New York Teacher
State approves UFT as tutoring provider
Mar 31, 2005 10:32 AM
The UFT has been approved by the state to provide after-school tutoring services to students who are in grades 2 to 5 in schools that are classified as failing under the No Child Left Behind law. The union received approval in mid-March. The program will start in September.
The UFT joins the Rochester, N.Y., teachers union as the only teacher unions in the nation to provide such a service.
Students in Title I schools designated by the federal Department of Education as failing for two consecutive years are entitled to free tutoring. This year, the school system got out of the business of tutoring, deciding instead to outsource it to private vendors. The UFT’s program will be run through its not-for-profit organization, the Educational Foundation.
“We wanted to compete with these private firms that had no connection to the schools,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten.
She noted that since UFT members have a daily working knowledge of current school system expectations their tutoring will be closely aligned to regular school-day classroom work. This, Weingarten said, makes UFT members uniquely qualified if they choose to take on the tutoring work.
UFT Vice President Aminda Gentile — who is also director of the Teacher Center, which will be organizing the tutoring program — said the UFT was concerned “that the DOE has been outsourcing all the required tutoring to private vendors and we just don’t know what kind of a track record these companies have.”
She acknowledged that many of the agencies providing the tutoring had hired UFT members but they have also hired others. “And the people they hired do not have to be certified,” Gentile said.
Moreover, she noted that the UFT will offer “a complete package that includes a parent component.” This will include workshops and other aids to help parents help their children using the expertise of the Dial-a-Teacher program. Weingarten said, “As a non-profit we can plow funding into this aspect of the program. The for-profit vendors do not focus on parents, instead choosing to take a profit.”
Gentile said the union is still in the process of identifying the regions and schools in which it will be offering tutoring. She said the Educational Foundation will announce job qualifications and application procedures by mid-May for UFT members who are interested in working as tutors and will place advertisements in the New York Teacher.
Michelle Bodden, UFT vice president for elementary schools, said the union will likely want to hire experienced teachers who have a track record of working with struggling students.
Pay has not yet been determined but Gentile said it will be “very competitive.”
