New School Models Increase Demand For Tutors

With many schools going online this year, students may need extra help to grasp subjects.

However that burden now is falling on many tutoring centers.

Carla Ziegler, Owner and Operator of Traveling Tutorz says troubles at home could be a lot on parents.

“The parents were panicking, they were very upset–my kid can’t log in– I can’t help them with this– I don’t understand this. So the need was greater after covid than prior,” Ziegler said.

Tutoring centers on delmarva are seeing an increase in demand due to schools going with a virtual or hybrid model, and that is creating some challenges.

Robert Blake Owner/Instructor at the Kumon Center it is not the same for teachers now that they are outside of the classroom.

“Normally in school the teacher is teaching a lesson, the students are there and the teachers pick up naturally at who’s not getting it or wait a minute this isn’t working let me adjust it–the teachers will miss that feedback,” said Blake.

All three tutoring centers say they will be hosting students in person but with social guidelines in place.
However the hard part now, is trying to figure out how to teach certain subjects that usually require close interaction.

Claudy Joinville, Chairman of the Board for Ark says it is going to be a challenge to teach certain subjects.

“So I think math, science– you need to keep there attention. Reading not as much but we are planning for all of these and these are challenges we are going to learn as we go because we have never been here before,” Joinville said.

Another challenge we’re told, is that many of these centers feel understaffed due to an increase in the need for their services.

“So we have this arranged where we have three classrooms– very very small group. These kids will be abiding by all the guidelines,”  Ziegler said.

Regardless of the challenge though, tutors say they’ll still find a way to make sure every student gets the instruction they need.

“We have a philosophy that we go by which is we believe there is a star in every student– that there’s something in there no matter who the student is,” Joinville said.

The tutoring centers also say it’s a common misconception that their services are only for kids who are behind in school.

But they encourage students of all learning abilities and levels to try it out, especially as schools change their teaching methods during the pandemic.