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Online Tutoring Helps Parents

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The Associated Press

Published: November 23, 2008

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Feagin Johnson Jr. quickly came to his 11th-grade daughter's aid when she needed help with homework from the first pages of her thick Algebra II textbook, but his fast response came with a warning.

"I told her I'm glad I helped you on Page One because on Page 101 you'll be on your own," the state's assistant superintendent of education said with a laugh.

Through sixth grade, a parent can "pretty much help them with anything," Johnson said, "but when they get up to secondary and there's biology, chemistry, physics, Algebra I, Algebra II - oh, boy."

Parents in Alabama and a growing number of other states no longer need fear homework helplessness. Thanks to the spread of online tutoring services that are now increasingly free, courtesy of government and private funds, stumped students can reach out to resourceful tutors across the United States and in some cases around the world.

The number of libraries offering free online tutoring has snowballed as libraries look to stay relevant to their communities, said Jan Sanders, who directs the Pasadena library system in California.

"We want to provide that link, that opportunity for people and a learning environment to come together in a friendly, equitable way," said Sanders, the former president of the Public Library Association. "This is one way for that to happen. It's not the final answer; it's not the only thing we do. But it's an auxiliary service that's proving to be helpful."

Eighth-grader Samuel Mutch turned to the homework site the library system in Casper, Wyo., provides through Tutor.com when he needed help on a geography research paper on tsunamis last school year.

The result? The 13-year-old "got the best scores ever," his mother said.

"He got the highest score in the class, which he's never gotten on a writing assignment," Kate Mutch said. "I did make him tell his teacher he used the homework help because I didn't want her to think somebody else had done it!"

Alabama's free online tutoring program was recently expanded to all students, who can log on to www. homeworkalabama.org, the site offered through the Alabama Public Library Service.

Users typically gain access to the sites by typing in their ZIP codes, then putting down their grade levels and the subjects they need help with. They are then connected to a tutor - the wait time varies depending on how many users are logged on - and spend an average of 20 to 25 minutes per session.

Most companies have tutors available online 24/7, but they vary in the hours they are available to individual states and students.

Lynn Giese, president-elect of the National Tutoring Association, said use of tutoring in general has grown with the entry of the federal No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, and online tutoring, by extension, has increased as well.

Giese said more research is needed on the effectiveness of online tutoring and whether it is helping students score higher on overall exams and not just the individual assignments they seek help with.

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