Arizona Reinstates Free AIMS Tutoring

In the last week, the state reinstated the free AIMS tutoring program...finally!

You may recall, about three weeks ago, I announced that the state 'froze' the funding so that it could look at the monies that remained, and determined how much more could be spent. In effect, this stopped tutoring for thousands of students state-wide. The timing couldn't have been worse, especially given the upcoming AIMS math test for high school students was just a month away.

Well, the good news is the funds are back...but, the bad news is there are serious limits...
Only high school seniors who need to pass the AIMS test are eligible.

While this is great for those students, the timing is still a little off - when the state reinstated the funding, it happened just before most students went on spring break. By time they return, there will be only two weeks left before the AIMS test is administered. That is hardly enough time to really prepare well (most 'best practice' indicates that at least one month of tutoring/study prior to a test will have the best results - anything less than that is hardly effective).

Unfortunately, thousands of students are still left out. This funding used to be available to students who attending schools labeled as 'underperforming' or 'failing,' and any high school student who had failed any portion of the AIMS test (not just the seniors).

Here's the irony....Principal Tutoring (our sponsor, and my employer) is one of the approved providers for the state tutoring fund. When the funding freeze hit, we had to stop tutoring for hundreds of our students. Now that the funding is back, it's almost too late....most of the tutors that we had lined up for the programs are working on other jobs, and since we're restricted only to helping seniors for the math AIMS test, we went from hundreds of eligible students, to under a dozen.

Ouch...

I know the state is experiencing a budget crunch, but I'm sure you can understand all of our frustration. It's always the kids who suffer....

Thanks for reading,

Alisa