So I was talking to a friend today whose kid is having trouble in a class. Most of the kids are having trouble.
Extra help doesn't help.
She talked to the department chair who recommended one of the other teachers, a novice, as a tutor.
Fee?
$100/hour
My friend protested, so the teacher said she'd work 1 1/2 hours.
One hundred dollars/90 minutes for a teacher who has been teaching only a couple of years.
One hundred bucks for a teacher currently teaching a class in which a number of the students "are struggling and don't belong." direct quote, middle school principal
In Irvington, if a student is struggling, he doesn't belong.
Core principle.
I'm STEAMED.
I've spent at least 5 hours today studying transformations, creating worksheets, working with Christopher, etc.
It's 9:30 pm and I still need to create a set of worksheets for him to use during study hall.
All of this is happening because I'm too stubborn to shell out $100/hour to get some other teacher in the math department to do Ms. K's job.
mark my words
I will never hire an Irvington teacher as a tutor.
Ever.
If it were more subjects than just math needing that much outside help at that cost, you'd probably be ahead financially if you simply quit your job and homeschooled.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first asked if our daughter could get an IEP (this was in elementary school), the officials told us no, and recommended hiring a tutor and said some of the teachers in her school did tutoring and gave us names. We hired one of the math teachers. She actually was quite good in math. However, after about four sessions she agreed with my observations about my daughter and said the problem was not about math, but difficulty learning. THat's what I tried to tell the school.
ReplyDeletePS. She only charged $50/hr.
This is dreadful.
ReplyDeleteThis is what you get when there is no choice. Parents need some kind of meaningful option. What that option is we can have fruitful debates about. I don't think we can start by assuming if the students struggle, the parents need to pay the same people more money to do the job right the second and third time.
I don't get it. Shouldn't this be seen as a conflict of interest and clearly unethical?
ReplyDeleteYeah, what lynn said.
ReplyDeleteWhat class is this? Algebra 1?
ReplyDeleteHow is this any different than a car dealer selling you a lemon, then billing you up the wazoo for repairs?
ReplyDeleteAside from the fact that car dealers don't act like you should be grateful for the opportunity to give them money.
you'd probably be ahead financially if you simply quit your job and homeschooled
ReplyDeleteI absolutely should have homeschooled.
Failing that I should have moved to a middle class or ethnically mixed district.
I'm now convinced that wealthy districts, along with poor districts, are the worst place to send your children to school.
It's not that wealthy districts don't have all the things we want -- very accomplished teachers, nice grounds etc.
The problem in wealthy districts is "the bad getting normal"....slowly, over time, bad practices develop and grow.
At this point parents and teachers alike simply take it as normal that parents hire tutors or reteach content at home.
Worse yet, this practice is not understood for what it is.
Parents and administrators alike see the massive amount of tutoring as "unnecessary."
As our super says, "It's well-known that Westchester parents hire tutors when they don't need them."
the officials told us no, and recommended hiring a tutor and said some of the teachers in her school did tutoring and gave us names. We hired one of the math teachers. She actually was quite good in math.
ReplyDeleteI now oppose this absoultely --- though I wouldn't, and couldn't, oppose it politically because parents rely on these teacher/tutors.
A couple of years ago the administration attempted to pass a rule against Irvington teachers tutoring Irvington kids and it didn't go anywhere.
I don't know why it didn't go anywhere, but I assume parents objected.
(Of course, it could have been the union that objected. I should find out what happened.)
I don't think we can start by assuming if the students struggle, the parents need to pay the same people more money to do the job right the second and third time.
ReplyDeleteyup
Dawn
ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely a conflict of interest.
No question.
How is this any different than a car dealer selling you a lemon, then billing you up the wazoo for repairs?
ReplyDeleteAside from the fact that car dealers don't act like you should be grateful for the opportunity to give them money.
LOLOLOLLLLLL
that is the PRECISE source of my PARENTAL UNIT RAGE
Not only do we have Irvington teachers charging Irvington parents exorbitant fees to reteach material that should have been taught successfully in the classroom, we're then told we're a bunch of rich, grasping HUNS looking for an edge.
What I don't get is, if I'm a Hun, why aren't I scarier????
ReplyDeleteIf Irvington isn't scared -- they should be.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've asked about the level of tutoring going on in the district, I get the same sort of response -- parents hire tutors to get "an edge" or because they see their neighbors doing it and they don't want to be left behind.
I think that's nonsense, of course. But it conveniently excuses the administration from worrying about the rising level of private tutoring.
But it conveniently excuses the administration from worrying about the rising level of private tutoring.
ReplyDeleteThis is no-win for them.
The more people talk about it, the more glaring it's going to be.
We know people who are going into debt to pay an Irvington teacher to tutor their son. He was in danger of flunking his school year before they hired the tutor.
This is a matter of record.
C's situation is a matter of record; heck, it's posted all over the internet, including copies of his tests.
When push comes to shove, it's extremely difficult to find parents who are hiring tutors to "get an edge."
It doesn't make sense when you think about it. Most kids are HUGELY resistant to doing the work the school assigns, much less anything else.
Where you see a tutoring boondoggle is in SAT tutoring.
But that's not what we're talking about & everyone knows it.
Plus the fact that they attempted to curb the practice is an open admission something isn't right.
I get the same sort of response -- parents hire tutors to get "an edge" or because they see their neighbors doing it and they don't want to be left behind.
ReplyDeleteThe other great thing, in my case, is that I've done this public display of teaching myself math so I can reteach math to my child.
I didn't do it for political reasons; I did it because I had to.
But in the event, my public narrative of teaching myself math is incontrovertible evidence that the math instruction in our school isn't working.
For our administrators, it's evidence that it isn't working for just one child, C.
But anyone with common sense knows that where there's smoke there's fire.
Another mom told me about the administration saying Westcheseter parents hire tutors when they don't have to.
I said, "Do Westchester parents teach themselves algebra when they don't have to?"
Hmmm... wonder if I can cash in on this. (Sorry to make lemonade out of your lemons.)
ReplyDeleteHmmm... wonder if I can cash in on this. (Sorry to make lemonade out of your lemons.)
ReplyDeleteYou can, AND YOU SHOULD.
I'm happy for tutors to rake in the big bucks; it's a sign of parents valuing education.
What I'm not happy about is my own district's teachers raking in the big bucks to reteach subjects already being taught by OTHER teachers.
All of whom I'm paying!