BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Three years after the start of the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 on education remains hard to ignore.
A recent report fromthe Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) found that math and reading scores for fourth-grade and eighth-grade students in the United States reached record lows in 2022. One-third of students in both grade levels were unable to read at the basic achievement level.
One way schools and families are trying to address these academic losses is by working with tutors.
"My business is very busy right now," said Christine Hill, owner of the locally based Christine Hill Tutoring. "Tutoring is filling a gap I believe that teachers, families, and students very much appreciate."
Hill tells 7 News Anchor Jeff Russo that she worked as a teacher for 15 years before deciding to launch her private tutoring and college counseling business in 2019.
"Students need tutoring now more than ever," said Hill. "They need that content reassurance and they need mastery of that content, so they can really feel and achieve their ultimate success in the classroom."
Hill says she originally started her business as a way to help college-bound students prepare for tests and work on school applications, but it quickly expanded to offer students of all ages one-on-one attention and a boost in a variety of subjects including English and math.
"If I can't do it myself, if it's not an area of expertise, thankfully I have a wonderful network of tutors that I can call or contact," said Hill. "I can connect them to the appropriate tutor."
Hill says her business works with dozens of students a year and believes that her services fill a big need.
"It's not a matter of ability, it's a matter of availability for teachers," said Hill. "I find that teachers are giving everything that they can, but students just need a little bit more, whether it's because of deficits from the pandemic, or because of illness, or missing time because of travel sports. It's a variety of reasons that students need tutors," said Hill.
Hill says tutors in her network set their own rates, which can vary depending on experience and certification. National statistics say on average, a private tutor can cost between $25 and $80 an hour.
Not only are private tutors seeing continued demand, but school-based programs are as well.
"Demand is very high," says Anne Ryan, Executive Director of Read To Succeed Buffalo, an organization that has served the Western New York Community since 2009.
"The mission of Read to Succeed Buffalo is to have every child reading at grade level by the end for the third grade, regardless of economic status, regardless of the zip code in which they were born," said Ryan.
To address the need and demand, Read to Succeed Buffalo offers a variety of programs, including Experience Corps Buffalo, an inter-generational, evidence-based tutoring and mentoring program that has a contract with Buffalo Public Schools.
"Our tutor volunteers sign up for the entire school year, they go two to three times per week meeting with their students," said Ryan.
This year, Experience Corps Buffalo is working with around 300 students in 10 different schools at no cost to their families. The 90 volunteers are seniors, all over the age of 50, including many retired professionals.
"They come from our community, and they're doing this not to be paid, they are doing this because they know that if this community is not literate if they are not doing everything they can to help our community, that it's their future as well," said Ryan.
And Ryan says the tutoring and mentoring program is working.
"The district's investment in tutoring, hopefully, an expansion of investment in tutoring is what works. We see it in the school's own administered DIBLES tests three times a year."
Ryan believes the demand for tutoring and the services provided by Read to Succeed Buffalo will only continue to grow with more and more schools reaching out each year to be a part of the program.
