Tutoring in Wilmington, Delaware
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Wilmington, 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.
Four school districts divide Wilmington. Red Clay Consolidated, Christina, Brandywine and Colonial each take a piece of the city and extend into the New Castle County suburbs, an arrangement left from court-ordered desegregation. Which one a child is zoned for depends on the street. Delaware's school choice law lets a family apply to a school in another zone or district, with the application period closing in January. A state consortium is drafting a plan to merge the four into one district, and it has not been approved.
State tests Wilmington students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | Not tested | Not tested | SAT School Day | Not tested |
| Math | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | DeSSA | Not tested | Not tested | SAT School Day | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | DeSSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | DeSSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- DeSSA (Delaware System of Student Assessments (Smarter Balanced tests in ELA and math)): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- DeSSA Science (Delaware System of Student Assessments in Science): science, grades 5 and 8
- SAT School Day: reading and writing, math, grade 11
The school-day SAT is given in March, weeks before the other state tests, and it is the sitting the state pays for. Make-up days fall inside the same March window, so a junior who misses all of them has no later state-funded date.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Delaware 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 DeSSA. 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 Newark, New Castle, Elsmere, Claymont, Hockessin and Bear as it does in Wilmington.
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 Wilmington, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Red Clay Consolidated School District can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Wilmington University or Delaware Technical 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.