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Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Grade Expectations

Spanish Translation

By Brenda Iasevoli

Thirteen-year-old Devanté Sanford hops a subway train at 7 a.m. to his school in downtown Manhattan. After a six-hour day, he's back on the train. He is not going home, but to the Sylvan Learning Center uptown. It's 4:30 p.m. by the time he climbs the stairs to the tutoring center, where he gets extra help in reading and math.

"Devanté was going to tutoring 10 hours a week," Tara Sanford, Devanté's mother, told TFK. "But when he complained about doing work all day long, I cut his hours to six."

Devanté isn't the only kid trading free time for extra schoolwork. Tutoring companies serving K-12 students are popping up around the country to fill a growing demand for one-on-one instruction in subjects such as math, reading and writing. Some tutoring companies offer homework help too. Today, there are more than 2 million professional tutors, says Sandi Ayaz, the director of the National Tutoring Association. Five years ago, there were only about 250,000 tutors.

What's fueling the boom in the tutoring industry? One factor is that many people feel anxious over the demands of the four-year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, which requires yearly testing in math and reading in grades three through eight. The goal of the law is to bring all students up to grade-level by 2014.

The High Price of Success
Under NCLB, some kids who attend schools that fail to improve for three years in a row are eligible to receive free tutoring. But for many kids who seek tutoring to catch up or to get ahead, help often has a big price tag. One-on-one tutoring from private companies can cost from $20 to $100 an hour.

Many parents say that it's worth it. Felicia Gibbs's daughter, Gabrielle Bird, has been going to Score!, a computer-based tutoring center, since she was 3 years old. She is now 7. "I want to keep Gabrielle one step ahead," Gibbs told TFK.

For Devanté's mother, the money is well-spent. The individual instruction has boosted her son's confidence and brought him from a sixth-grade to a 10th-grade reading level in four months. Now he's working on his math skills.

"It's tough going to school and tutoring," Devanté told TFK. "But the (tutors) make me feel like they want me here."

All Work and No Play?
Child psychologists warn that kids must balance the pressures of studying with play. Faced with budget cuts and the pressure to do better on tests, however, some schools have cut extracurricular subjects. Although Devanté loves to draw and play baseball and soccer, his school doesn't offer art or team sports.

"Nobody is saying that kids should go to school all day and to tutoring all night," says Richard Bavaria, the vice president of education for Sylvan. "But if a child has difficulties in school, there is something that we can do to help. That's tutoring."

After his long day, Devanté doesn't arrive home until after 7 p.m. And he still has an hour of homework to do.

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Little Help?
Schoolwork support comes in many forms. Sometimes it's as easy as logging on to a computer or tapping an older kid on the shoulder. Check out some of the ways that kids are tutored.

Help is just a click away with online tutoring, or e-tutoring. Students can get math, science, social studies and English instruction from tutors in the United States or from countries thousands of miles away.

Let software be your teacher! In computer-based tutoring, the computer program guides students through tough spots in subjects such as reading and math. Get an answer wrong? No problem. The computer displays step-by-step solutions on the screen.

Students dial up school success with telephone tutoring. Some school districts provide pupils with free homework help over the phone from teachers, college students and other trained tutors.

Have you ever helped a classmate or a younger sibling with schoolwork? If so, you have practiced peer-to-peer tutoring. It's a great way for you to review material too.

Pull the plug on all the electronic devices! No matter if it's one-on-one or a small group, the only power needed for pencil-and-paper tutoring is brainpower.

Next: Catch a Comet by Its Tail . . .