Western Pa. organizations see uptick in tutoring demands in wake of pandemic

As parents help their children navigate through online learning in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, many are turning to tutoring sites for homework help.

Locally, organizations offering tutoring services have seen an increased demand as students traverse an ever-changing landscape with districts reopening in person, virtually or through hybrid models this fall.

“We just got a tremendous outpouring of families that were desperate to find someone to help,” said Veronica Ent, chair of the Education Department at Saint Vincent College, which started a tutoring program in March to help students in kindergarten through 12th grade switch from in-person classes to virtual learning when schools closed due to the pandemic.

A March report by Orion Market Research attributed the increased demand for tutoring services this spring to those “rapidly changing circumstances” in which the government had not planned for, meaning that “no prior measures were taken by the government and parents for the education of the children.”

Experts predicted that by September, students would have fallen behind where they would have been had they stayed in physical classrooms, research reported by The New York Times showed. The research also showed that some students could have lost a full year’s worth of academic gains.

An April report from NWEA, a research-based, nonprofit organization focused on assessment solutions, stated that students returning to school this fall could be doing so with only 70% of learning gains in reading and less than 50% of learning gains in math compared to a typical school year.

But tutors could help offset those numbers, specifically if those services are made available to students who would normally be unable to afford them.

“We need to provide resources for families and for skills,” Ent said.

The tutoring program at Saint Vincent, which matches students with those studying education at the college, had 116 requests for sessions in the spring, said Carol Borland, coordinator of experiential learning in teacher education. The number of requests jumped to 137 this fall, a number that continually grows, Borland said.

Another program, offered through a partnership with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Tutor.com, more than doubled in the number of sessions compared to the same period last year. Sarah Beasley, administrator of collection development at the library, noted that 936 tutoring sessions were held between March and September.

“We’re really looking to do anything we can to support remote learning right now and teachers and parents and students who are facing additional struggles,” said Beasley.

The partnership with Tutor.com, which is offered by The Princeton Review, began in 2004, making services offered by the website available to library cardholders for free. The program originally catered to students in fourth through 12th grade, along with college students, giving them access to a live tutor who can aid in varying study areas.

Last month, however, the partnership was expanded to all Allegheny County library cardholders, making the service available to students starting in kindergarten.

“This indicates to us that the need has increased as a result of remote learning and we are very pleased to be able to expand access to Tutor.com to all Allegheny County library card holders,” Beasley said of the increased demand for the program.

The changing landscape for education during the pandemic is one that will have lasting effects on the system, Ent said. She noted that increased interest in tutoring is something that could last even after schools resume with traditional schedules.

“I think we’re becoming more of an individualized environment for education,” Ent said. “I feel like this has opened the door for families to realize, ‘Hey, I don’t have to be 100% reliant on what happens in the classroom. Now I can look for other resources for my child.’ I think that’s excellent because we need to work as a team.”