by Zhiyuan Ma, Staff Writer
From sports to performances to clubs, high school offers an array of interesting extracurricular activities to students. However, one thing looms above all else: grades. Given that the semester is already halfway over, many of our readers might wonder how to turn that B into an A before it is too late.
One well known resource that the school provides is after-school tutoring. From Monday to Thursday at 4pm to 5pm, there will be teachers in the Mills library that can provide homework help to any student. Ms. Kovacs is available to tutor math on Monday and Tuesday. Ms. Spencer-Mills offers tutoring in math and Japanese on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Mr. Olson can tutor science on Thursday. Student tutors are also available for most subjects.
Student success coordinator Ms. Peng and science teacher Mr. Olson both pointed out that compared to previous years, not as many students come. Ms. Peng noticed that after-school tutoring has become a hangout place and only some of the students that come actually need tutoring. Mr. Olson hypothesized that the decrease in attendance is due to the bell schedule. Before distance learning, Mills had its own schedule, with staff collaboration meetings on Wednesday from 8 to 9:10 and school starting at 9:20. Now, every school in the district has similar schedules. Staff collaboration meetings are from 3:05 to 3:45 on Tuesday and Thursday now, and since a teacher has to be there to supervise, after-school tutoring can’t start right after school. Most students would rather go home right after school instead of staying for an extra hour.
Ms. Peng also said that the budget for this service wasn’t a lot. The tutors have to be paid for staying after school. In order to receive more money, the school has to prove the program’s effectiveness to the school district. It’s hard to measure the effectiveness since the students have to show up to tutoring consistently and the school can’t force students to come. Ms. Peng said that “When I think of the budget for after school [tutoring], maybe that can be used in a different program, like tutor.com… from what I can tell from tutor.com, it seems to be able to reach more students as opposed to after school tutoring.”
Tutor.com is a tutoring service that the school district bought. According to its website, “Every tutor is vetted through a rigorous screening process with subject exams, mock tutoring sessions, mentor review and third-party background check.” The service can be accessed through Canvas, and after completing a form, you will be connected to one of the tutors available and communicate using chat or chat and voice.
Ms. Peng said that so far, very few people have used tutor.com so she is trying to get more people to test the service out. In order to see if the tutor.com is effective, more student data is needed. However, she said that “of the students who are using the program, ninety percent say that it has helped them.” Math teacher Ms. Kovacs said that “as people discover how helpful it can be, I think there will be a lot more students using it.”
Freshman Zackary Yui is one of the students who has used tutor.com. “I think it is pretty good,” he said, “They don’t just give you the answers. They kind of help you.” He said that he doesn’t know anyone else who uses the service.
“I think the old model of students going to class is carrying their textbooks and carrying their notebooks, taking notes. And I think that’s really different now of how teachers teach,” Ms. Peng said, “Everything is kind of electronic and so that’s why I think that having a service like tutor.com maybe would be better for students and maybe that’s why students don’t come to after school tutoring anymore.”
