Math tutoring in San Diego, California
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in San Diego, 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.
Public schools in San Diego are split among San Diego Unified School District, Poway Unified School District, Sweetwater Union High School District, San Dieguito Union High School District and Del Mar Union School District, with 3 smaller districts at the edges. California tests math with Smarter Balanced in grades 3 through 8 and 11.
A bad grade this year is often a gap from two years ago
A sixth grader who can't divide fractions has usually been taught the rule, flip and multiply, more than once. What's missing is older. They aren't sure that 2/4 and 1/2 are the same number, or their times tables are slow enough that every step costs them, and by the time they reach the new idea there is no attention left for it.
Going over tonight's worksheet gets tonight's worksheet done, and the same gap is waiting under next week's. The useful question is which earlier skill the mistakes point to. Answering it takes a different set of problems from the ones the class is doing.
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
What California tests, by grade
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested |
| Math | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | CAST | Not tested | Not tested | CAST | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- Smarter Balanced (Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments, part of CAASPP): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8 and 11
- CAST (California Science Test): science, grades 5 and 8
Testing dates, graduation rules and the one deadline families miss are on a separate page. San Diego guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
Kolu's skill check walks backward from the student's grade until it finds ground that holds. Answers are checked by code, so an equivalent answer written a different way still counts and a sign error is recognized as a sign error. If the misses on fraction division look like an equivalence problem, the next session is equivalence, with pictures the student can drag. Fraction division comes back after that.
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 Smarter Balanced. It has no bank of released questions. It teaches the skills the test draws on, and it will not do tonight's homework.
When to hire a person instead
Hire a person for math when the problem is not math. A student who knows the material and freezes on tests, or who decided in fourth grade that they are bad at this and stopped trying, needs someone in the room.
In San Diego, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at San Diego Unified School District can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at UC San Diego, San Diego State University, University of San Diego or Point Loma Nazarene University, 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.