Hunching over his computer, eyes strained as he reviews the last line of code, junior Kevin Fong knows it’s late, far too late to be awake — but he has to finish the website to launch a new tutoring service. Sighing, he makes one final adjustment and hits “publish.” Fong refreshes his page to check the site. The bright blue logo stares back — Tutoring on Demand.
As students move up in grades, classes increase in availability — and so does the need for tutors. But tutors are expensive, with some costing over $100 per hour. This year, Paly has two free alternatives: Tutoring on Demand and the Tower Learning Center.
Palo Alto Unified School District Board member Jennifer DiBrienza said tutoring services have great potential to help students.
“Often on the Paly parents Facebook page and on the Paly WhatsApp groups for parents, people are looking for tutors,” DiBrienza said. “‘Does anyone have a physics tutor? Does anyone have a math tutor?’ So it’s pretty clear that tutors are utilized often and are needed often.”
Launched at the beginning of the school year by junior Xander Deisseroth and web developer Fong, Tutoring on Demand is a free online tutoring service. Through their website, tutoring-on-demand.org, students can schedule meetings with volunteer tutors. On the other hand, the Tower Learning Center, located in the Tower Building, opened the week of Sept. 23 and is run by math teacher Young-Ju Lee.
Fong said one advantage of the online nature of Tutoring on Demand is its constant availability.
“No one’s going to help you at 10 p.m. when you’re doing your math homework and you really need help,” Fong said. “No one’s gonna help you when the Tower Learning Center isn’t open.”
DiBrienza agreed, and said Tutoring on Demand could provide help in the moment.
“I would say (Tutoring on Demand) sounds like a one off,” DiBrienza said. “I guess you could use either one of them for a one off. But if you’re in a physics class and you’re having trouble with a particular problem, that might be really helpful.”
Although Tutoring on Demand is new, Fong said he hopes to expand the platform by reaching out to other schools.
“Schools can approve hours, and moderate and look at everything that you’re doing,” Fong said. “Schools have a lot of control, and I made all that stuff over the summer so that we could be scalable, and so we can expand to as many schools as we want.”
The TLC pairs student tutors with volunteer tutees. Lee said student pairings encourage long-term learning through weekly meetings for each pair.
“We don’t want (students) to depend on the tutor,” Lee said. “We don’t want them to depend on the TLC. We want them to figure out, ‘Hey, I’ve built these skills, I’ve developed these skills.’”
Lee also said TLC aims to equip students with the skills necessary for success.
“You could come here. You would get paired with a tutor, and then you would work on those assignments,” Lee said. “You would work on studying. But with academics, there’s so much more than just doing the homework and studying for a test.”
Instead of expanding to other schools, TLC is focusing on adding more services within Paly. Lee said they aim to implement Success Labs — group classes in which adult volunteers would teach students study methods to improve and develop effective work habits.
“It would be great just to open up a PRIME and let students come in and take a Success Lab,” Lee said. “Then, for us to be able to follow up with them and say, ‘Hey, you’ve applied (the study habit). How is it looking? How can we tweak it now and make it even more effective for you?’”
