By Ericka Mellon - EducationNews.org
With millions spent Texas educators question benefits of federal law. School districts across Texas are paying tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for private tutoring that has a mixed track record of improving student test scores. Even districts that want to stop footing the bill to ineffective providers are not allowed.
The No Child Left Behind law guarantees free tutoring to low-income students who attend schools that repeatedly miss federal academic targets. Parents get to pick the tutoring provider from a state-approved list that has grown to more than 200 for-profit and nonprofit entities.
Since the law went into effect in 2002 Texas has never removed a provider from its list despite complaints from school districts and the states own evaluation that found seven of the eight tutoring companies studied had no significant impact on student achievement.
With the latest federal school ratings released last week districts are preparing to send letters to parents from about 140 under-performing schools about the tutoring options.
At the same time officials with some of the states largest urban districts including Houston San Antonio and Fort Worth are calling for tougher standards for the tutoring providers.
Easy money?
More than 48000 schoolchildren about a quarter of those eligible - took advantage of the private tutoring in reading and math last year. The cost to
taxpayers was $67 million according to data from the
Texas Education Agency.
This is big business said Melinda Garrett chief financial officer of the Houston Independent School District. There are people who have created companies to do this who havent in the past done educational things. Theyre doing this because its an easy way to make money.
Some of the providers have enticed students to sign up with promises of free computers or cell phones - which some parents say never arrive. State rules forbid providers from giving students gifts for signing up but do allow rewards after enrollment.
HISD filed a formal complaint with the TEA last year about Read and Succeed alleging among other charges that the tutoring company paid students to recruit friends. TEA investigators confirmed that the company gave students gift cards worth $6.50 each but has stopped the practice.
The TEA also found HISD was wrong for not enrolling all the students who selected Read and Succeed and for rejecting the companys state-approved $75 hourly rate.
Read and Succeed and Houston ISD did have their differences in the past but Read and Succeed is pleased to continue to provide reading tutoring to the children of Houston stated Leslie McCollom an Austin attorney representing the company.
HISD to offer math help
HISD the states largest school system has spent about $8 million since last year on private tutoring for nearly 7700 students. The providers hourly rates range from $15 to $100.
Schools that fail to make enough academic progress for three straight years must offer students the tutoring which is named supplemental educational services or SES.
This month HISD is launching its own math tutoring program during the school day as part of Superintendent Terry Griers Apollo 20 reform plan. This will be separate from the federally mandated tutoring which must be outside of school hours.
We think the program of tutoring is good HISDs Garrett said. We want it to be effective tutoring that shows positive gains for our kids not for this just to be about
making money.
Deborah Gray the mother of a 14-year-old HISD student said she had problems with two tutoring providers last year and eventually gave up trying to get her son help.
She said she thought she had signed up with one company when representatives came out to a Third Ward housing development and offered free computers upon enrolling but she never heard back from anyone. With another company Gray said the tutor was late once and never called to reschedule.
Im not wasting my sons time or my time anymore with anyone else Gray said. As a parent when youre trying to do the right thing you would expect everybody else to try to do the right thing.
Checking invoices
HISD officials suspect that some companies are billing the district for students they never serve. The district recently held a phone bank to try to contact 4400 parents of students who supposedly received tutoring based on the providers invoices.
Some parents responded that they had never heard about the tutoring said Pam Evans HISDs manager of federal programs. She said the districts inspector general is now investigating.
San Antonio ISD administrators have similar concerns about billing and district researchers have not found that the tutoring has improved
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores.
We have never been able to find any data suggesting that students did better under this program than students who did not participate in this tutoring program said Leslie Price a spokeswoman for San Antonio ISD.
Rita Ghazal the tutoring coordinator at the TEA said state officials are looking at other ways to evaluate the tutoring providers that will give more timely feedback. The states most recently released study covers the 2006-07 school year.
Evaluating the programs also is difficult because student enrollment and attendance are too low to get reliable results in some cases. Ghazal cited anecdotes that the private tutoring program helps students.
Weve had stories from parents that were very happy having this option she said. I heard a story the other day about a student that received his TAKS scores and he passed. He went to go see the principal because he thought they had made a mistake because he had never passed the TAKS test. The student attributed that to his SES (tutoring).
Mixed results
Studies of the private tutoring in other states also have found mixed results.
Steven Pines the executive director of the
Education Industry Association which represents tutoring providers said students experience benefits from the
tutoring that might not show up on standardized tests.
Nationally about $700 million was spent last year on the private tutoring with 500000 to 650000 students receiving services according to the associations estimates.
President Barack Obamas administration has suggested making tutoring optional but Congress has yet to act.
