Kelly George of Centerville, who worked as a tutor in the Dayton Public Schools for an Atlanta-based company, D-Versity Solutions Inc., said the company was constantly late in making payments and even made student families wait more than 10 weeks for promised incentive checks for good attendance.
“I loved tutoring these kids,” George said. “They’re amazing, and they need so much attention. It was so frustrating to worry if I was getting paid and not to have the materials I needed.”
ODE officials acknowledged problems with the program, which had businesses contracting with the state to provide services in individual districts.
“There were troublesome situations,” said Cynthia Lemmerman, the ODE’s director of federal programs. “Some providers did an outstanding job, but some struggled. We heard a lot of concerns from parents, ‘Where is the education part of this?’”
State officials received no complaints about D-Versity Solutions, the company that employed George. But two other providers in the greater Dayton area were among the 27 yanked from the state’s list of 265 approved providers during the past school year.
Amicus II was banned, Lemmerman said, after an employee signed in place of a parent on a sign-in sheet and submitted a bill for services that weren’t rendered. Another provider, Bright Point Place, was stricken from the list after an employee failed to have a complete criminal background check, she said.
Ohio educational experts are closely watching the revamped program, which is still being funded with federal money.
“Under the old system, the kid got caught in the middle of the disconnect between the school and supplemental services,” observed Tom Lasley, an education professor at the University of Dayton. “There wasn’t the collaboration and communication necessary for students to receive the services they needed. This is a more logical way of delivering the services.”
Key to the success of the new system, Lasley said, will be the vigilance of school districts and parents.
“Nobody was happy with what was happening — the providers were not happy, and the schools were not happy,” Lasley said. “Everything was too non-aligned. It’s too early to know whether this will be a better system, but there is the potential for that. It will be best if all the work is done by the schools and at the schools.”
The stakes are high, both in terms of money and student success. From 2002 through the 2010-2011 school year, the SES program has offered tutoring services for 112,212 Ohio students. And from the end of 2006 through the end of the 2011 school year, the state spent $151.6 million on the program.
During the 2010-2011 school year alone, 22,776 Ohio students received tutoring services at a cost of $41.2 million.
Under the new system, which begins this fall, districts will hire their own tutors, design their own programs, and control the funding — $2.2 million for Dayton Public Schools alone during the coming school year.
“It is really up to the district how they will structure it,” said Patrick Gallaway, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. “This flexibility opens up additional opportunities for an eligible district, and this relationship can foster greater communication between student, parent, teacher and provider.”
The state will have monitoring oversight, but will no longer investigate the effectiveness of tutoring groups. That will be up to the districts.
George is skeptical after her experience as a tutor for the past two years. “The previous program was plagued by fraud and wrongdoing, but unfortunately, I don’t expect less oversight to solve this,” she said. “In the case of Dayton Public Schools, they have already shown that they are unable to meet state standards. Too many of their students can’t read or perform basic math computations. And now the expectation is that by just giving them more money, they can fix this?”
Natalie Holmes, an unemployed mother of two boys who qualified for the incentive payments from D-Versity Solutions, said she was disappointed when the $100 check didn’t arrive in early April. She finally received the check — $50 each for Marquan, 13, and Anthony, 12 — on June 16, and used it to summer clothes.
“To be honest, the check came just in the knick of time,” Holmes said.
Darlita Moye of D-Versity Solutions declined to discuss financial matters but said it isn’t the company’s policy to promise when payments will be made: “We stay away from specific promises, because arrival times can vary.”
Moye said that D-Versity Solutions earned effective ratings from the state and praise from parents: “The quality of our services was excellent,” she said.
George said she complained twice about delayed payments to LaShawn Holland, SES facilitator for Dayton Public Schools, with little success.
“She replied that it was the state’s job to determine the fiscal stability of the tutoring companies,” George said.
Holland explained, “I told Kelly she needs to go to the Ohio Department of Education, because her contract was with them.”
Lemmerman confirmed that under the previous system it was the state’s responsibility to investigate complaints, but that the districts now will have that oversight.
George says the money also needs to be more fairly distributed. Under the old system, providers were reimbursed an average of $55 per hour per student, regardless of whether the tutor was teaching one student or eight students, the maximum per tutor. “The subcontractors are trying to maximize profits by grouping kids together,” George said. “It can be a real cash cow for them. You see on Craig’s List these companies looking to hire tutors at $15 an hour. That’s an awfully big profit margin.”
George believes more of the money should go to the students: “The kids are so needy, it was overwhelming. I had seventh-graders who couldn’t read more than a few words. One family of students had never seen an orange. They didn’t know what to do with it. I had the distinct feeling that many of them didn’t have dinner,” she said. “They wanted to save their food for later.”
DPS officials said they’re not sure yet how the new program will be structured. “The district is currently looking at how to use those funds,” said Charlie Graham, the district’s executive director for state and federal grants. “We haven’t decided yet.”
Some educators are hopeful about the state’s new plan. “It will force districts to be innovative and creative,” said Moye of D-Versity Solutions. “It will encourage them to be on the cutting edge so kids can close those learning gaps.”
Observed Lasley, “Parents and teachers will need to interact to make sure this is happening the way it should happen. But I like where they’re going.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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