Are any APS Elementary Schools Offering After School Tutoring?

[Anonymous]

I think APS is a failure at providing extra support at the elementary and middle school level, which is particularly shameful given all the CARES money they received. I will say at our high school (WL) there is a lot of extra support, which I was not expecting. There is a math teacher available every day for 0 period (before school) and after school. There is also "lunch lab" for each of the core subjects with a teacher available for all three lunch periods. Even more surprising is that they have Saturday school every week. I think this is for each core subject as well, but I haven't paid too much attention because my kids never used it. But there is an email sent out each week saying what's available that Sat. My understanding is some kids are requested (required?) to go to Sat. school, it's optional for everyone else.

My kids have definitely taken advantage of morning math help and both math and English lunch labs, especially if they have an upcoming test or want a teacher to read an essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think APS is a failure at providing extra support at the elementary and middle school level, which is particularly shameful given all the CARES money they received. I will say at our high school (WL) there is a lot of extra support, which I was not expecting. There is a math teacher available every day for 0 period (before school) and after school. There is also "lunch lab" for each of the core subjects with a teacher available for all three lunch periods. Even more surprising is that they have Saturday school every week. I think this is for each core subject as well, but I haven't paid too much attention because my kids never used it. But there is an email sent out each week saying what's available that Sat. My understanding is some kids are requested (required?) to go to Sat. school, it's optional for everyone else.

My kids have definitely taken advantage of morning math help and both math and English lunch labs, especially if they have an upcoming test or want a teacher to read an essay.

That's great what's happening at WL. Are the teachers being compensated for their additional time or are they volunteering? Impressive effort by all involved.

[Anonymous]

That’s impressive. I wish the board would highlight these kinds of efforts and talk about how to replicate in other schools and provide the resources for it.

[Anonymous]

I don't know much about it because my child wasn't selected, but I heard that there is after school tutoring going on at ASFS.

[Anonymous]

My kids are older now but back when DS was at Long Branch they had a room for him to go to during extended day, staffed with a teacher, where he could do his homework with supervision and assistance if needed. He has ADHD so that was super helpful (and it wasn't just for kids with 504/IEPs). Does that still happen in the elementary schools?

[Anonymous]

OP - is your DC at a neighborhood school or a lottery school? We have a daughter who was in a similar situation and was not able to put them in private. We did, however, move her to our neighborhood school and saw a dramatic change. It wasn’t easy, but, it was the best decision for her education pathway. If where you’re at now is not working, it could be time to look at other schools. We have received so much more support from our neighborhood elementary school than the lottery school she was previously attending.

[Anonymous]

I did not receive millions of dollars in federal funding to address that, APS did. Can we all push this responsibility on them where it belongs?


How do we push this issue more or what more can be done? We are between hiring a tutor three times a week or just going private. I think expecting the school system to do something is a waste of time at this point.

[Anonymous]

Is it true that an elementary school in APS won’t hold back a child unless they are one or two levels behind????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not receive millions of dollars in federal funding to address that, APS did. Can we all push this responsibility on them where it belongs?


How do we push this issue more or what more can be done? We are between hiring a tutor three times a week or just going private. I think expecting the school system to do something is a waste of time at this point.

It's budget season. Go to a board meeting and tell them they need to fund it. APE is the only group consistently talking about it. SB needs to hear from more people.

It will probably be a campaign issue too because one of candidates (not APE) has it on her website, but if you want APS to do more about it next year, you need to start telling them now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that an elementary school in APS won’t hold back a child unless they are one or two levels behind????

Will they even do it in that case? Holding back is a huge deal.

[Anonymous]

It is huge! But if OP’s child is struggling and needs to be held back there are ways to advocate for it. A school is not going to say “fine, that works for us” the first time holding a child back is brought up. This is coming from a family where we had to really push the school to let us hold back our son in 3rd grade. So it can be done and I know other APS families that did the same thing - pre and post COVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is huge! But if OP’s child is struggling and needs to be held back there are ways to advocate for it. A school is not going to say “fine, that works for us” the first time holding a child back is brought up. This is coming from a family where we had to really push the school to let us hold back our son in 3rd grade. So it can be done and I know other APS families that did the same thing - pre and post COVID.

Being 1-2 grades behind isn’t enough to hold back.

His gaps should be addressed first with IEP/504, interventions, summer school, etc. Holding back is absolutely a last resort.

[Anonymous]

Being that far behind is absolutely a reason to be held back. If a child doesn’t perform at their grade level and is not able to keep up, moving up a grade is going to make everything worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being that far behind is absolutely a reason to be held back. If a child doesn’t perform at their grade level and is not able to keep up, moving up a grade is going to make everything worse.

1-2 grades behind isn’t that far behind. Especially for younger kids and kids with LDs.

It’s a very last resort.

[Anonymous]

Non teacher or school specialist here but curious - if there’s a student that is not at level how does continuing to push them forward help? If you have a third grader who is two grades behind, so doing K work, you would still want them to go on to 4th grade while you continue trying to work on figuring out why? I’m not saying holding back is the first pick and you don’t try other things first, but two grade levels behind doesn’t seem like the time to just push forward.