The problem of schools failing to account for the effects of outside tutoring when boasting about their test scores has frequently been brought up on KTM, and it came up again in the comments section of this post.
Well, the Bridgewater-Raritan school district in New Jersey has a survey out that asks several questions about outside tutoring. Here are some:
11. Does your child receive any form of tutoring extra help in math by someone other than a family member?
12. Why do you get extra help in math? a) My child is doing fine in math, but I want her/him to do even better. b) My child has difficulty with math and needs extra help. c) I’m dissatisfied with the math curriculum, and the tutoring makes up for that.
(Question 12 is important in order to learn if tutoring is being used primarily to help kids to gain an edge in competitive environments, as many schools claim.)
13. What type of tutoring/extra help do you utilize? a) Kumon, Huntington Learning Center, Sylvan Learning Center, or other professional tutoring service. b) Paid private tutor c) Extra help from classroom teacher
(In some school districts, it might be advisable to add a fourth option for question 13: Paid private tutoring from teachers in my child’s school. I was amazed to learn that this occurs; it doesn’t seem ethical.)
15. About how much does it cost you a month?
16. Does the tutor provide different techniques and strategies than those your child is learning in class?
Parents who post on this B-R forum are dissatisfied with their school’s choice of Everyday Math. This survey seems like it will capture important tutoring information for them. I would love to have my school send out something similar.
Bravo, but will they do anything about it? How many parents don't even know about the issue. They might not like how their child is doing, but they can't put it into words.
ReplyDeleteOne of the understandable problems is that it's anonymous. It would be good to correlate the tutoring with school grades and kids who took algebra in 8th grade. You might get a number of parents saying that everything seems fine to them, but the small group of kids taking algebra in 8th grade are the ones getting the tutoring. This is where a small percentage has a huge meaning. They can't tell this from they survey.
However, it will be nice to see how it all turns out.
[11. Does your child receive any form of tutoring extra help in math by someone other than a family member?]
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that excluding family members would skew the results. Some family members like KTM contributors put in a lot of effort that makes all the difference. Why exclude their contribution?
Instructivist -- the parents’ tutoring would be included in this survey question, which I did not include in the original post: 9. About how many minutes a day would you say you spend on math with your child over and above math homework help?
ReplyDelete12. Why do you get extra help in math? a) My child is doing fine in math, but I want her/him to do even better. b) My child has difficulty with math and needs extra help. c) I’m dissatisfied with the math curriculum, and the tutoring makes up for that.
ReplyDeletefantastic
I THINK (you can't count on anything) this severely undercuts the school's ability to erect the "pushy parents trying to get an edge" defense.
Steve's right about the issue of many parents having no idea there's a problem.
ReplyDeleteMy district sent out the Tri State Consortium survey to everyone & only a handful of parents said they'd hired tutors (K-5).
Of course, I know some of these parents; some of them are employed in math-related fields.
When you've got parents who are sophisticated in math hiring tutors, you have a problem.
You might get a number of parents saying that everything seems fine to them, but the small group of kids taking algebra in 8th grade are the ones getting the tutoring.
ReplyDeleteWe just got C's latest grade averages; he is now up to a 92 average in Math A.
This is a kid who started the year with a D- on the first test.
He wouldn't be in Math A this year if I hadn't been doing extensive tutoring in grades 5, 6, 7 (and extensive monitoring and supplementing this year).
Only 30% of our kids take algebra in the 8th grade, and he may end up in the top half of those kids (?)
This is of no interest to my district; quite the opposite.
I am a pushy parent who has refused to accept my child's obvious limitations.
The fact that a parent who took her last math course junior year in college (and that was an introductory stats course) can "afterschool" her child into the top 15% of the school tells them nothing about whether students here are reaching their potential, which is the district's formal mission.
Our district sent out a survey also, apparently. I saw the data but never saw the survey.
ReplyDeleteHere's how they spun the data that 30% of the parents said the students were tutored: most just wanted to get ahead.
End of story.
The fact that a parent who took her last math course junior year in college (and that was an introductory stats course) can "afterschool" her child into the top 15% of the school tells them nothing about whether students here are reaching their potential, which is the district's formal mission.
ReplyDeleteCatherine, I think you might be misunderestimating your own story. I think it's more accurate to say:
The fact that a parent with college-level experience in math had to afterschool her child for X hours per week for three years just to get her child back onto a college-prep track he should have been on all along tells us everything about whether the students are reaching their potential, which is the district's formal mission..
Don't forget that a child on an IEP would be likely to get extra one-on-one help through the school. If 12 - 20 % of the kids are getting extra tutoring at the school's expense, their parents may not feel the need to pay for even more tutoring.
ReplyDeleteSo, if 30% of the parents admit they're paying for tutoring, that could mean that for up to 50% of the students, the classroom instruction is not adequate.
Independent - I think all of the math tracks are considered college prep, which is accurate in terms of US students.
ReplyDeleteMy wish was to put C. onto the "international track," which I defined as algebra-in-the-8th-grade.
Of course, other countries are well ahead of that goal.
Otherwise, you're right.
I've done a massive amount of work to get my kid through algebra in the 8th grade, a goal he is obviously capable of reaching seeing as how he is up to an average of 92 for the quarter this far.
Clearly, he can do it.
Clearly, he has the ability.
So why was it up to me to make it happen?
Here's how they spun the data that 30% of the parents said the students were tutored: most just wanted to get ahead.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there comes a moment where you think: Wait a minute.
Is it the school's job to make sure the kids don't get ahead?
most just wanted to get ahead
ReplyDeleteand then....there's the small question of: get ahead of what?
If you're trying to get ahead of Math Trailblazers that means you're trying to catch up to Glencoe Pre-Algebra.
So, if 30% of the parents admit they're paying for tutoring, that could mean that for up to 50% of the students, the classroom instruction is not adequate.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many SPED kids are getting one-on-one math teaching?
That's an interesting question.
You're right: if 10% of the population is already getting one-on-one math teaching and another large group is being tutored...
That's a lot.
A mom at the high school estimates that 90% of the kids there are being tutored in the AP courses.
That's just about as bad as it can possibly be.
Once you're talking huge numbers of parents hiring tutors the situation becomes naturalized.
At that point everyone sees it as affluent parents paying for test prep in AP the same way they (we) pay for test prep on the SAT.
I assume that everyone there, by now, has dropped the concept that classroom instruction should be sufficient to give you a 4 or 5 on the AP test.
Parents are hiring Regents test prep, too.
too much money!
Being in a SPED class, or having an IEP, does not ensure 1:1 help no matter how needy the child may be.
ReplyDeleteIt MAY mean smaller-group assistance, but even that can not be taken for granted.
One-to-one help -- in math or anything else -- is very, very exceptional practice around here (and in the other schools I've worked in). Students may get individualized worksheets but I don't consider that the same as "1:1 help."
The only 1:1 assistance routinely provided is Reading Recovery to a few students in first grade. There is no equivalent for math. I bet however that this may be different in high-SES schools. One that I interviewed at a few years ago had twice as many volunteers on a regular basis as it had children in the school!!
That's 2:1 help!!
We have four or five volunteers but 800 students. Not much 1:1 around here. NO 1:1 for math, whether in SPED or elsewhere.
I think our SPED kids get some 1:1 help from classroom aides...(this is informal, obviously).
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was thinking of.
Otherwise you're right.
There's no tutoring strictly speaking.
Sorry - should have been clearer!
I was my son's SPED tutor. He was in a smaller room, but no one sat down with him for very long, particularly after grade school.
ReplyDeleteI think in the early years when a child isn't reading they might then go with a "resource" teacher. Maybe a little group gets together to finally learn the phonics they didn't get earlier.
Susan
Guess how much training and education those SPED aides have? And they often end up teaching lessons and grading homework.
ReplyDeleteTeaching regular kids can be tough. Being an effective SPED teacher requires even more talent, IMHO. The aides sometimes perform more along the lines of babysitters. The quality can be wildly uneven, and sometimes destructive.
I guess I shouldn't get started on that one...
SusanS
oh yeah, absolutely
ReplyDeleteWe have some super-smart & educated aides. In fact....I don't know that I've ever met an aide here who wasn't smart & educated now that I think of it.
They aren't trained in SPED, of course, but they get on-the-job experience.
Aides here are in my category: they know K-5 arithmetic well enough to teach procedures and they've spent lots of time around kids, schools, their own kids, etc.
He was in a smaller room, but no one sat down with him for very long, particularly after grade school.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what happens in middle school.
Palo Alto Unified School District is surveying parents of K-5 students to "collect data on current practices in supporting students beyond the school day in math."
ReplyDeleteAs you may know, the PAUSD BOE recently adopted Everyday Math as the new K-5 math curriculum starting with the 2009-2010 school year.
We'll have to wait and see what they do with the data they collect.
The results of the Palo Alto Unified School District elementary math survey are available. The survey results are linked from the main PAUSD web page at PAUSD dot org.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see the high percentage of those who say that their kids are not challenged enough in math at school. I was also surprised that the tutoring percent was so low, but I suppose many of the parents are quite capable of providing proper instruction.
ReplyDeleteObviously, there is a problem with math instruction. I would love to see how the best math students correlate with that home help.
How many of the top students never got substantial math help outside of the school? I'd wager that the percent would be shockingly low. They should do this kind of study for the kids taking algebra in 8th grade.
Here's a link to a San Jose Mercury News story about the Palo Alto Unified School District elementary math survey.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12653157