My child is not making progress in math, at least on tests that evaluators use. This years testing shows no progress for a whole yr. and 3 years behind grade level.
The school has him in their lowest level math class (7th grader), but says he is one of the highest if not highest in the class and should move to a level up next yr. This class also is team taught with a special educator with the regular education teacher.
What is the best way to help my child? He has strong verbal skills but struggles with anything visual perceptual, etc.. Should I get him a tutor? If so what should I look for? Can I get the school to pay for this? Should I get him in the resource room, although I think this service has to many students in a session and appears to be more for help with homework, etc.. I don’t believe in the resource room a teacher can give the individual attention. He has average to above average ranges with the lower being the performance output piece.
Any help is appreciated.Back to top
Re: behind in math
If your son is a special education student (I am assuming he is) your IEP team (or whatever your state’s equivalent is) should be able to determine what the best placement for your son is. If your son has not made progress then it’s time to revisit the question of placement.
Yes, you can get the school to pay for tutoring… at least in theory. This is something your team will have to determine is necessary. It may be a fight, but parents have done it. If your team doesn’t determine it’s necessary you can appeal to your state level and possibly get compensation for private tutoring you pay for in the meantime. (To have the best success at this, notify the school of your intent during your team meeting and in writing.)
Resource rooms and special ed classrooms typically have the problem that too many students end up in the same room, but with different problems. Find out what the class composition looks like. How many of the students have the same struggles as your son.
For finding a tutor, look for someone with experience with disabilities and your son’s learning style. A highly visual-spatial learner/teacher would not likely be a good match for your son. Someone who can work with his verbal strengths would be ideal. If your son does well with tactile (touch) or kinesthetic (movement) there are ways this could be used to help him learn. Similarly music can be used to help students.
How are your son’s reasoning skills? There are some areas of math that are more verbal and reasoning and less mathematical/visual-spatial. You might want to encourage your son in those directions. If your son can write a paragraph so the thoughts flow easily from one to another with one thing building on the other, a proof based geometry class may work wonders for his self esteem and his impression of what math is.
Another idea is getting your son to focus on the language of math rather than the math itself. If your son is good with language than it may be easier for him to understand if he can realize that 2 + 3 = 5 is a sentence with nouns and verbs. He may find it easier to learn the properties of numbers and then learn to apply them to the math.
These are just some ideas that come to mind.
Big question.
A resource room with large groups and mostly homework help is unlikely to do much good, probably a waste of time.
Individual tutoring with a knowledgeable tutor is definitely the most productive route — expensive but you get what you pay for.
Commercial tutoring “centers” that have large groups of kids doing worksheet after worksheet are also rarely any real help.
You should look for someone who has real knowledge in math — *not*, in most cases (with rare exceptions), an elementary school teacher or former teacher making a little money on the side; most of these folks are very non-mathematical and just teach rote memorization of recipes. Look for a present or former high school teacher or a college math major who really knows how this stuff works and why and where it is going. Also look for someone who has experience teaching, especially one-to-one, a person who has done tutoring for several years or a former high school or college teacher.
Avoid shopping by lowest price; again, you get what you pay for. Free after-school help is often staffed by volunteers, often nice people but unless you are lucky not experts, and no guarantee of continuity. College students offer tutoring on the cheap but have little in-depth knowledge and no experience.
The tutor should *not* place your child in a “program”, sight unseen. Rather, the tutor should promise to evaluate your child’s actual mastery of concepts and work on choosing appropriate levels and approaches after finding out what is needed.
Good luck with all this.