FCPS Data shows that Tutor.com is a failture
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Anonymous
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Read about this on Twitter from one of the parent advocacy groups. Normally I discount everything that they say, but I'm glad that they highlighted this failure. In the wake of this report, the school board working session on November 1st to discuss this report and FCPS's learning loss efforts, more generally, was unexpectedly canceled.
The most informative quote from the report: During the fourth grading quarter, 3,189 FCPS students and families, just 1.6% of the FCPS population, accessed the platform for learning support, which equates to a cost per participant of $153 for those who used it. With a median of 29 minutes among those using Tutor.com during SY 2021-22, data indicate that half of all FCPS users accessing the platform did so for less than 30 minutes while the other half did so for more than 30 minutes. The total time among all FCPS users logged into Tutor.com during SY 2021-22 (3,760 hours) translates into an hourly tutoring cost of $130 per hour. Furthermore, while the amount of time individual students or families were logged into Tutor.com ranged from 1 to 2,699 minutes, analyses indicate that almost three-quarters of student users (72 percent) used it for less than one hour, an amount of time that is unlikely to yield tangible benefits to student achievement, particularly for those with greater academic need. You would think that this would mean that Gatehouse would recommend that FCPS terminate the contract. Nope! Recommendations to the Superintendent Based on the conclusions in this report, ORSI offers the following recommendations to the Superintendent. • Increase communication regarding use of Tutor.com as an intervention resource for students with greater academic need. • Continue to monitor usage of the Tutor.com resource during SY 2022-23. • Monitor equity of access to the resource by student academic risk and student group. • Explore differences in responses to academic intervention by academic risk group. Ridiculous! Read the rest of the report here: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CKQJTV4EC65A/$file/Tutor.com%20write%20up%20%20mf.pdf |
Anonymous
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It's clear in the wake of this report that online hw help cannot be the primary answer when it comes to how FCPS addresses learning loss.
Instead, FCPS must level with parents where students are behind & provide direct academic intervention to those students most in need. |
Anonymous
| It was only rolled out on April 14 of SY 2021-22. Is that even two months? Maybe it's a total failure but it seems premature to say so now. |
Anonymous
| Tutor.com was always pointless because it's just one off homework help. If they had partnered with a group that offered regular sessions to help a student catch up rather than just helping with discreet problems, it might have worked. |
Anonymous
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Page 27 of this slide show is heartbreaking. Less than 6,000 students received one-on-one or small-group math catch-up interventions outside of school hours. For reading, that number is less than 7,000.
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CKMQEU68CF92/$file/Presentation--ESSER%20III%20Updates.pdf |
Anonymous
Fairfax county got $188million and they only used a drop of that money for the most effective interventions. Not surprising. |
Anonymous
There was a recent article (in WaPo maybe?) that said every school district was the same - barely were able to use any ESSR funds. And what exactly would you have them use the funds for? Hiring more teachers, IAs, tutors, etc. would be the best use of the funds but there are no people to hire. |
Anonymous
"Computer led 1 on 1 support"---what the hell is that? (as opposed to adult let 1 on 1 support) |
Anonymous
| I'm puzzling over the "computer 1 on 1 support" during "Saturday school". Was there Saturday school? |
Anonymous
Yes, some schools had Saturday School - but it was difficult (or impossible) to staff (like everything else). |
Anonymous
$188 million could have paid for an average of 10-20 hours of one-on-one tutoring for every FCPS student. Where did all of that money go? My 8th grader brought home a pillow in the shape of Pi for Pi day last year. I was told that this was one of the math manipulatives paid for by ESSER funds. It went straight to Goodwill. What a waste. |
Anonymous
I think its counting computer interventions such as Lexia Powerup. |
Anonymous
Make the funds available for parents to use for private tutors. |
Anonymous
It would cost more than $188m to manufacture (cloning?) the people to hire for one-on-one or small-group tutoring for every or some FCPS students. Teachers weren't signing on, non-teacher adults weren't signing on, and kids weren't signing on. |
Anonymous
There were significant restrictions put on the money and it was not allowed to be used to hire staff, temporary or otherwise. |