Department of Education Announces Two New Initiatives to Help the Class of 2003

Malden - The Department of Education has set aside $400,000 to provide on-line tutoring support for students in the Class of 2003.

As one part of a comprehensive effort from the state and school districts, the Department has issued two Requests for Response (RFRs) to solicit the services of companies to provide intensive on-line tutoring to help the students in the Class of 2003 succeed academically.

The first proposal seeks the services of a vendor to provide an on-line, web-based, unlimited usage tutorial program for a seven-week period, from October 22 to December 10, 2001, for high school students who have failed MCAS. Students would have 24-hour access to the web tutorial, which would diagnose their weaknesses in math and English and provide on-line tutoring to assist them.

The second proposal seeks the services of an organization to develop and implement a program to provide real-time, human-interactive on-line tutoring services for up to 1,000 Massachusetts high school students who have failed the MCAS, from January through April, 2002. In that contract, the Department seeks to hire a company that will match qualified math and English tutors on-line, in real time, to provide individual instruction.

Commissioner of Education David P. Driscoll said, "It is my hope that we will be able to find two companies with the capacity and desire to help students learn. Establishing these tutoring programs is one extra step that we are taking to supplement what schools and classrooms are already doing to help students in the Class of 2003."

"I believe that on-line tutoring offers an opportunity for privacy for students. This is important because, unfortunately, some students won’t show what they don’t know in front of their peers. So, the privacy on-line tutoring offers may help some students get the help they need," Commissioner Driscoll added.