J.O. Combs district students in Queen Creek area now have access to online tutoring
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“Like everybody else, we're trying to find ways to provide support to our students with some of the gaps in their learning that have developed over the last 18 months with COVID and school having to be virtual."”
Bruce Cox, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at J.O. Combs Unified School District
Students in the J.O. Combs Unified School District now have access to tutors 24/7.
The district launched its online tutoring service last month to help cope with the COVID-19 interruptions to the school year.
“Like everybody else, we're trying to find ways to provide support to our students with some of the gaps in their learning that have developed over the last 18 months with COVID and school having to be virtual," said Bruce Cox, J.O. Combs director of curriculum and instruction.
In August, grades fifth and sixth at Ellsworth Elementary were moved back to remote learning because of a rise in coronavirus cases. The J.O. Combs district covers Queen Creek and San Tan Valley in Pinal County.
Cox said at a meeting with other district leaders, he heard about a program called Paper. He reached out to Paper’s parent company to learn more about the services the product offered.
“What it is it's a 24/7 tutoring service that's available to students to support them in in all subject areas in three different languages,” Coz said. “We saw this as a great opportunity for our kids to get support anytime and anywhere they need.”
To use the online tutoring program, students have to log on to its website and use their J.O. Combs student logins to access the program. They can then reach out to a tutor. It’s all done via chat and there is no visual contact. Students type in questions and the tutor works with them. The tutors don’t provide the answers, but they do go back and forth until they reach a point of understanding.
Just hours after the program went into effect, one student already was using it in class.
“We have a substitute at the middle school in math who's not a math teacher and a student was stuck on a particular question,” Cox said. “The student reached out to the tutor and was able to work down until they reached a point of understanding. I thought. ‘We've only launched this morning but we already had a student who was seeing success.”
The program also will record what questions a student asked and put the information on a data dashboard. Teachers will have the ability to go in and look at the dashboard and they can see which students are asking for help, the kinds of questions they're asking and the kinds of support they're getting
“What it does for the teachers is it allows them to see the areas where kids are struggling, and if you've got five kids that are asking the same question, that’s probably a sign for that teacher that he or she needs to go back and reinforce that particular concept or see how successful the students were in working with the tutors to see if they understood the concept when they were done.” Cox said.
Cox thinks that program gives teachers information on where kids are struggling that they otherwise might not know about until test time.
“There are a lot of times in classes where students are reticent to raise their hand and ask for help because they don't want to be embarrassed by their peers because they don't know the answer,” Cox said. “I'm sure there are a lot of times kids walk out of classes without asking the appropriate questions. Now they can go home and talk to someone."
The program offers brief tutorials parents can go into so they can see exactly how the program works. The program only is available to students in third through 12-grade.
“For the first- and second-graders, we thought that really requires a parent, but at third grade they're starting to show some independence and can use the program with only some parental help,” Cox said.
Parents first heard about the tutorial program in an email sent out by the district. In high school and in middle school, the district had another message that went out to students to make them aware of the tutoring program.
This was done because the district thinks it is more likely older students will log on for a tutoring session without needing parental help, while younger students will probably lean on parents to guide them through the program. Cox called December’s program launch a soft opening as students were on the verge on the long winter break.
“We will do another relaunch in January just to make sure it's fresh in everyone's minds as a resource that's available for them,” Cox said.
The total cost of the Paper tutoring software for 12 months is $127,156.80, which includes licenses for all students in third through 12th grade. Federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds were used to purchase the software.
ESSER funds are provided to state educational agencies and school districts to help safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools, as well as address the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on students across the nation.
J.O. Combs is breaking ground with the Paper software, Cox said.
“I know we're the first in the East Valley to use it and we may be the first in in the Phoenix metro area,” he said.
Janet Perez News Editor | Queen Creek &
San Tan Valley @AzNewsmedia
Meet Janet Janet Perez joined Independent Newsmedia as editor of the Queen Creek Independent and Florence Independent in 2020. She started her career in 1989 with the Gannett-owned El Paso Times. In 1992, she moved to Tempe and has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. She left Arizona for three years to work at New Mexico State University and Baylor University before returning to work at Arizona State University. Missing the business, she went back to journalism in 2017.
Community: A long-time pet owner, she supports animal welfare causes.
Education: University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in journalism and a minor in political science.
Random Fact: She had a head full of random facts.
Hobbies: Reading, watching documentaries, cooking and playing with her dogs.
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