“As Private Tutoring Booms, Parents Look at the Returns” plus 1 more |
| As Private Tutoring Booms, Parents Look at the Returns Posted: 20 Aug 2010 03:24 PM PDT  Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Sandy Bass, editor and publisher of Private School Insider, a Web newsletter, says parents are searching for less expensive tutors for their children. WITH only a few weeks left until school starts, the tutoring business is gearing up. And it is one industry in America that seems immune to recession. More parents are paying for tutors for their children. Spending on tutors is growing at more than 5 percent a year, said Steve Pines, executive director of the Education Industry Association. This is down from yearly growth of 8 to 10 percent in 2007, when the education research firm EduVentures estimated the size of the tutoring industry at $5 billion to $7 billion a year. But it is still strong, given the state of most people's personal finances. And Sandi Ayaz, executive director of the National Tutoring Association, said the number of tutors her organization had certified had grown 18 percent in each of the last five years. While tutors once focused on helping children who were falling behind in particular subjects or had a learning disability, they are now being used far more to guide students through particularly tough courses, insure their grades are equal to or above their peers' and, in the end, polish a child's college application. This costs parents a lot of money, and the question is, What returns should they expect for their investment? And how does that desire mesh with what is right? Before I go further, I want to address the question of fairness, which is ever-present in the world of high-priced tutors. The simple answer is that it is surely not fair that wealthy children can have private tutors when poor children cannot. But many things in life are not fair, and I want to look at tutoring from an investment point of view. Is there any way to measure what parents and children are getting for all this money? What can a tutor reasonably be expected to do? Is this money well spent? SHOPPING AROUND Even with the increase in the use of tutors, parents are not necessarily spending money the way they once did. Some are, of course, since money is still no object when it comes to their children. Yet even in Manhattan, where tutors are particularly popular, plenty of parents are shopping around for less expensive options. "People have been pulling back for tutors charging $250 to $400 an hour," said Sandy Bass, editor and publisher of Private School Insider, an online newsletter. "They're still using tutors, but they're searching around for more reasonably priced help. In Manhattan, $85 to $150 is the acceptable range for reasonably priced." Mr. Pines of the Education Industry Association said he had seen the same reassessment in the rest of the country, where the average rate was $45 to $65 an hour. Parents who once would have had in-home tutors are going to tutoring centers, while some using the centers have cut back on hours or moved to online-only platforms. He said a rising player in this field is TutorVista, an online education company based in Bangalore, India, that charges $99.99 a month for help on an Internet platform. Where access to tutors appears to be drying up is for people with limited means. In the past, the issue was not whether they could afford it, but rather whether they could finance it. And Jeffrey Cohen, the president and chief executive of Sylvan Learning Centers, which operates one of the largest chains of tutoring franchises in the country, said the lack of financing had been a big blow to less wealthy families. "Programs do exist, but they're hard to come by," Mr. Cohen said. "Prerecession families with a decent credit score could get approved to finance these programs. They could put themselves on a multiyear monthly payment schedule." HELP OR HINDRANCE? Money can't buy you love, the song says, but what should it buy? The cardinal sin of tutoring is writing a student's college essay. This is the murkiest part of the industry. After all, the first line in the National Tutoring Association's ethics code is: "I understand that my role as a tutor is to never do the student's work for him or her." Not surprisingly, people in the industry cringe when the issue is brought up, particularly with online tutoring. "That's where the parent has to play a role of oversight," Mr. Pines said. "It has to be monitored at home, and I can't let Mom and Dad off the hook for that." But the bigger question that springs from this is, How do you make sure the money you're spending is benefiting your child? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Library offers free online tutoring Posted: 20 Aug 2010 11:15 PM PDT By David Vitrano L'Observateur LAPLACE – One of the time-tested methods of aiding a child who is struggling in school is through tutoring. The intensive, one-on-one sessions can be very effective, but unfortunately, they can be very expensive as well. A new offering of the St. John the Baptist Parish Public Library System offers all the benefits of a personal tutor without any of the cost usually associated. Area residents will have the opportunity to get help with their classes through Tutor. com, an online tutoring tool.Offered through the state library system, the free service provides a live — via computer — one-on-one tutor in a wide variety of subjects. "It's a live tutor," said Roberta August, library supervisor. "The tutors help them walk through the process." To take advantage of the service, students can access the site either at the library or remotely, provided they have a St. John library card. To access the site remotely, users can visit www.stjohn.lib.la.us. There they can click the link to the state library site. Another link will take them to Tutor.com. Tutors are available in math, science, social studies and English for fourth- through 12th-grade students. They can also help with many standardized tests and lower level college courses. Students can access tutors 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the tutor will remain in the session as long as help is needed. Free demonstrations are available at all parish branches. Tutor.com took the place of Brainfuse's HelpNow!, which was only accessible for a few hours in the evening. It joined other online academic help sites available through the library such as Learning Express, which offers practice tests for everything from the ACT to the U.S. Citizenship Test. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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