Tutoring in Tucson, Arizona
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Tucson, 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.
Tucson Unified covers the middle of the city, and the edges belong to other districts: Sunnyside to the south, Amphitheater and Flowing Wells to the north, Marana to the northwest, Vail to the southeast and Catalina Foothills in the foothills. Each is a unified district that keeps a student from kindergarten through twelfth grade and sets its own calendar. Tucson Unified also runs magnet schools that families apply to from anywhere in the district. Because Arizona requires districts to accept open enrollment applications without tuition, a family can apply across any of these lines.
State tests Tucson students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | AASA | AASA | AASA | AASA | AASA | AASA | ACT Aspire | Not tested | ACT | Not tested |
| Math | AASA | AASA | AASA | AASA | AASA | AASA | ACT Aspire | Not tested | ACT | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | AzSCI | Not tested | Not tested | AzSCI | Not tested | Not tested | AzSCI | Not tested |
- AASA (Arizona's Academic Standards Assessment): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- AzSCI (Arizona's Science Test): science, grades 5, 8 and 11
- ACT Aspire: reading and writing, math, grade 9
- ACT: reading and writing, math, grade 11
Under Move On When Reading, a third grader who scores below the state cut score on the reading portion of AASA is not promoted to fourth grade unless a good-cause exemption applies. One of those exemptions is completing summer reading instruction and then showing sufficient progress, so ask the school about it as soon as scores arrive.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Arizona 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 AASA. 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 Oro Valley, Marana, Sahuarita, Vail, Catalina Foothills and South Tucson as it does in Tucson.
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 Tucson, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Tucson Unified School District can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Arizona or Pima 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.