Troubled Tutoring Effort is Lauded

By Nirvi Shah, The Miami Herald

Jun. 20–Although the Broward school district tutored fewer than half of students the state told them to under federal law during the past school year, the district was applauded instead of punished Tuesday.

Broward was supposed to tutor more than 12,000 students last school year. In the previous school year, the district reached fewer than 100 kids in part because parents were discouraged from signing up for the help.

But that poor performance made the number of kids tutored during the 2006-07 school year appear stunning on paper. The district signed up about 9,400 kids for tutoring. Only about a third were helped during the school year and another 2,200 are being tutored this summer.

Still, the state said the students Broward did tutor was overwhelmingly improved over last year.

"The turnaround we saw in Broward County was nothing short of remarkable," state education Chancellor Cheri Yecke told the state Board of Education at a meeting in Miami. "We have some districts that have served a larger number of students. No district has showed change in the growth that Broward has."

The district blamed private tutoring companies that couldn’t keep up with the demand for not reaching the state goal, although the companies said the district was also overwhelmed and disorganized.

State board members voted unanimously not to penalize Broward.

The federal No Child Left Behind requires school districts to offer free tutoring at schools where many students are poor and performance on the FCAT is low for three consecutive years. Broward had about $20 million in federal funds to provide tutoring through private companies, enough to help 16,000 kids.

By the time summer tutoring is over, Broward will end up spending only about $7 million of the money it had set aside to help poor students. The state could have forced Broward to spend the unused money on tutoring next year. Instead, the district will be able to use the money as it wishes at schools with many low-income students.

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