Pupils miss free tutoring; Parents say they didn't know
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Amy McConnell Schaarsmith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Thousands of Pittsburgh public school children who struggle to read and do math are missing out on free tutoring because their parents haven't applied for as much as $2.5 million in federal funds set aside by Pittsburgh Public Schools officials.

City school officials say none of the parents of the 2,900 eligible children have applied for the federally guaranteed tutoring, which would be provided by private companies or nonprofit groups at the district's expense. Parents, they say, prefer to use the district's own tutoring programs, which rely on state funds to provide materials, classrooms and tutors, usually the district's own teachers.

"Parents are very attracted to in-house models that have the same teachers and the same materials they're used to using," said Teresa Romano, the district's program officer overseeing tutoring.

But outside tutors and some parents say parents aren't applying for the federally mandated tutoring because many either don't know it is available or don't understand how to take advantage of it. And city school officials, whose notification letter to eligible parents never actually used the word "tutoring," are only making the situation more confusing, they said.

"I'm not sure about the phrase 'supplemental educational services,' " Vann Elementary parent Michelle Ford said as she described the language school officials used to discuss the tutoring program. "Why don't they come out and say it's a tutoring program instead of saying it's 'supplemental services?' " Her fifth-grade son is eligible for the tutoring.

Nothing prevents a child from using both the district's tutoring program and a free private one.

Obstacles abound

Bureaucratic jargon is just one of the obstacles that parents, tutors and even education officials face in using the tutoring program, which is required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The obstacles -- unclear communication, lack of publicity and friction between the district and tutoring firms -- have made it difficult for the children and parents who most need help to actually get it.

After No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2002, states began measuring students, schools and school districts against ever-increasing performance standards in reading and math. Schools that fall short ultimately are required to let students transfer to a better school or, after three consecutive years of failing to meet standards, to receive free tutoring.

This is the first year in which pupils at certain Pittsburgh schools -- Carmalt, King, Manchester, Sheraden and Vann elementary schools, and Greenway, Columbus, Milliones, Rooney and Washington Polytech middle schools -- have qualified.

As a result, the federal government is requiring the district to set aside at least 5 percent and as much as 15 percent of the $16,884,117 it will receive in federal funds for economically disadvantaged pupils this year to pay private companies and groups to tutor struggling pupils.

If the district does not spend that reserved money on private tutors by June, it can keep as much as 15 percent, or nearly $380,000, of the reserved amount for use next year, according to officials at the U.S. Department of Education. School officials would not have to use that money to pay outside tutors, federal education officials said.

Pupils qualify for the private tutoring program if they attend a school that has fallen short of academic and other performance standards for three consecutive years; if they were not judged proficient in reading or math on state tests; and if they also qualify for the federal free- and reduced-price lunch program, which education officials use as a measure of poverty.

If all 2,900 eligible children enrolled, and if the district paid an average of $35 an hour for tutoring -- approximately the market rate, although some providers charge much less and others much more -- each pupil could receive about 25 hours of tutoring. More tutoring would be available for participants if some eligible pupils did not apply.

Tutoring organizations typically provide about 30 hours of lessons to get pupils caught up in reading and math, company officials said.

In some cities, districts themselves have won state approval to tutor children using the money set aside under No Child Left Behind. In Pittsburgh, however, the school district is barred from providing the federally backed tutoring until economically disadvantaged, African-American and special education pupils are making significant, consistent progress toward meeting reading and math standards.

The rationale of the federal law is that parents should have an alternative to the programs and teachers that repeatedly have failed to teach their children reading and math, according to Sally Chamberlain, chief of the state Department of Education's division of district and school improvement.

"If you're standing and looking at it from afar and you have a failing school, those teachers already have had a shot at teaching those kids, and why are we giving them another shot if they didn't do it during regular classroom time?" Chamberlain said.

Despite that position, the state separately provides the Pittsburgh schools with $3.7 million of its own money to tutor struggling students.

One parent perplexed

Even after receiving the district's letter, Ford said, she did not understand that her son, Bruce, also could get free tutoring under the federally funded program. The state-funded tutoring he has received from the district has improved his grades, she said, and the federally backed tutoring might improve them even more.

"My son, before the [district's] program, lacked interest in school, and reading and math he wasn't too good at," Ford said. "He's been in the program for two years and there's been a big change. Everywhere we go now, he wants to read, he wants to take a book."

Industry observers, however, said bureaucracy could keep children such as Bruce from taking advantage of the federal program and finding the additional help they need to catch up with their peers in math and reading.

Pittsburgh school officials, they said, should not only obey the letter of the law -- in notifying parents that they can receive "supplemental educational services" at no charge -- but also fulfill its spirit by actively promoting the program and by clearly telling parents how to take advantage of it.

Russell Miller, vice president of New Jersey-based Huntington Learning Centers Inc., said the New York City and Los Angeles school districts distributed booklets in multiple languages to encourage parents to use the program. And districts in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Cleveland; and others cities routinely invite national and local tutoring companies and organizations to "provider fairs" to explain their services to parents.

But, said several state-approved tutors who would like to participate in the program, district officials have done little to develop relationships with them or to explain to parents how to enroll their children.

Joan Clark, a retired city schoolteacher who runs the Baptist Temple Church Center Inc. tutoring program in Homewood, said she had had trouble getting school administrators to return her calls, much less formulate an agreement to tutor children.

Some parents, she said, have shown interest in signing up with her for the federally guaranteed tutoring. But they had to make arrangements through the Pittsburgh Public Schools and they never called her again to enroll their children, she said.

"The parents of these students are hostile anyway because their kids are going to public school and they know they're not learning and have all these tests they have to go through," Clark said. "Then they hear they're on a list of 'SES money' and they have no idea how to get that money, and that makes them hostile, too."

After receiving what he considers unfair treatment by Pittsburgh school officials earlier this year, Ron Brown, of tutoring company Fifth Quarter Enterprises LLC, said he was leery of doing business with school officials.

Brown recruited several hundred college students to tutor city schoolchildren last spring. In June, Pittsburgh school officials decided against renewing his contract, and instead hired away Brown's tutors to work directly for the district.

"I've just got such an ill feeling about it, I don't even want to mess with it," Brown said.

City school officials, however, say they have met with Clark several times and that Brown's complaint is unfounded. "I don't think he had a situation where he had any sort of property rights" to the college-age tutors, Romano said.

The district, school officials said, has fulfilled the letter of the law and then some, by holding parent meetings and giving out information about the program. So far, they said, no parents have signed up for the program, but no one has complained to them about how it's being run, either.

"If they have concerns about how we are administering this program, then we need to hear from them, and we'll address those concerns," said Phil Parr, the district's chief of staff.


Those wanting more information can call Teresa Romano at 412-622-3727.

Amy McConnell Schaarsmith can be reached at 412-263-1548 or at aschaarsmith@post-gazette.com.