PA tutor funds hold attention

October 8
PA tutor funds hold attention

Nathan Urie Abington Journal Reporter

CLARKS SUMMIT - A statewide tutoring fund provided in August, known as the Educational Assistance Program (EAP) for school students delivered $847, 604 to Lackawanna County and $133,677 to Wyoming County.

Whether or not the money can be used outside of the school districts is a question that seems to have several answers.

The EAP fund is provided for students struggling to meet Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) standards and is distributed among the most academically challenged, low-income districts. Current PSSA standards for this year are 63 percent proficiency in reading and 54 percent proficiency in mathematics, said Debra Ferguson, director of federal programs and grants from the Harrisburg School District. The No Child Left Behind Act seeks to have all U.S. children at 100 percent proficiency levels by 2014.

There are currently six counties covered by the state fund: Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming. According to Pennsylvania Department of Education Web site at www. http://www.pde.state.pa.us/, the 2008-2009 Educational Assistance Program Funding is as follows: locally, in Lackawanna County: Carbondale Area School District, $49,971; Lakeland School District, $57,651; Old Forge School District, $61,472 and Scranton School District, $678,510.

And in Wyoming County: Lackawanna Trail School District, $41,746; and Tunkhannock Area School District, $91,931.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s “Educational Assistance Tutoring Guide,” districts receiving EAP grants are encouraged to use “at least a portion of the resources to partner with local community providers” and recommended “it is in the best interest of each school/district to develop a collaborative relationship with community providers to maximize student learning over the course of the tutoring experience.”

Ferguson said, however, that the spending of EAP grants is different within districts and each school decides where the grants will be used for tutoring. Students must be performing at basic levels or below in order to qualify for tutoring, she said, and many districts opt for daytime or after-school programs.

Tony Mink, executive director of the Sylvan Learning Center in Clarks Summit, said that he believes parents, teachers and guidance counselors alike may not be aware of the financial options provided for tutoring services. Mink said he has been approached by parents wondering why they must pay for their children to be tutored outside of the district when schools have already been provided funds, which are legally able to cover the expense.

Mink said that parents have opted to use facilities outside of the district in recent years for their children but have not received portions of the grant to pay for it. “We have a lot of parents from many districts with complaints,” he said. “The parents are thinking, ‘Well, why must I pay when the school district has money?’”

He also stated that districts receiving money continually may not be seeing a change in academic scores. He said if parents were not seeing a change in their child’s grades, they may want to try a different program. “The question is,” he said, “is it getting better or staying the same?”

Bob Tiernan, supervisor of special programs for the Scranton School District, stated that the district’s EAP grant is tightly regulated and written specifically for “in-house” use. He stated that use of EAP grants are individualized in terms of where the grants can be spent by each district.

Although the district may consider using outside providers in the future, Tiernan said that the district will keep tutoring in after-school programs. “We think our program is very effective,” he said. “We’ve maintained our performance on the PSSAs. We’ve doubled our number of students participating voluntarily.”

According to Tiernan, 1,400 students participated in last year’s program and there are currently 700 tutors on staff. He also said that keeping funds within the district is convenient from a transportation standpoint.