Success in tutoring - Assessment in real time

Many tutoring centers give an assessment at the beginning of the tutoring program, and then give another assessment at the end of the tutoring program. If the student shows improvement on the second assessment, then bingo, the tutoring was a success. Right?

Well, yes, if your goal is to have your son or daughter do better on a test given by the tutoring center. The idea behind this method is that the improvement in the assessment will reflect in the students' schoolwork.

However, we have talked to many parents where this is not the case. There are many reasons why this method could be disappointing for parents: the assessment doesn't align with exactly what the student is doing in school (how could it?), the assessment misses pieces that the student needs help with, or the student is just a poor (or very good) test taker which skews the results.

This is why our tutors assess students during tutoring sessions, while helping them with their current work. This is more efficient, because the student is actually getting help while the assessment is happening. In fact, the student doesn't even know he or she is being assessed.

More importantly, the tutor is collecting detailed information about the student's strengths and weaknesses and learning gaps that need to be revisited. Without the stress of a paper and pencil assessment getting in the way, the tutor can pinpoint what needs to be worked on and focus the session accordingly.

The result: less tutoring time needed, and better results, faster. Since the assistance is focused on exactly what your child needs, and administered by an expert tutor, the gains come faster, and they are real gains, not just gains on a tutoring center assessment.