and likes what she see so far.

“The materials are wonderful,” she said. “They are copyrighted so we can’t use it in the classroom. They guarantee that kids move up a level and I can see why. It’s very intensive.”

She said it was too early to tell whether the tutoring is helping students improve.

Davis, who became a tutor after a three-hour training session, said kids have fun and can win prizes for good attendance such as a new bicycle, boom box or CD player.

“The program itself has encouraged kids to stay,” she said.

Measuring effectiveness

The Tulsa school district has used ClubZ for the past two years and began using Achievia this year.

District officials deferred questions to Gary Hurst, Oklahoma’s director of supplemental services. He said he’s not sure how effective the services have been.

“It is a little difficult to define how each are doing,” he said. “As far as we can tell they are doing just fine in comparison to other providers.”

That’s the issue with federally mandated tutoring, said Jeff Simering, director of legislative services at the Council of Great City Schools. The organization represents the nation’s largest urban districts, including Wichita.

“To begin with, there is very little empirical data to draw any good conclusions about some supplemental services,” he said. “Here we are five years into NCLB and we don’t know how effective one of their provisions are.”

Simering said that some of his organization’s member districts have seen moderate results, while others have seen none.

Sherilla, Achievia co-founder, said that his company tests students before and after the tutoring and provides parents and teachers with a progress report.

Miller said that the state surveys the districts on how many students the tutoring firms served, what services they provide and in which grades, and how they measure achievement. The state survey also has a section for districts to provide feedback.

That will soon change, Miller said.

“We are in the process of designing an evaluation process,” she said, but could provide no details.

Isaac, the Wichita district’s chief academic officer, said at this point it’s trial and error.

“We’ll know along the way,” she said. “We’ll be watching those reports because we want this to work. We have a stake in this.”

Reach Icess Fernandez at 316-268-6544 or ifernandez@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:ifernandez@wichitaeagle.com].

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

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