Literally every single MCPS kid I know has a tutor. Do YOU?

[Anonymous]

We have a tutor to supplement, because I find the 4th grade curriculum in MCPS to be lacking. DS is keeping up w/ school assignments, but they are not challenging at all (older DS was in the HGC, where he was definitely challenged). Our tutor is for writing (not math). At school my DS can write 3 sentences and no matter what he writes they're acceptable, even if they're poorly written. He can do much better, but the teachers don't ask much of him. No research projects, no in-depth book reports.

This tutor is teaching him to organize his thoughts, giving him challenging writing assignments, correcting his writing (spelling, grammar) and is setting a much higher bar than MCPS. Working on vocabulary, giving him reading assignments and then asking him to write in depth about the book or short story.

We're doing this because the school's not, not so that he can get better grades (he mostly gets Ps although he did get an ES once). Good writing is an essential skill (and looking ahead, it doesn't seem like the middle schools are focusing on writing skills either).

[Anonymous]

Wonder if this helps explains the achievement gap everyone is talking about recently. The families who can pa $80-$100 per hour the kids are doing fine. The rest perhaps not so much. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if this helps explains the achievement gap everyone is talking about recently. The families who can pa $80-$100 per hour the kids are doing fine. The rest perhaps not so much. Just a thought.

There is definitely an achievement gap for some because of the tutors. If you have a kid with a tutor since K, and that kid got into HGC, then it's an unfair advantage to the kid who didn't have the benefit of a tutor. Could the child have gotten into HGC without the tutor? Who knows.

However, there are kids that do get into HGC with no tutor or prep tests. I think these are the truly gifted or at least advanced ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if this helps explains the achievement gap everyone is talking about recently. The families who can pa $80-$100 per hour the kids are doing fine. The rest perhaps not so much. Just a thought.

There is definitely an achievement gap for some because of the tutors. If you have a kid with a tutor since K, and that kid got into HGC, then it's an unfair advantage to the kid who didn't have the benefit of a tutor. Could the child have gotten into HGC without the tutor? Who knows.

However, there are kids that do get into HGC with no tutor or prep tests. I think these are the truly gifted or at least advanced ones.

sorry, meant to state "unfair advantage to the kid who DID get in". blah.

[Anonymous]

Never even considered a tutor. The fact that you don't know "the lingo" doesn't seem like a reason to get one either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friends and neighbors are all in the same boat. Isn't the school system failing our children if we ALL require tutors?

So, what schools are we talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if this helps explains the achievement gap everyone is talking about recently. The families who can pa $80-$100 per hour the kids are doing fine. The rest perhaps not so much. Just a thought.

No. These people with tutors for elementary school kids are overreacting. We've seen a handful of math problems that seemed difficult to help with in the past few years -- but that's certainly not a reason to get a tutor. We supplement occasionally at home to challenge our child (which is lacking in 2.0). I agree with other posters that it sounds like those with tutors may not have good teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know (myself included) has a tutor for their elementary MCPS student. Why? Because the curriculum is failing to teach fundamental basics (like basic facts, handwriting, and spelling) and because the topics they DO teach are like a foreign language to me. I'm a doctor and my husband is a mathematician. Sure, we can learn any math strategy and teach it to our kid but there's no guide, no textbook, no common vocabulary... I read my son's assignment and it says to solve using only the blah-blah-blah algorithm. When DS completes his HW and asks me to look it over, I don't know if he used the correct algorithm! Ask your tutor, I always say. (She's an MCPS teacher who tutors on the side; an insider!)
My reasoning (for now) is that paying a tutor $80/hr is a lot less expensive than private school. And then my kid gets help reinforcing the algorithms that leave me scratching my head AND he gets a little enrichment (or what they used to call "basics"). Friends and neighbors are all in the same boat. Isn't the school system failing our children if we ALL require tutors?

Do you have a tutor? If you don't, do you wish you did?

I teach both my kids myself. I am a Liberal Arts major and I have self taught myself pretty much all the Math and Science (up to HS level) that my kids have needed. I do not understand how you can say you do not know the lingo or the algorithms (being in STEM professions) - when there are so many text books available? The only thing I personally have not been able to teach has been foreign languages.

Could it be that you do not have the time to teach your kids?

BTW - my kids are in HGC and magnet - so it is not that they are slacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if this helps explains the achievement gap everyone is talking about recently. The families who can pa $80-$100 per hour the kids are doing fine. The rest perhaps not so much. Just a thought.

There is definitely an achievement gap for some because of the tutors. If you have a kid with a tutor since K, and that kid got into HGC, then it's an unfair advantage to the kid who didn't have the benefit of a tutor. Could the child have gotten into HGC without the tutor? Who knows.

However, there are kids that do get into HGC with no tutor or prep tests. I think these are the truly gifted or at least advanced ones.

I teach my kids myself and my kids got into HGC. I think I am better than a tutor because I will pour my heart into teaching my kids. Could they have got into HGC if I did not tutor them?

Who knows? Probably my teaching skewed the results in their favor. On the other hand the fact that I breastfed them or I read to them every night or that we have a happy marriage and home and that I am a highly qualified SAHM or that we have a high SES and HHI or that we have a healthy lifestyle or we ration TV times and electronics or we expose them to enrichment or we spend a lot of time with our kids ---- everything can skew results.

How about not doing cocaine when I was pregnant - does that give an unfair advantage to my kids? How about not ferberizing them when they were little? What about having great relations with my ILs thereby ensuring that my children have loving relatives and support system in their lives - does that give them an unfair advantage?

Life is all about a series of choices and fate.

There are many kids who go for these tutoring and coaching classes for HGC admissions test. Only 30% get in. And these are the 30% who would have gotten in even without the tutoring.

These kids and their parents are self selecting to try and get into the program. That in itself gives them an advantage that other kids do not have.

[Anonymous]

No, we don't have tutors -- K and 5th. I haven't heard of many people using tutors, except to help with delayed reading/reading below grade level.

What school or cluster are you from, OP, where everyone you know has a tutor?

[Anonymous]

No tutors here. We do put time in with our kids on writing as I don't think they get enough feedback. Math has not been a problem to figure out. I also only know people who use tutors for lds/reading issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, two students in elementary school in MCPS and no tutors. So we don't ALL require tutors. And no, I don't wish we had tutors. On the other hand, if $80/hour is the going rate, maybe I'll start tutoring.

You're only marketable if you know the curriculum inside out... in other words, you're an MCPS employee.

Nah, I'll just advertise my bargain rate of $70/hour.

But OP, really? You pay a MCPS teacher $80/hour to teach your son handwriting, math facts, and spelling?

Yes, in addition to deciphering the curriculum-based HW assignments and helping him prepare for quizzes. Some of my friends pay $100/hr. I think I'm getting a pretty good deal.

*jaw drops*

OP, do you live in Bethesda/Potomac? Bethesda/Potomac is not representative of the rest of the county.

[Anonymous]

We have a tutor for math and the teacher is doing a lousy job, unfortunately. Anytime she takes a test w/o tutoring, she does poorly. With tutoring - she aces exams.

[Anonymous]

Kids in HGC and Middle School
magnet, and nope- no tutor. Ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

Nope. Never even thought about it. Kid scores at the 99 percentile on the MAP tests, so I'm thinking MoCo is doing a good job for her.