Should Baltimore City do away with SES tutoring services?
We ran a story over the weekend that examined a recent report published by the Abell Foundation, which revealed some questionable practices in how a tutoring program, called Supplemental Educational Services, has been operating in the city for the past decade. Our editorial board weighed in on the story's findings today.
The program, mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, is free to the poorest and the most academically challenged students in the system. But, it has costs the system more than $55 million in federal funding--about $2,200-$2,500 per-student every year--though the state and city school systems are limited in how much they can regulate the programs and monitor the vendors. State and city officials said that they also cannot substantiate the program's results on student achievement.
But, city schools CEO Andres Alonso said that he would overhaul the program, which serves between 4,000 to 6,000 students whose parents register them every year. Alonso said that any program intended to help the most needy students, but has no accountability, should be scrapped.
The city school system indicated that it is eying SES as one of the NCLB programs that it will seek relief from if it receives a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.
Is this a good idea? And if so, what should replace it?
Baltimoresun.com's 
