NATION Test-prep companies thrive as exams grow

An opponent of more standardized testing said the private tutoring companies are acting like vultures.
By DAVID B. CARUSO
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA -- Firms that offer private tutoring and standardized-test preparation are scrambling to cash in on what could be a multibillion-dollar bonanza created by the No Child Left Behind Act, the law at the center of President Bush's education policy.
The act, signed in January, requires public schools to expose pupils to an unprecedented battery of assessment tests and offer tutoring, summer classes and remedial instruction to those who fail.
Districts nationwide have turned to the private sector for help complying with the law, and in doing so have created a "supplementary educational services" industry that barely existed five years ago, executives said.
A growing field
Princeton Review Chief Executive John Katzman said the company's K-12 division, which runs after-school programs and helps pupils prepare for standardized tests, now has 2,000 client schools, up from none two years ago.
The division now produces about 15 percent of the company's business. Within three years, Katzman said he expects it to represent 25 percent.
National tutoring firms, such as 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," Sylvan executive Jeffrey Cohen said. "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, best known as the nation's largest for-profit manager of public schools, announced last week that it is planning a rapid expansion of its fledgling summer-school and after-school program divisions. Within three years, it expects those operations to produce $100 million annually.
Supporters have hailed the developments, saying the private firms are riding to the rescue of schools that don't have the personnel to tutor kids themselves.
Criticism
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 kids 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."
There are also burgeoning questions about whether the extra services will attract the type of interest from parents that companies hope to see.
In New York City, fewer than 10 percent of the 240,000 pupils eligible for the first round of free tutoring signed up. Similar enrollment situations have been reported in Denver, Austin and Baltimore.
In Philadelphia, 22,000 pupils were enrolled this year in an after-school reading program run by a Dallas firm, Voyager Expanded Learning. Philadelphia schools chief Paul Vallas said Princeton Review is working with the district to offer a similar after-school program in math.
"I think you are going to see more outside consultants, more outside educational providers serving children, as a result of No Child Left Behind," Vallas said. "There are a lot of outside firms that can do a better job than we can ... It is more cost effective. I am able to bring in a proven curriculum model quickly. I think it is the wave of the future."
Requirements
The law requires annual state tests in reading and mathematics for every child in grades three through eight, beginning in the 2005-06 school year. Schools will also have to test pupils in science in three grades.
Public schools that fail to improve scores could receive additional federal aid, but they would also face penalties: Parents would be given the ability to send their children to tutors at the school's expense or transfer them elsewhere in the district.