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FEW TAKE FREE TUTORING; SOME SAY WORD HASN’T GOTTEN AROUND SYRACUSE DISTRICT.(Local)

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) January 21, 2003 Byline: Paul Riede Staff writer What if the government offered free tutoring and nobody came?

That’s not quite the situation in Syracuse, but so far it’s pretty close. Using a conservative estimate, more than 3,000 of the 5,800 children who attend 10 targeted schools in Syracuse are eligible for the tutoring. But only a few dozen have signed up so far.

Under the “No Child Left Behind Law” signed by President Bush a year ago, low-income children in schools with poor, non-improving test scores are eligible for free tutoring from outside organizations. School districts must pay up to 5 percent of their federal Title I money to fund the program. web site huntington learning center

But forums held Jan. 7 and 9 to introduce parents to the tutoring providers drew a total of about two dozen people. The provider that has drawn the most interest, Huntington Learning Center in Fayetteville, had signed up 13 children by the end of last week. Kaplan K12 Learning Services in Syracuse had signed up eight.

Some out-of-town providers, such as Internet-based Progressive Learning of Santa Monica, Calif., and Babbage.Net School of Jefferson, had not signed up a single pupil.

Syracuse’s experience is not unusual. Cities such as New York City and Washington, D.C., also have had low sign-up rates. Clifford Dittrich of Babbage.Net said he’s sure the low response doesn’t reflect low parent interest. New programs often start slowly, he said. Such news often travels by word-of-mouth.

“My guess is that the people themselves just don’t know about it,” he said.

But Ralph Fagan, executive director of Progressive Learning, said districts that make a mission of reaching parents with the information can be successful.

“Various school districts have either done a great job or an awful job or somewhere in between,” he said.

The Syracuse district sent an eight-page notice to parents the week before Christmas break, administrator Mary Fitzgibbons said. Another notice went home with pupils last week, and notices have been posted in every school. The district is beginning to contact radio stations for additional publicity.

In Rochester, the district sent two mailings to parents in the past two weeks and ran 14 radio spots last weekend. Through parent liaisons at every school, the district is also calling all eligible parents to tell them about the program.

Rochester’s moment of truth will come Wednesday evening, when it holds a forum for parents and tutoring providers at one of its middle schools.

“I can’t say how many parents will show up, but I can safely say we’ve done everything we can to get them to come out,” said Terry Hofer, district director of grants and program accountability.

Fitzgibbons said Syracuse has not been able to pinpoint mailings or phone calls to eligible parents because its food service program cannot legally release the names of students who are eligible for free lunch, the income cutoff point for eligibility. Instead, the district sent letters to all 5,800 parents in the 10 low-performing schools, telling them they might be eligible.

Hofer, of Rochester, maintains it is legal for a district to share student income data to enforce federal programs.

Kim Rohadfox-Ceaser, president of Parents for Public Schools of Syracuse, said she believes many parents are still unaware of the program. They may have put aside the notice that arrived shortly before the holiday break without looking at it carefully, she said. web site huntington learning center

Parents who do know about it may be justifiably confused and hesitant, she said. No transportation is offered, and some of the programs have not settled on a site, leaving parents to wonder whether they could get their children there for the sessions.

In addition, she said, “There really has not been a big push at some schools for their children to sign up.” Marie Hoyt, director of Huntington Learning Center in Fayetteville, also says the district must push the program with greater urgency. Hoyt is preparing to hire more tutors and expand the center’s hours to accommodate up to 15 new city pupils.

She says an average child can gain a grade level in reading achievement for every 30 to 60 hours of tutoring they receive. Huntington hopes to give each child at least a 30-hour program. With two, two-hour sessions each week, the program would take seven to eight weeks.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for free tutoring from professionals outside the Syracuse school district, children have to be eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program and must attend one of the following 10 schools: Blodgett, Dr. King, Elmwood, Franklin, LeMoyne, McKinley-Brighton or Van Duyn elementary school or Grant, Lincoln or Shea middle school. To learn more about the program, call 435-4509.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO Gloria Wright/Staff photographer RYAN QUINN,a pupil at Bear Road Elementary in North Syracuse, uses his fingers to solve a math problem during a tutoring session with Ryan Brundin at Huntington Learning Center in Fayetteville last week. The center had signed up 13 Syracuse pupils through last week for free tutoring provided by the federal government. Color