Affordable tutoring and free summer programs available for Colorado students
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Tutoring centers are playing catch-up with many students after a year that's been tough. Marie Parsons, the owner of the local 'Tutor Doctor' franchise, a worldwide tutoring company for students pre-kindergarten to college, she described it as "chaotic."
Their programs vary, but before the pandemic, Parsons says they would visit each student they were tutoring at home, now they have turned to virtual tutoring.
"We have about 35-40 kids right now that we are helping out right now and some of that is to ensure that the retention of the academics is there," said Parsons.
She says right now kids are mostly struggling with mathematics. However, Parsons sees both sides. She is also a mom, and her 8-year-old daughter, Nora, has had a different experience over the past year. Unlike many students who had to alternate between online and in-person, she attended school in person.
Nora said attending school in person helped her get knock out her goal of straight As this past school year.
"It is hard for me to learn at home, I like at school because they just give us the stuff and we just work on it," said Nora.
For those who experienced the rollercoaster of online and in-person learning, things were hard. One district seeing the effects of this is Pueblo School District 60.
In 2020 they had 480 high schoolers attending summer school -- that number has now increased by nearly 61%. We also reached out to other districts in the area, but we have yet to hear from them.
Tutors For Change, a non-profit virtual tutoring organization that started in the last year, is looking to help. They say in the last year they've tutored more than 200 students across Colorado Springs.
"Our vision is to create a world free of barriers to receiving a good education, tutoring is just one way of doing that and we hope to continue to do it even after the pandemic," said the CEO and Co-Founder of Tutors For Change, Arjun Kudinoor.
Most of their tutors are volunteers and the non-profit is only virtual. The program tutors students for 99 cents an hour and their summer programs and courses are free for students k-12. For more head on over to their website, Tutors For Change.
