By Allison Davis, originally posted on 4/27/09 in MissionLocal
Once again students in San Francisco’s public schools are sitting down this week to statewide tests. As in other years, many in low-performing schools have been tutored since January by one of more than a dozen companies that earn $1,442 per student.
Teachers and administrators in the Mission District schools, however, said the tutoring is unlikely to make a difference in test scores. “I think tutoring, the way it’s set up, is not as effective as it can be. It’s very disconnected from the school and the curriculum,” said Adelina Aramburo, principal of Cesar Chavez Elementary for the last three years. Aramburo and others said tutoring fails for a number of reasons, among them a lack of coordination between tutors and teachers, and, with one to three hours a week, the too few hours of tutoring that students are offered.
Low-income students become eligible for Supplemental Education Services (SES) funds if their school fails to meet improvement targets set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Cesar Chavez has failed to meet those targets for six years in a row, making it among the worst-scoring schools in the district. Three of the five other Mission District elementary schools have also failed to meet their targets for more than four years—Leonard R. Flynn Elementary, Marshall Elementary and Bryant Elementary. George R. Moscone Elementary and the bilingual immersion school Buena Vista are the only two Mission District elementary schools not in Program Improvement.
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