February 28, 2012

Miffed tutors blame district for delaying students’   help

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Bill Bush, The Columbus Dispatch, originally published 1/10/12

A federally funded tutoring program for Columbus students is months behind schedule as the district tries to prevent fraud. The district’s tough approach to checking out tutoring vendors has meant that thousands of students have yet to receive any help, 2 1/2 months after tutoring could have begun. The vendors are crying foul, saying the delay is costing them business and hurting the district’s chances of improving reading and math scores.

“It’s very ugly,” said Ty Hairston, the owner of Education Recruiting Services, which tutored about 170 Columbus City Schools students last year. This year, he expects his final number to be slightly more than 60. “I’m done. This will be my last year” working in Columbus, Hairston said. “The scrutiny, it’s unfair.”

For the past six school years, Apostolic Faith Temple has started tutoring students on Nov. 1. This year, it wasn’t approved for tutoring by the district until Saturday. “Nobody is saying anything, which is really unnerving,” Kathy Bealer said last week, before being given the go-ahead to start tutoring. Bealer oversees the tutoring program at Apostolic Faith Temple, one of the largest tutoring operations serving Columbus students. “I’ve heard a lot of providers have pulled out,” she said.

Many of the parents who signed up with Apostolic last summer have changed their minds, discouraged by the delay and uncertainty, Bealer said. “I may end up with one kid when all this is over, and I started with over 200,” she said.

To read more click here.

Filed under: NCLB

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