5 Things To Look For In A Tutoring Center That Make A Difference

According to the latest national statistics, 63 percent of students in the United States cannot read proficiently. Parents usually get the big shock about this when their child has taken their first SAT or ACT test and has done poorly.

Sadly, the NAEP mathematics scores also show that our students do not truly comprehend the practical application of mathematical formulas in everyday life.

In order to remediate this problem, parents turn to tutoring services. Not all tutoring services are even headed by educators who have any prior background in remediation and enrichment of academics. So what do parents need to look for in a quality tutoring service?

Educators for Tutors

Whether the educators are retired or moonlighting classroom teachers, they need to know how to teach. Hiring the kid down the street who is a mathematics wiz does not mean he knows how to best teach your child about mathematics. If your teachers in the public school have failed your child, now is not the time to enlist someone who has no teaching qualifications.

Find out from the tutor or from the tutoring company how they remediate the lacking skills. Find out where they learned to do this.

Research-Based Remediation

What is the research basis upon which the tutoring service is working? If they are simply having tutors present canned remediation routines, look elsewhere. Remediation must be individualized for each student, or your child will be wasting more time.

According to Edutopia, instruction must be individualized and students need concrete, constructive feedback in the moment in order to be able to modify and/or improve their performance, as needed.

Begin With Testing

All good remediation that is research-based begins with testing. That is how the tutor will individualize your child’s tutoring program.

For example, if your child is having difficulty reading, what is their current independent reading level? What is there instructional reading level? What level is too high? Are they reading fluently, or do they need to work on fluency? How is their deep comprehension?

Sadly, many tutoring services provide canned remediation programs that are not tailored to your child’s needs, so they will likely waste both time and money. In fact, one of the most well-known tutoring companies in America uses canned remediation programs made many years ago that are boring for students. Ask to watch tutoring sessions taking place or to see the curriculum that will be used.

Keep You Abreast and Test Progress

A good tutoring service will provide weekly progress reports and will conduct regular testing to see if your child is moving towards their remediation goals.

Make it Engaging

A good tutoring service gets that your child is not thrilled to have to spend more time after school with schooling. Testing will determine your child’s personal interests and ensure that tutoring piques these interests. For example, articles used in reading remediation as well as suggested independent reading books are all tailored to your child’s interests. If they aren’t motivated, their results will not be as good. A good tutoring service is there to make the subject matter come alive and pique children’s interests.

Overall, you are looking for a tutoring service that has students working from their present level up to a new target level. The students will not simply be doing skill-drill remediation, but they will be learning how to overcome their current academic deficits doing lessons that are engaging and designed to pique their curiosity and solve real world problems, exactly as advocated by leading educational researchers, McTighe and Wiggens. This provides them a reason to want to learn and grow because they are solving a problem important to them personally.