NCLB pilot programs on tutoring expanded

One pilot program will allow 19 districts in four states to offer tutoring before they offer choice. The other pilot will allow the Anchorage, Alaska, and Memphis, Tenn., school districts to use their own teachers to provide tutoring to children in underperforming schools. Last year, Chicago and Boston were allowed to do this.

The department is expanding the two pilot programs because it was disappointed that relatively few parents took advantage of supplemental services and choice options, Deputy Secretary Ray Simon said July 26.

Nationwide, only about 10 to 20 percent of eligible students across the country participated in free tutoring programs, and only 1 percent took advantage of choice, Simon said.

“NSBA is pleased that the secretary has increased flexibility on offering tutorial services for selected school districts but maintains that such flexibility should be extended to all school districts, subject to approval by their state education agencies,” said Reggie Felton, NSBA’s director of federal relations. 

NSBA has long urged the department to allow all school districts to use their personnel to deliver supplemental services and to offer such services in the first year of improvement. Both provisions are included in the NCLB Improvements Act of 2006 (H.R.5709), introduced in June by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), which is based on draft legislation developed by NSBA. 

“Rep. Young certainly understands the challenges facing local school boards and is pleased with the growing number of members of Congress who are willing to become co-sponsors of H.R.5709,” Felton said. “Just last week, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) announced his decision to become a co-sponsor.”

Currently, NCLB requires schools in the first year of school improvement status to offer parents an opportunity to transfer their children to a better-performing public school. If the school continues to miss its adequate yearly progress goals the following year, it must give students the option of taking part in supplemental education services (SES), such as tutoring.

“From the beginning, districts and states have asked that they be allowed to offer tutoring first,” Simon said. “And many parents, we know from experience, like their children to stay in the school they already attend.” They know the teachers, they want to stay in the neighborhood, “and they want to give their own schools a chance to perform.”

During the past year, the department established a pilot program to allow four districts in Virginia to provide tutoring the first year.

“With what little experience we had with Virginia, we saw enough good things that we want to expand it,” Simon said.

In all four districts, the percentage of students who took advantage of tutoring was higher than the national average: 62 percent in Newport News, 51 percent in Henry County, 27 percent in Stafford County, and 22 percent in Alexandria.

For the 2006-07 year, these districts will be able to take part in what Simon calls the “SES/choice flip” pilot:

• Alaska -- Anchorage, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

• Delaware -- Appoquinimink, Brandywine, Christina, Indian River, Marion T. Academy Charter School, and the New Castle Vocational and Technical School District.

• Indiana -- Decatur Township, Monroe County, and Muncie.

• North Carolina -- Burke, Cumberland, Durham, Guilford, Northampton, Pitt, and Robeson counties.

To be eligible for this pilot, districts had to meet several criteria: They had to notify parents early about their options; send clearly written notification letters to parents’ homes; provide notification through at least two other means, such as community flyers and newspaper announcements; allow students to enroll in tutoring throughout the year; and allow outside providers to use school facilities.

Under the other pilot program, the department will waive the NCLB requirement that prohibits districts where the entire district has been determined to be “in need of improvement” from using their own employees to provide SES.

Currently, these districts must contract with private companies or organizations for tutoring services -- even though such private entities are not subject to stringent accountability measures and the cost might be higher.

When the department allowed Chicago and Boston teachers to provide tutoring last year, “we saw good things happening for kids,” Simon said.

“It is easy for large, urban, diverse districts, like Chicago and Boston, to find themselves ‘in need of improvement,’” Simon said. “Despite the fact that some of their schools are in improvement, they still have some quality services that can be offered to children.”

During the past school year, Chicago public schools provided tutoring to 23,000 students, and private providers served another 32,000. The year before, about 41,000 students received services from private providers.

In Boston, 3,600 students received SES in 2005-06 from both district and private providers. The year before, about 2,000 students received SES.

The districts added to this experiment, Anchorage and Memphis, had to agree to provide timely, clear notification to parents about tutoring opportunities and had to allow multiple private providers to participate.