Getting an extra boost Getting an extra boost (August 05, 2005)

Students and parents turn to tutoring to catch up or get ahead
by Rebecca Guyon

With increasingly vigorous curriculum and college admission requirements, more and more students are looking for help outside of the school district by getting additional lessons at local tutoring centers. The number of students enrolled at tutoring centers generally dips in June and July due to scheduling conflicts with family vacations and summer activities, or because they just need a break. However, this usually changes by August when students enroll to prepare for the upcoming school year. In fact, many students are choosing to take advantage of the multitude of tutoring programs located in Pleasanton to either catch up or get ahead.

"The teachers in our district are great, but they have to cover so much curriculum and it is in a constant forward motion," said Janis Clark, director of STEPS Community Prep School. "For students who need to slow down, additional instructional time to sit with a teacher, discuss the concepts, work through why it's a problem and work out a way to solve them can make a difference. That one added hour a week has provided students with a much stronger basis for understanding quizzes and test."

Receiving individualized attention is one of the main reasons students attend after school and summer tutoring. STEPS has a teacher-student ratio of 6 to 1. Other tutoring centers have similar teacher-student ratios, such as Sylvan Learning Center, which has a 3-1 ratio, and The Achievement Learning Center, which has a 2-1 ratio.

"I'm the kind of person who can't just look at a book and get it," said Clarice Chui, a senior at Foothill High School who took an algebra II course at STEPS. "I need things explained to me, and when there are so many kids in class, I didn't always get enough attention."

"Tutoring centers offer a lot of personal attention," said Mary Berg, director of The Achievement Center. "It helps us so we stay on top of what (students) are doing and design programs to fit the needs of each student."

A low teacher-student ratio not only allows students the chance to get more attention and ask all the questions they need, but also gives tutors the time to develop a learning plan tailored to the student's strengths and weaknesses.

"Our program is totally customized," said Jennifer Eggerts, director Sylvan Learning Center. "We start with an assessment of where the skill gaps are, if any, which catches the student up to grade level and beyond."

Tutoring programs are available throughout Pleasanton for students of any grade level. Sylvan provides tutoring for students K-12, but mostly receives students in the lower grade levels, while STEPS focuses on students in the middle and high school grades. The Achievement Center provides classes for students K-8. In the elementary levels, phonics and reading comprehension skill classes are the most common programs. For secondary grade students, upper level math courses, such as algebra II and pre-calculus, have the most demand. There is large a need for the advanced math tutoring because students are expected to take higher levels of math at younger ages, Clark said.

"Many freshmen start high school taking geometry," Clark said. "Expectations have increased quite quickly."

While most tutoring programs focus on the mastery of subject matter, Learning Rx, a new tutoring center that opened in Pleasanton in April, takes a different approach by teaching students "learning skills." The concept behind Learning Rx is that students do poorly in school not because they are unable to grasp the subject matter, but because they lack the tools to study and learn. In order to succeed, students need to build cognitive skills, such as memory, processing and focusing attention, said Shelia Martin, director of Learning Rx.

"For some children, the reason they are not able to read or do math is because they have an attention or memory problem, that is different than a learning disability, but they still have difficulty with school because of their cognitive weaknesses," Martin said.

Learning Rx also does an introductory assessment of students before developing a plan to strengthen the identified weakness.

"We do a lot of drilling through games," Martin said. "Games that are timed, card drills, some nonsense word games to teach how to properly sound out words and target attention and memory."

Lori Steer said she brought her two daughters, Emma, a 9-year-old student at Walnut Grove Elementary School, and Ellen, a 12-year-old student at Harvest Park Middle School, to Learning Rx for the summer so they could improve their learning skills while they are not busy with school and extracurricular activities.

"We wanted to do some learning enhancement for the summer and thought, instead of going over basic facts, it would be valuable to teach them how to think," Steer said.

Although tutoring centers provide a service that most students could benefit from, not all students can access them since there is a cost involved. Sylvan's services range from $49-55 an hour and The Achievement Learning Center and STEPS charge per hour-long class, with prices of $250 per eight classes and $50 per class respectively. Learning Rx prices their services based on if a student wants to take the 24-week long reading program, the 12-week skills program or do a program that combines both. The programs can range from $1,000-8,000. Despite this drawback, tutoring can be beneficial for students who have the opportunity.

"It's pretty cool because I think I'm going to be really good in fourth grade and I'm going to be a lot smarter than I was," said Emma Steer.

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