Firms see financial gain in reforms of education

PHILADELPHIA -- Companies that provide tutoring and preparation for standardized tests are scrambling to cash in on what could be a multibillion-dollar bonanza created by President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

The act, signed in January as the centerpiece of the president's education policy, requires public schools to expose students to an unprecedented battery of assessment tests and to offer tutoring, summer classes and remedial instruction to those who fail.

School districts nationwide have turned to the private sector for help complying with the law, creating a "supplementary educational services" industry that barely existed five years ago, executives said.

Princeton Review chief executive John Katzman said his company's K-12 division, which runs after-school programs and helps students prepare for tests, has 2,000 client schools. It didn't have any two years ago. The division now produces about 15 percent of the company's business, and Katzman expects that to reach 25 percent within three years.

National tutoring companies, like Baltimore-based Sylvan Learning Systems, report a surge in demand from schools looking for outside help implementing extended-day programs.

"We serve about 70,000 kids today, and we feel like 70,000 kids is just scratching the surface," said Sylvan executive Jeffrey Cohen. "We are talking about millions of kids in this country who have, over years and years, slipped far behind in their classes."

New York City-based Edison Schools, the nation's largest for-profit manager of public schools, has announced plans for a rapid expansion of its fledgling summer-school and after-school divisions. Within three years, it expects those operations to produce $100 million annually.

Supporters say the private companies are riding to the rescue of schools that don't have the personnel to tutor children themselves.

Little scrutiny

But Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, a group that has opposed increased standardized testing, said the changes have happened too fast, with too little scrutiny of whether the new services actually help youngsters learn.

"These private companies are really like vultures, descending on what they see as a feast," he said. "We're worried that we are going to be hearing stories about schools not being able to buy library books because they are spending money on test prep."

The law requires schools that don't meet federal achievement standards to set aside 5 percent to 20 percent of their federal antipoverty money for tutoring.

Although school districts are required to offer services to qualified students, and to pay for them, students are not always required to participate.

In New York City, fewer than 10 percent of the 240,000 students eligible for the first round of free tutoring signed up. Similar enrollment problems have been reported in Denver, Baltimore and Austin, Texas.

In other cities, however, private firms have made instant inroads.

In Philadelphia, 22,000 students were enrolled this year in an after-school reading program run by Voyager Expanded Learning of Dallas. Philadelphia schools chief Paul Vallas said Princeton Review is working with the district to offer a similar after-school program in math.

"There are a lot of outside firms that can do a better job than we can ... It is more cost effective," Vallas said. "I am able to bring in a proven curriculum model quickly. I think it is the wave of the future."