A recent conversation with a parent made me realize something: What sort of accountability is there on the part of a tutoring company to ensure results for their clients?
The woman mentioned that she had previously hired a tutoring company (which shall remain nameless), and not only were they unimpressed with the company, but the materials they gave her daughter to work on were far below her level, and did not further enhance the girl’s skills at all. Furthermore, the parent was so dissatisfied with the results, that she did not even finish the program which was fully prepaid for in order to receive a discount.
Now, a lack of an improvement on the child’s behalf could be attributed to one or a combination of several factors. However, the fact remains that the company providing the tutoring service needed to ensure that they have completed their professional duty in ensuring that they did everything they could to at least ensure that the child had understood the information. Otherwise, what good is your service and how do you justify your price tag?
One last point I wish to make on this. Parents: Ensure there is a conversation between yourself, the student, and the company at the beginning of the transaction regarding the specific expectations and targets of the program, the tutoring methods, and the follow-up results. Otherwise, how can one reasonably gauge success?
* * * * *
With so many tutoring companies using different methods, how do you ensure that your children are getting the most from the program that you enroll them in? How did you decide what companies to use ? Are you happy with the results?
Share your advice and good or bad experiences with tutoring companies in the Comments section below or email us your story to have it featured on our site.
You're so right that this is a huge problem. There is currently no effective system to compare different tutors to one another, or to see accurate feedback from past students/parents.
A big part of the problem is that there is no incentive for the companies to expose their tutors to real feedback. They rely on being able to cycle the tutors in and out and claim that their brand is the thing. The problem is that the most important part of any tutoring relationship is the tutor!
Any suggestions on how a system like that may work? It might be an interesting blog article…
I completely disagree with the above comment. Ask your tutoring company for references — they should be able to provide you with plenty of they're any good…
But getting references won't necessarily give you the entire picture. Besides, the fact is that there is no real accountability on the part of the tutoring company.
We completely agree with this article. We are tutors ourselves. One of the first things we do is sit down with the parent and child and discuss the goal for both.
http://www.stepstutoring.ca
Montreal
We agree with what has been said here. At the end of the day, it's about finding the right fit for both the parent and child. There are so many forms of tutoring. If the goal is to ensure your child is getting the kind of help he or she needs to catch up, or even just more practice to get ahead and stay competitive in class — we believe the best form of tutoring is the one that gets it done. And it might be a combination of one-on-one or online. We provide online tutoring. It's great for kids who like using the computer and prefer shorter more focused sessions rather than a few long ones a week, and parents who like the convenience of it. http://www.jupitertutoring.com