When Your Teen Needs a Tutor Podcast

Sixteen-year-old Daniel and his twin brother, Ray, of Portland Oregon, tried everything to get their math grades up to par, including meeting with their teachers, changing their homework environment, even using an older peer student as a tutor. But after months of frustration and the knowledge that college applications were looming, their mom Janice sought help from their local Kumon Center.

The subject of tutoring has become a hot topic over the years. As baby boomers’ kids grew up and started thinking about college, the need for extra test help started to grow, explains Lisa Jacobson, the CEO of NYC-based tutoring and test prep firm Inspirica. “The baby boomers starting looking at colleges like brands,” she says. Of course, they wanted the most prestigious. That, coupled with the rankings colleges starting getting in the 90s, made the whole application process a different ballgame with the quest for higher test scores, more advanced placement courses, and the need for extra tutoring help becoming much more competitive.

For the most part, experts across the country agree that extra help is a good thing – either with a private service or a peer:

• When teens have some kind of learning problem and need to learn strategies to get help to do their best and/or

• When homework has become a battleground between parents and kids.

“Tutoring allows parents to go back to being parents and takes away from the role of homework police,” explains Laurie Hurley, owner of Bright Apple Tutoring (www.hometutoringbusiness.com), an in-home tutoring service based in Newbury Park, CA.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page

Issue: April 2008