Tutoring in Birmingham, Alabama
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Birmingham, and we have no office there. If you want a person, this page says how we would look for one. If the question is which skill is missing, we can help with that part.
A Birmingham address puts a student in Birmingham City Schools, and the city limit is where that ends. In Alabama a city can run its own school system, and most of the suburbs here do. Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Trussville and Bessemer each have a city district with its own calendar, and Jefferson County Schools serves the communities that have none. All of them give ACAP in the same state window, but each picks its own days, so two families a mile apart can be testing in different weeks.
State tests Birmingham students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | Not tested | PreACT Secure | ACT with Writing | Not tested |
| Math | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | ACAP Summative | Not tested | PreACT Secure | ACT with Writing | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | ACAP Summative | Not tested | ACAP Summative | Not tested | ACAP Summative | Not tested | PreACT Secure | ACT with Writing | Not tested |
- ACAP Summative (Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- ACAP Summative: science, grades 4, 6 and 8
- PreACT Secure: reading and writing, math, science, grade 10
- ACT with Writing: reading and writing, math, science, grade 11
Under the Alabama Literacy Act, a third grader who scores below the state reading cut score on ACAP can be held back unless a good cause exemption applies. Students who miss it get another try on the ACAP Supplemental Reading Test, given in one week of June and one week of July.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Alabama guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
It starts with a skill check, a short test that gets harder or easier depending on the last answer. The result is a map of the subject broken into skills with their prerequisites drawn in, each one marked as solid, still being learned, or a gap.
After that, each session is a handful of activities picked for that student, usually something due for review, a gap to repair and one new skill. When an answer is wrong, Kolu looks at which earlier skill the mistake points to and goes back to it. Here is what that looks like for a sixth grader who can't divide fractions.
The problem on the page
3/4 ÷ 2/5
Dividing fractions
Grade 6
Multiplying fractions
Grade 5 · rests on the one below
Equivalent fractions
Grade 4 · usually where it started
Multiplication facts
Grade 3
Kolu does not call a skill mastered after one right answer. That takes correct work on different kinds of problems on different days, and a skill that fades gets brought back.
Kolu is not test prep for ACAP Summative. It has no bank of released questions. It teaches the skills the test draws on, and it will not do tonight's homework.
It runs in a browser, so it works the same in Homewood, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Trussville and Bessemer as it does in Birmingham.
When to hire a person instead
Some students need a person, and software is the wrong purchase for them. That includes a child who shuts down when the work gets hard, a student with a learning disability who needs someone trained in it, and anyone with an exam in ten days.
In Birmingham, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Birmingham City Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Alabama at Birmingham, Samford University, Miles College or Lawson State Community College, who took these courses recently and usually charge less than an agency.
Whoever you hire, ask one question before the first session: how will you find out what my child doesn't know? If the answer is that they will go over the homework, keep looking.
Free for one subject, $15 a month for 5
Kolu is free for one subject at a time, with one full skill check every 30 days and up to 4 sessions a day. Plus is $15 a month, or $120 for a year, and covers 5 subjects at once with unlimited skill checks. A learner under 13 needs a parent or guardian to set up the account.