Saturday, July 10, 2010

“TMCC Receives Help To Raise Funds For Affordable Tutoring Program” plus 3 more

“TMCC Receives Help To Raise Funds For Affordable Tutoring Program” plus 3 more

TMCC Receives Help To Raise Funds For Affordable Tutoring Program

Posted: 08 Jul 2010 07:01 PM PDT

By Amanda Peabody

A common complaint among parents within the district is the high price of tutors, a necessity for many students. Typically, one-on-one tutoring sessions can range between $80-120 an hour. Not at The Maple Counseling Center Tutoring Program, however.

The program, opened in 1972, provides an affordable tutoring and mentoring program for children in grads kindergarten through eight for around $12.50 per hour (fees vary from semester to semester).

"To call this just a tutoring program would be doing it a great disservice, because it is not only academic and early intervention, it is also about the emotional well being of the children to ensure their academic success," said Supervisor of The Maple Counseling Tutoring Program Adrienne Weise.

"We catch these kids often before they fall through the cracks."

With a roster of 50 volunteer tutors, the program holds twice weekly, hour-long sessions from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Horace Mann School (Tuesdays ) and Beverly Vista School (Thursdays) during the school year.

At the sessions, tutors assist students with homework and enhance study skills, as well as mentoring the whole child on issues surrounding bullying, home life, peer pressure and personal relationships.

Tutors are even equipped to service children with special needs such as Autism or those with learning disabilities.

"We don't turn anyone away and we will offer scholarships," said Weise. "People think that because they hear 'Beverly Hills,' they don't think it is an underserved community. But that is not true. We see many kids that are under great financial distress.

The Maple Counseling Center Tutoring Program is in danger, however.

Funding cuts have rendered the program completely financially independent, thus forcing the program to raise necessary dollars each semester (roughly $10,000 per semester is required for administrative costs and fees).

Beverly High graduates Trudy Pham and Eun Jin Sun have taken on the laborious task of raising dollars for the program as well.

"We saw that The Maple Counseling Center Tutoring Program was in need of funds so we sent out letters to different companies to see if they were willing to donate," said Pham.

"Not a lot of people know about this wonderful program here for the children."

To donate to the Program or sign up for tutoring sessions for the fall, call 310-271-9999 ext. 212. All donations should say "tutoring program" on the memo line.

apeabody@bhcourier.com

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Lynn, SPIN introduce tutoring program; School help available for homeless or at-risk elementary-aged students

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 12:31 AM PDT

College students from Shaker Heights tutoring high school students for ACT, SAT

Posted: 09 Jul 2010 09:06 AM PDT

Published: Friday, July 09, 2010, 12:00 PM

 

SHAKER HEIGHTS -- Jared Jones and Anne Gabriel have returned home for the summer to tutor local high school students and help close the educational achievement gap.

The two Shaker Heights natives are managing the Cleveland branch of Ivy Insiders, a national test-prep company that tutors students for the ACT and SAT.

Jones, who went to University School and will be a junior at Yale in the fall, said one of their main goals is to bring specialized test training to a wider audience.

"Test prep can be quite expensive," he said. "I think it's sort of unfortunate that it tends to reproduce educational inequalities. It's generally only prep-school students or those who are very well off who are able to afford these services, and they're already the advantaged."

So in addition to marketing their test prep courses to the suburbs — like Shaker Heights and Beachwood — the team is also working with some Cleveland schools.

They will start a course at John Hay High School in early July. Each course includes 18 hours of classroom instruction and four practice tests.

"One of our major goals is reaching as many students as possible, regardless of their ability to pay," said Gabriel, who will be a junior at Columbia University in the fall.

"We're fortunate in that we are two college students home for the summer, we're not some big corporate entity that needs to turn massive profits."

They have scholarships available and, in the case of John Hay for example, they are working with the school to subsidize the cost of the program for students.

Since they returned home for summer break, the two have worked tirelessly to build relationships with schools and market their courses to students.

Jones and Gabriel just finished their first round of classes at University School and said it went well.

Jones said he thinks the highschoolers can trust and relate to him and Gabriel because they are so close in age and just recently experienced the same stresses the high school students are now facing.

"We know how nerve-wracking and annoying it is that a single test can determine a significant portion of your future," he said.

Gabriel said the students like to talk to them about their college experiences and they ask for advice on a variety of college-prep topics, not just testing.

The high school students are not the only ones learning things in the process. Gabriel and Jones said they have already learned a lot of business lessons, including how to build a product from the ground up.

While they are not sure what will happen to the Cleveland office once they go back to school, the team hopes other students will be able to take it over and build on what they have already created.

Jones is studying ethics, politics and economics with a sub-concentration in global public health. Gabriel is studying anthropology with a minor in psychology.

Visit ivyinsiders.com or e-mail jared.jones@yale.edu or Aeg2159@columbia.edu for information.

Contact Betz at (216) 986-5867.

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Lakewood parents in uproar over redirection of funds for tutoring

Posted: 08 Jul 2010 12:44 AM PDT

LAKEWOOD — A misjudgment that likely will cost services for hundreds of public school students and the Board of Education's refusal to correct it have ignited an uproar among parents and advocates who see the circumstance as an example of ulterior interests trumping public education.

This school year, the district had the potential to spend $3.32 million toward Supplemental Educational Services, which are federally funded and provide tutoring to low-income public school students who are struggling academically.

The district, however, predicting that enrollment for the tutoring services would be as low as in past years, reserved only $1.37 million for it and got approval to use the rest of the money for general programs at both public and private schools.

But enrollment didn't sputter; it flourished, increasing to 1,782. The result was that the district could not afford to tutor more than half, or about 964, of the enrolled students for whom the funding was intended. Soon contracted tutors were telling parents that program would halt before it began.

Kim Singleton was counting on the service to prepare her two sons, Elisjah, 12, and Reggie, 11, for standardized testing in May. The computers, which the students were to keep after the tutoring ended, had been delivered to Singleton's church, and the mother had filled out the pretest paperwork when news came suddenly that the program had been slashed due to dried up funds.

"I'm sure he didn't do well," Singleton said of the test performance of her oldest son, Elisjah, who has reading difficulties. "I did everything I was supposed to, and I got screwed."

Since then, Singleton and her husband have resorted to tutoring their children themselves, buying books at Barnes and Noble and asking teachers for spare pamphlets.

After inquiries from parents and a letter from the state ordering that $765,381 be returned to the tutoring account, the school board voted June 30, in an appeal to the state, to add $552,654, bringing the total amount reserved for the program to $1.92 million. That is enough to provide tutoring help to 1,149 students, or 64 percent of the total enrollment in the program.

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